Patti
Smith
in
Concert
Legendary writer, artist and performer Patti Smith comes
to Melbourne for the first time in a decade. Unabashedly
intellectual and creatively uncompromising, Smith performs
two unforgettable concerts at Hamer Hall
One of the most influential female rock ‘n’ rollers of all time, Patti Smith
was born in Chicago, New Year’s Eve, 1946, and raised in New Jersey,
a landscape of swamps and pig farms. From an early age she gravitated
toward the arts and human rights issues. To this end she moved to New
York City in 1967 and burst onto its arts scene, vowing to ‘kick poetry
in the ass’.
Four years later Smith performed her first public reading accompanied
by Lenny Kaye on guitar and in 1974 added Richard Sohl on piano,
drummer Jay Daugherty and bass player Ivan Kral. Exuding an intense
and powerful concert presence, the band fused acerbic garage rock
with poetry. Smith seemed to find her true self on stage. Lean, hard and
androgynous, she moved like Mick Jagger and Jim Morrison, sang like a
jagged knife-edge and thought like Rimbaud and Baudelaire. Ambitious,
unconventional and challenging, Smith’s music was hailed as the most
exciting fusion of rock and poetry since Bob Dylan’s heyday.
Smith continued the process of merging tradition with the new. As in
former albums, she drew on the inspiration of spiritual and political
leaders and events, as well as heralding the efforts of the common man.
A visual artist since the early 70s, Smith exhibits her work around the
world. A published poet before she ever hit the stage, she also continues
to write. Her books include Witt, Babel, Wool Gathering, The Coral Sea,
Complete and Auguries of Innocence.
On June 10 2005, Smith was awarded by the Minister of Culture for
the French Republic, the grade of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres,
the highest grade awarded to eminent artists and writers who have
contributed significantly to furthering the arts throughout the world. On
March 12