festival MUSIC For more info go to LIST.CO.UK /FESTIVAL
NEU! REEKIE!
Spoken word and music showcase brings dream guests to Leith Theatre
When the German electronic musician Michael Rother became aware of the promoters who were booking him for Edinburgh International Festival’s Light on the Shore series at Leith Theatre, he naturally took a pause for thought. ‘When I i rst heard the name I was puzzled,’ he says. Rother, of course, was one half of the pioneering Dusseldorf duo Neu! alongside the late Klaus Dinger in the early 1970s, the project immediately following on from the pair’s short-lived time in Kraftwerk; and the people behind this show are Neu! Reekie!, Edinburgh’s much-loved and always edgily enjoyable showcase of music, spoken word and i lm.
Run by poets Michael Pedersen and Kevin
Williamson, Neu! Reekie! are returning to Leith Theatre after their Trainspotting special last year and they’ve programmed two events i lled with some of their dream guests: Rother, Lydia Lunch and Fire Engines on 12 August, and the Vaselines, the Pastels and Linton Kwesi Johnson on 17 August. Neu! Reekie!, we reassure Rother, chose their name partly out of sheer love for the music he makes (‘Neu!
inl uenced Bowie, Eno, us and far better,’ Pedersen had earlier told me) and partly because it’s a nice play on words. Besides, they’re in good company in seeking inspiration from Neu! ‘Some people just try to pick up ideas, like David Bowie when he chose to call the track “Heroes” after our track “Hero”,’ says Rother. With a 60-minute set programmed for Neu!
Reekie!, Rother says to expect tracks from his Neu!, Harmonia and solo periods, and that the presence of Hans Lampe – who played on Neu!’s third and i nal record Neu! ’75 and in Dinger’s La Dusseldorf – means we might expect the former album’s ‘E-Musik’ to appear. His live trio is rounded off by guitarist Franz Bargmann from Berlin band Camera. ‘We are a good band, we get along well and the music output is very pleasing,’ he says. ‘Successful. Better than the German football team!’ (David Pollock) ■ Leith Theatre, 12 Aug (Michael Rother, Fire Engines & Lydia Lunch) & 17 Aug (the Vaselines, the Pastels & Linton Kwesi Johnson), 7pm, £25. For a longer version of this interview, see list.co.uk/festival
8–15 Aug 2018 THE LIST FESTIVAL 79