Pitchfork: Lou Reed to Tour, Headline Festival

Well, it's been a long trip from the Exploding Plastic Inevitable to the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, but on May 20, Lou Reed will complete that journey at the Burns an' a' that! Festival in Ayrshire, Scotland accompanied by the just mentioned opera company. Jokes about Pink Floyd and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra aside, Reed will also tour smaller cities throughout Western Europe leading up to the festival. For this pre-festival portion of the tour, Reed will be backed by accomplished, frequent collaborators Mike Rathke on guitar and synth, Fernando Saunders on bass, and the prolific Joan Scarpantoni on cello, all of whom played with Lou on his last proper album, 2003's The Raven.

The Burns an' a' that! Festival is named after the beloved (if slightly incomprehensible to us American English speakers) 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns, for whom Reed, himself a widely-recognized poet, has a prolix affinity: "'A man's a man for all that...' is a line of timeless history and pertinence reflecting the timeless optimism and reflection of the modern constriction of the working man," says the former Velvet Underground frontman through a Sanctuary Records press release.

Reed will join the Orchestra of Scottish Opera for what is being described as a Gala Concert, along with several other musicians who have yet to be announced. We say "Yo-yo", you say "Ma"! OK, enough with the hi-jinx, here are the dates:

04-14 Oporto, Portugal - Casa de Musica
04-16 San Sebastian, Spain - Kursaal
04-18 Paris, France - Grand Rex
04-19 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Concertebouw
04-21 Leicester, England - De Montfort Hall
04-22 Liverpool, England - Philharmonic
04-24 Frankfurt, Germany - Alter Oper
04-25 Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom
04-27 Hamburg, Germany - Congress Centrum Cch, Saal 2
04-29 Bergen, Norway - Grieghallen
04-30 Stavanger, Norway - Concert House
05-01 Oslo, Norway - Concert House
05-03 Copenhagen, Denmark - Royal Theatre
05-04 Copenhagen, Denmark - Royal Theatre
05-05 Arhus Music, Denmark - Music House
05-07 Malmo, Sweden - Concert House
05-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Concert House
05-09 Stockholm, Sweden - Circus
05-11 Lahti, Finland - Sibelius Hall
05-12 Tampere, Finland - Concert Hall
05-13 Helsinki, Finland - Finlandia Hall
05-20 Ayrshire, Scotland - Culzean Castle