Some Velvet Mourning

Velvet Underground legend John Cale arrives in Belfast shortly to perform at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. He says we can expect a set that draws on both his recent output, (including last year’s excellent Extra Playful EP, the precursor to a new album later this year) and classic older material.

When I mention to Cale that I was slightly surprised at just how accessible Extra Playful proved to be, he says that melody is always an important part of his music, and points out that singalongs even break out at his gigs. One song that audiences tend to belt out is ‘Hey Ray’, Cale’s song about both postal artist Ray Johnson – who used to send him small pieces of art in the mail, unprompted – and the political climate in ’60s New York.
“The song is about Ray Johnson, but it’s also about other things that happened in 1963,” he explains. “When I went up to Harlem, there was the Hotel Theresa, and Castro had just left. Lou Reed and I were running around trying to play on the street corners in front of the Baby Grand on 125th Street, doing our best to make a penny.
“Everyone in the Hotel Theresa was so offended that Castro was so afraid the CIA was going to poison him, that he was cooking chickens in his room on a paraffin stove. The place would be covered in feathers. All of the things that I remember from that period are there, about living on Lispenard St., and there were riots and all of that.”
I first became a fan of The Velvet Underground aged 16, when I was enraptured by the unique, otherworldly sounds of ‘Venus In Furs’, the band’s tribute to Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s classic, S&M-fixated novel of the same name. Cale still sees this brilliant song as a high point of the group’s output.
“It was always important to do something that would set us apart from everyone else,” reflects Cale. “And I think ‘Venus’ is the most successful of all of them, the way the drone and everything works together. Once we did that, I knew that nobody was going to be able to copy it. Being that kind of unique is important.”
Unusually for a man who once hacked the head off a dead chicken whilst wearing a hockey mask – it was to show ’70s punks who was still boss when it came to shlock-horror nihilism – Cale was awarded an OBE in 2010. Did he angst about whether or not to accept it?
“They ask you whether you’d be interested in having it,” says Cale. “I didn’t want to turn it down, because if I thought about what my mother would say, she’d be very proud. So all of that stuff comes down on your head immediately. Prince Charles presents it to you. I doubt he was aware of my work! I think he was interested in making me aware that the Prince’s Trust was still active in booking concerts. Something sets the Prince’s Trust aside, because they always did concerts, and I sang at one of them.”
I conclude by asking Cale about The Velvet Underground’s reunion in 1993, which saw them support U2 at a number of shows.
“That was outrageous,” he recalls. “I remember some of those concerts, they were total chaos. I guess everyone stood still for U2, but when we got out there, you’re watching punch-ups in the audience. And then you have ambulances creeping their way out to pick up the bodies, and backing out again – it was hilarious.
“Some of the shows were very good, I think the problem was mainly within the band, in that Lou really didn’t want us around, it was pretty obvious. He really regretted saying ‘yes’ to it. We were given star treatment by everybody, and it was very well done, but the attitude that Lou displayed towards everybody else...”
Do the band now get offers to reunite and perform, say, The Velvet Underground & Nico in its entirety?
“I don’t pay attention to it,” shrugs Cale. “But I don’t think the possibility is there anymore.”