Grant McPhee has launched a website with contemporary press clippings about The Velvet Underground, organised by year. If anything, the bulk of the articles make it abudantly clear that the band was misunderstood by most writers during their short tenure.
Included are also links to a few in-depth essays he wrote on the most popular stories that have been making the rounds for decades. Did Beatles manager Brian Epstein wanted to manage them? How well did their debut album sell?
English musicians and music geeks extraordinaire Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness have posted another video of their live version of their podcast The Album Years @ West Hampstead Arts Club in London on June 7th. They name their favourite albums. Spoiler: the top 10 consists almost solely of double albums.
English musicians and music geeks extraordinaire Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness have posted a new episode of their podcast The Album Years. They talk about 1985, discussing albums by Brian Eno, Pete Townshend, John Cale, Nico, and a whole lot more. This is part #2 about this year. The pair can be watched on YouTube as well.
English musicians and music geeks extraordinaire Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness have posted a new episode of their podcast The Album Years. They talk about 1968, discussing albums by Nico, The Velvet Underground, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash, and a whole lot more. This is part #4, the final episode, about this year.
Watch Nico perform The Doors classic The End. Recorded at the Shibuya Live Inn in Tokyo, Japan on April 11, 1986. It can be found on the Nico in Tokyo album.
Yet another book about The Velvet Underground sees the light of day on August 31. Written by English journalist Dylan Jones, this one also covers the band members' career after the band folded:
Dylan Jones' definitive oral history of The Velvet Underground draws on contributions from remaining members, contemporaneous musicians, critics, film-makers, and the generation of artists who emerged in their wake, to celebrate not only their impact but their legacy, which burns brighter than ever into the 21st century.
Loaded: The Life (and Afterlife) of The Velvet Underground is published by White Rabbit.
The Velvet Underground - New York Extravaganza opens on October 10 at 718 Broadway. John Cale wil be doing a Q&A on October 11. From BrooklynVegan:
The Velvet Underground Experience opens week in NYC and they’ve been lining up special events for opening week. One of those is with actual VU member John Cale who will participate in a Q&A on October 11 at 5 PM. That event is first-come, first-served and is included with admission to the exhibitions.
Two years after The Velvet Underground - New York Extravaganza exhibition in Paris, the artefacts, sounds and movies get another outing in the band's hometown New York. Renamed The Velvet Underground Experience it opens on October 10 at 718 Broadway. Caveat: the official website contains a truly awful I'm Waiting For The Man (64Kbps MP3 or something like that).
John Cale and guests will re-imagine The Velvet Underground & Nico at the Philharmonie de Paris on April 3, 2016. Fingers crossed for Maureen Tucker on drums.
The Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith team up for a tribute to Nico at the Barbican in London on October 22:
Legendary singer-songwriter and poet Patti Smith joins forces with the Soundwalk Collective to perform the poetry of Nico – the Velvet Underground vocalist and 60s icon.
A hypnotic meditation on the cycle of life and death, Killer Road pairs the artist’s final poems channeled by Patti, with an immersive soundscape and multi-instrumental music that attempts to make sense of her tragic death.
There she goes again ... The fabled Velvet Underground acetate is up for auction again. It sold for $25,200 in 2006 by which the seller, collector Warren Hill, made a killing. He spotted the acetate at a street sale in New York City in 2002 and bought it for 75 cents.
The acetate contains alternate mixes and takes of nine tracks from the Velvets debut album. The acetate was made by engineer Norman Dolph in 1966. Only two copies have survived. Maureen Tucker has the other one, which was used for an official release on vinyl in 2012 and as part of the 45th anniversary deluxe edition box set. The album will be auctioned off in July through Shuga Records:
The Velvet Underground and Nico acetate is a 'one of a kind' surviving copy of a record that carries an obscure history to match its audio cadence, and this extremely rare album has revived itself again on the market in America.
Recorded in April of 1966 by Norman Dolph at Scepter Studios, the test-press acetate was created after-hours in secret at Columbia records by Dolph himself. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvet Underground at the time, exchanged an original painting for Dolph's 'ghost producing' the project.
Initially, Andy Warhol had pitched this completed recording for release to Columbia records. Columbia Records returned the recording, dismissing it with a blatant and bold rejection (a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our fucking minds?"). Andy Warhol, John Cale, Norman Dolph, and John Licata could all be considered as contributing producers on the 'Scepter Sessions'. A re-recording was released by Verve Records in 1967, with Tom Wilson as the official producer. The album became a success and remains a success to this day.
In 2002 Warren Hill bought the Scepter Sessions Acetate at a street sale in Chelsea, New York for 75 cents. After giving a closer inspection to this delicate acetate, Warren investigated its history and value further. Once he gathered more details, he listed the acetate on Ebay with full knowledge of its value. The closing bid sat at $155,401 with a winning bidder who failed to finalize the transaction. The acetate was then re-listed and sold at $25,200. A limited edition pressing of 5,000 was released on Black Friday/Record Store Day of 2012, supposedly made from Moe Tucker's copy of the acetate.
Shuga Records, a high quality record merchant that specializes in one-of-a-kind items, based in Chicago, Illinois. They will be hosting the transaction of the item in July of 2014 on behalf of its owner who will remain anonymous.
10% of the sale will be donated to an animal rights charity.
Watch John Cale talking about producing and the Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico in New York on Pitchfork TV.
The End, the fourth studio album by German chanteuse Nico, gets the deluxe treatment with a 2CD reissue. The first disc has the original album which was produced by John Cale. Disc 2 contains songs cut at various John Peel Sessions, the Old Grey Whistle Test and two songs from the June 1, 1974 album, including the previously unreleased Das Lied Der Deutschen that was recorded at the concert in the Rainbow in London. She shared the stage with Eno, Cale and Kevin Ayers.
Disc One
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Disc Two
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The End will be released on Universal
John Cale live with guests at Meet In Town, the Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy - April 11, 2010. Fourth edition of Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico.
John Cale and Band, Soap&Skin, Mark Lanegan, Mercury Rev, Lisa Gerrard, Laetitia Sadier, Cocorosie, My Brightest Diamond, Nick Franglen.
Setlist:(Thanks: Isabel)
John Cale live with guests at the Teatr Muzyczny Capitol, Wroclaw, Poland - March 27, 2010. Third edition of Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico.
Dustin Boyer: lead guitar
Deantoni Parks: drums
Josh Schwartz: bass
Setlist
A fourth edition of Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico is organised by John Cale in Rome:
(Thanks: Isabel - photo: Peter Andrew)
A third edition of Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico is organised by John Cale in Wroclaw:
The show was performed in London in 2008 and Ferrara in 2009.
(Thanks: Gary Fox - photo: Peter Andrew)
Photos of John Cale and his hand picked musicians performing Life Along The Borderline: a Tribute To Nico - Teatro Comunale, Ferrara, Italy - 2009/05/10. Photos: streetspirit73.
Live at the Teatro Comunale, Ferrara, Italy - May 10, 2009.
Life Along the Borderline: a Tribute to Nico
* Cale not on stage
(Thanks: Beppe & Veronica Villa)
John Cale reprises his Nico tribute Life Along the Borderline in Italy, featuring John Cale and band, Lisa Gerrard, Mark Lanegan, Mark Linkous, Peter Murphy, Mercury Rev, Soap & Skin.
» More, still more
» John Cale tour dates
(Thanks: Alba - photo: Maurice (Haags Uitburo)
