|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||
| News | Business | Feature | Opinion | Sports |
Tourist Info |
Classifieds |
Wednesday, May 10, 2000
Reed opines on Warhol, Haider during Prague stop of European concert tour By Raymond Johnston They were accompanied to the Radisson Hotel's restaurant by Havel's wife Dagmar Havlova and members of Reed's band, who are traveling through Europe on their Ecstasy concert tour. The socializing continued the following day, when Reed visited Havel at his villa in Prague 6. Reed, 58, and Havel, 63, have been locked in a mutual admiration society ever since they first met in 1990, when Reed traveled to Prague to interview Havel for Rolling Stone magazine. At the time, Havel told Reed how much the music of his late-1960s band The Velvet Underground had inspired him and other Czech dissidents as they struggled against Soviet domination. Reed likewise voiced high praise for Havel at a brief and rare press conference during his Prague visit. "Havel is a real, genuine, 100 percent hero," Reed said, adding that he puts Havel on a par with former South African President Nelson Mandela, who spent 28 years in prison for his anti-apartheid political activities. Reed, an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose biggest hit is "Walk on the Wild Side," said Havel is one of the few people in the world he truly enjoys talking to because Havel has interesting ideas. Havel and Reed last met in 1998 at a state dinner held in Havel's honor at the White House in Washington, D.C. At Havel's request, Reed attended and performed before an audience that included actress Mia Farrow, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "The Velvet Underground became the Velvet Revolution," Hillary Clinton said at a press conference during Reed's visit. In fact, The Velvet Underground musically influenced the members of the dissident Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe. Their late-1976 arrest led to the formation of Charter 77, the human rights movement that made the first real crack in the Iron Curtain. As for the notion that the Velvet Revolution's name was inspired by The Velvet Underground, local musicians and critics dismiss it as urban legend. The name The Velvet Underground was lifted from a pornographic novel. Reed made a point of canceling his concert date in neighboring Austria when the far-right Freedom Party of ultranationalist Jorg Haider became part of the Austrian government in mid-February. "My action was my statement," Reed explained. At the press conference, Reed said he misses the late pop artist Andy Warhol, who produced The Velvet Underground's first album and whose parents came from what is now eastern Slovakia. "Andy Warhol certainly inspired me, absolutely," Reed said. One of the seminal groups of the 1960s, The Velvet Underground lives on in clubs around the world through imitation cover bands. "I think it is wonderful that people want to live in my past," Reed said of those groups. "I just don't want to." Raymond Johnston's e-mail address is By rjohnston@praguepost.cz
 Police, protesters rehearse for September's IMF meeting
Czechs toe the line between modern Slavs and ancient Celts Running helter Celter with the original Bohemians Havel presses for 2003 EU entry date Stanislav Gross: Baby-faced 'Minister of Fear' Havel: Let Chechnya be Government seems set to draft gay-couples legislation
|
Back to Top
Home