Even when Iggy Pop and the Stooges were finally admitted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year, and Iggy turned up to collect his award in a black suit, he soon ripped his shirt off. "Why do I always take my shirt off?" He smiles, "Hey, I have worked with shirts. I worked with shirts for a period in the Seventies." He pauses meaningfully. "It's to get across." Another pause followed by a stare so intense it could blow an amp. "To get closer to you. It just gets across, like a lonely sax. It reaches in a way that works for me." It clearly also works for the crowd inside the Music Hall of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn: a group of hipsters complete with kooky glasses and shrink-to-fit jeans, plus celebrities and media folk, who either provide the human waves for Iggy's crowd surfing, or storm the stage – to the evident horror of health and safety officers.