Legends of Rock Live: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Shelley Archives Presents 
Legends of Rock Live

LOU REED, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, NICO, ANDY WARHOL AND 
THE SOUNDS OF DISSENT
RARE FILMS (1966 – 1985)

Hosted by Music Archivist Bill Shelley

Pre-film party hosted by the Twifties

Thursday, November 1
Party at 6:30 p.m.
Film at 7:30 p.m.

Carte Blanche: FREE | Members: $6 | Students & Seniors: $8 | Nonmembers: $11

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:The 1960’s was a time of experimenting, questioning, and reinventing. Many musicians, writers, and other artists gravitated to Andy Warhol’s Factory for the freedom to create, and the notoriety they needed to achieve commercial success. The Velvet Underground, with their lead singer-song writer, Lou Reed, was one such group. This show will demonstrate how The Velvet Underground’s music entertained as well as inspired political thought and new artistic methods of expression, using feedback and industrial tape-looping for effects. Some of the songs featured will be “I’m Waiting for the Man,” “Sunday Morning,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Sweet Jane,” “Rock and Roll” and songs from Reed’s musical memorial for Andy Warhol called Songs for Drella. The performances will include 16mm film prints, video tapes, promos, rehearsals, and live concert footage. See why the group went beyond accompanying Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable gallery shows to become stars of Warhol’s experimental films and happenings. While their first album’s “banana cover” only sold a few thousand copies, Brian Eno is attributed to having said, “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.” The evening will be an intellectual treat, as you examine Lou Reed’s moody songs, such as “Heroin.” His poetry is a deeply moving musical portrait of dark images of drug addiction, the desperation of youth, and a pantheon of Greenwich Village characters. Along with German singer Nico, The Velvet Underground became a downtown attraction of New York City.

ABOUT BILL SHELLEY: Bill Shelley has been filming since the 1970s when he recorded bands Twisted Sister and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, then later directed music videos for Public Enemy (PE). Shelley Archives was started in 1985 and today the company has over 100,000 reels of original 35mm and 16mm films in its archives and over 10,000 hours of rare concerts, television shows, promos, interviews, out-takes and home movies. Preservation of films and music clips is the main focus of the organization.