Patti Smith announces tour plans to perform ‘Horses’ in full
Patti Smith has announced that she will be performing a run of dates in the summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her seminal debut album, Horses.
Released in 1975, Horses is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential albums of the US punk movement. It will be performed in its entirety in seven European cities and nine American cities later this year.
The album, which was produced by the Velvet Underground’s John Cale, was released to a lukewarm reception at the time, but subsequently went on to receive near-universal acclaim in the years after, and was praised for its fusion of punk and garage rock, poetry and avant-garde experimentation.
Two members of the original band that performed on the album will join Smith for the anniversary celebrations. Guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty will accompany her on the tour, alongside keyboard and bass player Tony Shanahan, who has been a member of Smith’s live band since 1996.
Smith will perform two shows at the London Palladium on October 12th and 13th, with shows in Dublin, Madrid, Bergamo, Brussels, Oslo and Paris rounding out the European leg of the tour. Her US tour will be stopping in Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington DC and Philadelphia.
This tour also marks 20 years since Smith performed Horses live in its entirety for the first time, with her and the group celebrating its 30th anniversary at the 2005 edition of Meltdown Festival in London that Smith was invited to curate that year.
Smith recently suffered a health scare while performing live with the Soundwalk Collective in Sao Paolo, Brazil, where she appeared to faint on stage. After returning to the stage in a wheelchair, Smith would later announce in a statement to fans: “Trust me, I am fine.”
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