The Velvet Underground founding member will perform the band’s classic album live in New York and Liverpool to celebrate its 50th anniversary
John Cale has announced two very special performances for next year. The Velvet Underground founder and songwriter will perform the band’s iconic album The Velvet Underground & Nico in Liverpool and New York. Both city’s have special relevance to Cale as it was Liverpool he left behind when he set sail for New York City in the 1960s.
The first show will take place on 26 May at an open air stage which will, fittingly, face out to the Atlantic in Liverpool’s docklands where Cale will be joined by a selection of “high-profile collaborators”. It has not been announced who exactly will be joining the legendary musician but earlier this year Cale performed at the Philharmonie De Paris and was joined by members of The Libertines and Animal Collective as well as Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan.
Cale also shared his thoughts on the album’s 50th anniversay on Facebook this morning saying; “I’m often reluctant to spend too much time on things past, then a time marker shows up – The Velvet Underground & Nico turns 50! As so many bands can attest to, it is the fulfilment of the ultimate dream to record your first album. We were an unfriendly brand, dabbling in a world of challenging lyrics and weird sonics that didn’t fit into anyone’s playlist at the time. Remaining ferociously true to our viewpoints, Lou and I never doubted for a moment we could create something to give a voice to things not regularly explored in rock music at the time. That bizarre combination of four distinctly disparate musicians and a reluctant beauty queen perfectly summed up what it meant to be The Velvet Underground.”
Tickets for the Liverpool gig are due to go on sale at 9am on Friday 28 October whilst details on the New York show have not yet been announced. In the meantime you can revisit our recent feature with John Cale here.