The Kills, Gruff Rhys, Clinic, Nadine Shah, Fat White Family & Wild Beasts to join John Cale live on stage at one-off performance
Global music legend John Cale has announced the artists that will play live with him at his only European show – Liverpool Sound City, 26 May – to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary The Velvet Underground & Nico album.
Hailed by The Guardian as the number one album ‘that changed music forever’, ahead of even The Beatles and Sgt Peppers, The Velvet Underground & Nico aka the ‘Banana’ album (artwork by Andy Warhol) has also been lauded by both NME and Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 40 greatest albums of all time.
Veteran garage rockers The Kills have always cited The Velvet Underground as a major influence and have covered both Pale Blue Eyes and Venus In Furs in recent years. Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys is also an early acolyte having taken to The Velvets as a young child when he mistakenly imagined them to be a Welsh punk-rock outfit having heard John’s accent on The Gift.
Liverpool’s own neo-psychedelic pioneers Clinic are nothing if not obvious collaborators for this show as doyens of the art-rock movement and clearly influenced by the early experimentalists like the Velvet Underground and Can.
Sublime and sometimes sinister chanteuse Nadine Shah joins the line-up as the perfect Nico substitute while the visceral Fat White Family will deliver the whirling chaos and Wild Beasts will provide an art rock sensibility worthy of one of the world’s most important albums.
Said Cale: “It’s such a privilege to have this calibre of artistry about — its not that they fit the legend, rather the legend is part of each of them. Stand back Liverpool – here we come!!”
This “reimagined” show will be staged on Friday 26th May at a bespoke open-air stage facing out to the Atlantic Ocean and New York City in the heart of Liverpool’s historic docklands. An incredible post-industrial façade it is the ideal setting for the performance of a record forged in Warhol’s arthouse crucible of 1960’s New York.
JOHN CALE & DANNY FIELDS In Conversation at Tim Peaks Diner Sat 27 May
Further enhancing the already incredible Sound City tenth anniversary celebration, John will be in conversation at the festival in Tim Peaks Diner on Saturday afternoon with a once in a lifetime talk that will explore the beginnings of his career, his move to the US and relationship with Lou Reed and his musical direction past, present and future. In addition, legendary music manager Danny Fields will take to the Tim Peaks stage on Saturday for an In Conversation discussing his time in the industry as manager of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, The Ramones and Iggy & The Stooges. To round off an eclectic Saturday in the Tim Peaks Diner a Velvet Underground and Factory themed disco will be hosted in to the early hours of Sunday morning.