Sunday February 13 6:44 PM ET Lou Reed cancels Austria date due to Haider VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. rock star Lou Reed has canceled plans for a concert in Vienna because of his objections to the new government which includes Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party, ORF radio reported Saturday.
Reed, 57, best known for his 1973 hit ``Walk on the Wild Side,'' told the radio station from Hamburg that Austrians were free to elect a government including people like Haider.
``But that doesn't mean other people have to go near them,'' ORF quoted him as saying.
Austria's 14 European Union partners have tried to isolate the country politically since conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's center-right coalition was sworn in last week and some other countries and individuals have also taken protest measures.
Haider himself is not in the new government, which consists of equal numbers of ministers from Schuessel's People's Party and the Freedom Party.
Reed is scheduled to begin a European tour in Spain on April 12. The itinerary listed on his website at http://www.loureed.org did not list any Austrian dates. His new album, ``Ecstasy,'' is set for an April 3 release in Europe, and an April 4 release in the United States.