Iggy Pop in Cardiff

This photograph shows Iggy Pop performing at the Students’ Union, Cardiff, in 1979. He was promoting his recently released album, New Values. He arrived on stage in a leather jacket and tee-shirt but soon stripped them off and, typically, unbuttoned his trousers. There was no rolling around on broken glass but those down at the front could see the scars from his previous self-mutilating excursions. Highlights of his hour-long set included The Endless Sea, Girls and Billy is a Runaway. His version of the Batman theme also went down well. Pop picked out individual members of the audience for verbal abuse and occasionally gobbed at the crowd. Whether this was Iggy Pop being all rock’n’roll or whether it was a hangover from the recent(ish) punk explosion, I’m not quite sure. Later that same year he was back in Wales to record his not-very-good-at-all album, Soldier. See this previous blog post.