Lou Reed: Waiting for the man

Lou Reed's live version of Berlin, now a film, is hailed as his masterpiece. So, is he any easier to interview? Not really...

Click here to watch the Berlin trailer

To anybody unfamiliar with the stratagems that Lou Reed regularly adopts to unsettle journalists, the scene unfolding in this chic Greenwich Village restaurant would seem pretty weird. Even I, a veteran of four previous encounters with one of rock's most truculent interviewees - and hence no stranger to his bleak stares, sudden interruptions and blank refusals to answer this or that - am confused.

We were scheduled to meet at 12.30 to talk, over lunch, about Lou Reed's Berlin, a concert movie directed by his friend, the artist and film director Julian Schnabel, which opens in UK art-house cinemas in July. After various phone messages to the effect that "Lou is running late", at 3 o'clock a middle-aged stranger walks up to my table, introduces himself as Reed's manager and leads me over to another table on the terrace outside, where he and his client are tucking into their tagliatelle starters. Reed looks up briefly, mumbles something and resumes his conversation with the manager.

Perched beside them, cradling the glass of mineral water that has kept me company for the past 2½ hours, I soon realise that there will be no lunch for me today, and possibly no proper interview, either. What is the old goat playing at?

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