Tantalisingly, there were rumours last year of Bowie and Reed kicking around ideas together in the studio. Whether anything concrete came of it remains to be seen.
Another comrade in arms Iggy Pop simply said, “Devastating news.”
Bobby Gillespie dedicated Primal Scream’s Dublin Olympia show to him last night, telling the cheering crowd that the Velvet Underground were the reason they formed.

Writing on the True To You fansite, Morrissey reflects: "No words to express the sadness at the death of Lou Reed. He had been there all of my life. He will always be pressed to my heart. Thank God for those, like Lou, who move within their own laws, otherwise imagine how dull the world would be. I knew the Lou of recent years and he was always full of good heart. His music will outlive time itself. We are all time-bound, but today, with the loss of liberating Lou, life is a pigsty."

Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes recalled a very special New York night with the great man.
“I’m very saddened to hear Lou Reed has died,” he blogged last night. “Less than two months ago, it was great to see him in London collecting a GQ award for inspiration. He has always deserved so much more recognition that he has been granted. Like Elvis and The Beatles, Lou Reed pioneered and influenced a future generation of musicians, Duran Duran being just one of those bands on an endless list, grateful to benefit from his fearless, inventive and unique style.
“In the late ‘80s we were playing a charity show in New York City, where through a mutual friend, I had managed to persuade Lou to come and perform a couple of his songs with us. It was quite surreal for everyone in the band, as less than a decade earlier we had been fans listening to his music in our teenage bedrooms. Lou turned up at the Beacon Theatre with his guitar and amplifier to soundcheck. We rehearsed ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ and ‘Sweet Jane’ together. He was thrilled with the arrangements we had done, so we parted company for a few hours and next met, later that evening, onstage. When Simon introduced our hero, Lou, my heart sank as it sounded as though the entire audience began to boo. Lou was unfazed and smiling, so we launched into the songs. It wasn’t until afterwards when the sound of the crowd intensified, that I realised they were all affectionately shouting ‘Lou’, not ‘boo’… Lou Reed is dead, Long live Lou Reed!”

Elsewhere, Lloyd Cole ventures, “Without Lou there is no Bowie as we know him. Me? I'd probably be a maths teacher”; Nikki Sixx weighs in with, “Thank you for your beautiful/dark lyrics/music and stance on life. You inspired me from my teenage years right up till today”; "My intro to Lou Reed/Velvet Underground was Jane's Addiction cover of 'Rock n Roll'. He was a singular, unique talent,” tweets Tom Morello; Kiss’ Paul Stanley notes that he was “a musician, artist and trailblazer who played by his own rules” and Slash admits: “Haven't really accepted the reality of the loss of Lou Reed. Still trying to process it. Denial I guess.”