The Velvet Underground and Nico - John Cale to perform iconic show -

2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the iconic debut album – The Velvet Underground and Nico. To celebrate the epic milestone, global music legend John Cale will be performing three shows across the world with a selection of very high profile music guests.

Already well respected in New York’s burgeoning art rock scene, the first Velvet Underground album in 1967 represented the peak of the movement and a turning point in rock by introducing a previously unseen level of experimentalism to a broader audience.

For the past 50 years The Velvet Underground has been cited as a massive influence on some of the greatest artists on both sides of the Atlantic shaping the music of everyone from Iggy Pop and David Bowie to The Strokes and Liverpool’s own Echo & The Bunnymen.

The Velvet Underground & Nico aka The ‘Banana’ album (Artwork by Andy Warhol) has been hailed by The Guardian as the number one album ‘that changed music forever,’ ahead of even The Beatles and Sgt Peppers. It has also been lauded by both NME and Rolling Stone as one of the 40 greatest albums of all time.

The shows will take place in New York, Paris and Liverpool. He hand–picked Liverpool because its the city he sailed from where he left the UK.

Following the recent live concert in Paris to celebrate the 50th birthday of this musical masterpiece Cale has decided to perform the album in its entirety only twice more, starting in Liverpool, a city that resonates with him due to its rich, diverse and cutting edge musical history.

John Cale commented:

I’m often reluctant to spend too much time on things past – then, a time marker shows up – The Velvet Underground & Nico turns fifty! 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.”

This “reimagined” show will be staged on Friday 26th May next year at a bespoke open-air stage in the heart of Liverpool’s historic docklands, aptly facing out to the Atlantic and his next stop in New York. This is the only chance that fans of The Velvet Underground will get to consume this crucial and unique piece of musical history.

Closer to the show date Cale will be announcing some high profile collaborators from across the musical spectrum to join him live on stage. This year’s Paris concert featured The Libertines, Animal Collective and Mark Lanegan, and Cale has promised an equally impressive line-up for the Liverpool celebration.

Tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 28th October and can be purchased from Seetickets.com, Ticketmaster.co.uk, Ticketweb.co.uk and Ticketquarter.co.uk with demand expected to be extremely high.

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