THE BEAT GOES ON

Exiles In Picadilly Circus

Any visitor to London in mid-July might easily have thought he was visiting the New York City of four summers past. Everything was happening at the King’s Cross Cinema, and it looked like a ’67 Grande Ballroom bill.

Lou Reed was there, with a band of trembling high school tots from Long Island. He’d come over to visit his producer, who sometimes calls himself David Bowie, and had decided to play a few gigs while he was at it.

Reed has been spending a lot of time in Britain, where his legend is apparently worth considerably more at the box office than it has been on these shores. He cut his first solo album in London, and will most likely have his second for RCA completed by the time this reaches your hands. Reed, however, is not alone in his self-imposed exile: several other bands the late, lamented Velvet Underground have long been generically grouped with (frequently to Lou’s displeasure) have adopted the British Isles as well.