Punk icon Iggy Pop turns 60, dives off
stage
By Dean Goodman Sun Apr 22, 3:00 AM
ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Iggy Pop marked his 60th birthday on
Saturday just like any other respectable senior citizen
would.
The eerily athletic "Godfather of Punk" stripped down to a tight
pair of blue jeans and dived off the stage into the arms of his
adoring fans during a concert in San Francisco with his reunited
band the Stooges.
Towards the end of the 80-minute show, the crowd at the Warfield
theater sang along as his bandmates struck up "Happy Birthday," and
Pop was surprised as balloons bearing his image dropped from the
ceiling.
A fan also handed him a white T-shirt inscribed "Birthday Boy
Iggy," which the singer proudly displayed to his unimpressed
bandmates.
Pop, whose real name is Jim Osterberg, seemed thrilled by all the
attention, but did not dwell too much on the special occasion. He
muttered a few thanks along the way before resuming his usual
routine: manic singing and dancing, spitting into the crowd,
scampering onto the speakers and throwing his microphone stand
around the stage.
During the song "No Fun," he invited fans in the mosh pit to jump
onto the stage, and generously shared his microphone with the
motley troupe he termed the "Bay Area Dancers."
Pop no longer carves up his chest with a steak knife, rolls around
in cut glass, smears himself in peanut butter, or follows a drug
regimen that makes Keith Richards look like a choirboy. But the
Michigan trailer-park kid otherwise outruns rockers one-third his
age.
Pop is back on tour with the Stooges, the band with which he first
made a splash in the late 1960s. Their enthusiastic garage rock, a
dissonant distillation of Chicago blues and British Invasion rock,
helped pave the way for punk rock bands like the Ramones and the
Sex Pistols.
The Stooges self-destructed in 1974 after releasing three albums
whose influence was not reflected by their meager sales. Pop ended
up penniless in the gutters of the Sunset Strip, and checked into a
psychiatric hospital. He launched a comeback in 1977 with the help
of David Bowie, with whom he co-wrote such tunes as "Lust for Life"
and "China Girl."
A prolific recording artist and touring act, he reunited with
Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton and his brother, drummer Scott
Asheton, in 2003. With California punk veteran Mike Watt subbing
for late bass player Dave Alexander, they last month released their
first album in 33 years, "The Weirdness."
After their North American tour ends on May 4 at the Beale Street
Music Festival in Memphis, they will launch a brief summer tour of
European festivals.
(source: Yahoo
News)
