11 June - 26 June 2005
South Bank Centre, London, UK
History:
In march 2005 the first news surfaced that Patti Smith would curate the Meltdown Festival in London the same year. Some of her predecessors were Laurie Anderson, John Peel, Nick Cave, David Bowie and in 2004 Morrissey whom she contacted and asked for advice.
"At first I was not quite sure if I was qualified to do
this because I worry that I am not very social and I don’t know many
musicians. I don't know a whole lot about new bands because at home I
mainly listen to classical music and opera and old albums from my
collection. I didn"t know if I could pull together an interesting
evening, not to mention two weeks of events. But Morrissey was very
encouraging. He told me to just barrel on through because the
Meltdown people shepherd you along. And it's been true." (timesonline)
The initial program was announced at the end of April: "Songs of Innocence", "The Coral Sea" with Kevin Shields, "Patti Smith performs Horses" and "Songs of Experience - The work of Jimi Hendrix". But that was only the beginning...
