NME News

Lou Reed to deliver keynote at SXSW 2008

Lou Reed

Lou Reed

Velvet Underground man will kick off the Austin music festival

Lou Reed will be the keynote speaker at the 2008 South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Film Festival.

Reed will kick off the 22nd annual music festival at the Austin Convention Center on March 13. A screening of 'Lou Reed's 'Berlin', a documentary film by Julian Schnabel, will be held in conjunction with the speech.

The SXSW music conference is set to take place March 12-16 in Austin, Texas.

Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore will also speak at SXSW, along with Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, and Seymour Stein, the president of Sire Records who is credited with furthering the careers of artists including the Ramones, Talking Heads, Pretenders, Madonna, Depeche Mode and The Smiths.

SXSW features four days of music-related panels, interviews and workshops, in addition to live performances by more than 1500 acts on stages throughout downtown Austin.

For more information, visit Sxsw.com.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.

Add your comment

NME Alerts

Get NME news delivered direct to your desktop. Find out more

Please sign in

Forgot your password?

Register with MyNME

Every Tuesday

  • Breaking News stories
  • All you need to know about the week's NME magazine
  • Live, Album and Track reviews
  • Tip offs about the most important Gigs
  • All the latest NME.COM video exclusives

Every Friday

  • NME.COM's free mini-magazine
  • Gig listings for the weekend
  • All the most important Album and Track reviews
  • The week's biggest News stories
  • Competitions - with exclusive music prizes
  • plus loads more!

In The Magazine

This Week's Issue
  • The ultimate guide to the week in music
  • Agenda-setting news and fiery comment
  • Must-read interviews with the planet's hottest bands
  • Hundreds of UK gigs listed every week
  • Unrivalled access to the artists that matter
  • Subscribe today and get 1/3rd off NME