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Rock The House featuring Iggy Pop And The Stooges: Harewood House, Leeds. 31/08/07

Organised by The Children’s Society to highlight the need for every child to have a good childhood, this mini festival is held on the same site as the 02 Wireless in Leeds. After using Iggy’s ‘Lust For Life’ as inspiration for a garden at the Chelsea flower show this year, The Children’s Society managed to get the man himself to headline this event. A whole host of bands touring at the moment also stepped in to help.

First on stage is a very short set by rockers The Dirty, a band founded by todays host Tricky (yes, the trip hop Tricky). After three songs the band are off, and Tricky does not really return to the stage to introduce anyone else. It’s hard to review them, as their very brief set did not have any stand out moments and the next band outshine their set. They were not impressed by the small crowd, even though they had arrived early, insisting that they move forward.

The Horrors are getting quite big at the moment, trying to look like The Ramones in black and white attire and huge hair. Appearing on stage with some long cardboard tubes, singer Faris Badwan is enthralled by the huge bog roll end, and spends the majority of their set using it as a attachment for his microphone. Mainly about screaming and throwing themselves around, the keyboard sounds are the spookiest things from these showmen.

Sons And Daughters are the first to represent Scotland here today. Singer Adele Bethel (dressed in a Blondie shift dress) and guitarist Scott Paterson take turns on the vocals, which are somewhat out of tune on a few occasions. There’s a nod to Johnny Cash in a song using his name, and a cover of Adamski’s ‘Killer.

I didn’t know that The Peep Show’s David Mitchell fronted a band?! The Young Knives look nothing like I would expect an indie band popular in today’s circles to look like. Dressed like they have just left the office, the trio are the most catchy of the bands so far, and the crowd is steadily growing as many have finished work and made their way over to the House.

The site prepared for the day is quite small, but big enough for the expected 10,000 people. Backstage apparently has many childish things for the bands to play on, like space hoppers and pogo sticks, to go with the child theme. Vegetarians are not catered for, as the only choice food-wise is burgers, hotdogs and pork rolls (no chips!). People are roaming the grounds selling beer from backpacks, though the bar is within spitting distance. However the rain does hold off, after a few false starts.

Locals The Sunshine Underground are able to dedicate a few songs to some mates down front, like ‘Raise The Alarm’ and ‘Borders’. It is Idlewild however who warm the crowd up ready for the main man. The Scottish rockers sound the more experienced of the fledgling line up; the bands do not seem to have been picked for their similarity to The Stooges but more because they are available on the day, meaning many people are not interested until this late in the day.

Iggy can still pull off the jeans and no top look (I can just imagine Iggy’s wardrobe; full of identical pairs of stonewash jeans). For a guy just into his sixties, this is quite a feat. Bouncing around the stage, having a “close” relationship with the guitar amp and hassling photographers; the guy deserves the name the Godfather Of Punk.



Songs including ‘I Wanna Be your Dog’, and the already classic sounding ‘My Idea Of Fun’ from new album ‘The Weirdness’ are enough for the crowd; who cares if solo stuff is left out (‘Lust For Life’, ‘The Passenger’). The Stooges here are made up of original members Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton, also including Mike Watt from the Minutemen on bass.

At the times where Iggy talks to the crowd, I wonder if in another life he was a game show host or a vocalist for a Hanna Barbera cartoon character, with his clear, deep and comical voice. For ‘Real Cool Time’ Iggy does his little bit towards crowd involvement by allowing the audience to join him on stage, at which point around a hundred people oblige. You can not forget a Stooges show; they won’t let you!

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