Fact #194711
When:
Short story:
When The Myddle Class play at Summit High School Auditorium, Summit, New Jersey, USA, they are supported by a band which has just changed its name to The Velvet Underground.Full article:
Sterling Morrison (guitarist, Velvet Underground] : We played at Summit, it was our first gig with Maureen.
Rob Norris (audience) : When the curtain went up, nobody could believe their eyes! There stood the Velvet Underground - all tall and dressed mostly in black; two of them were wearing sunglasses. One of the guys with the shades had VERY long hair and was wearing silver jewelry. He was holding a large violin. The drummer had a Beatle haircut and was standing at a small oddly-arranged drumkit. was it a boy or a girl? Before we could take it all in, everyone was hit by a screeching surge of sound, with a pounding beat louder than anything we had ever heard. About a minute into the second song, which the singer introduced as Heroin, the music began to get even more intense. It swelled and accelerated like a giant tidal wave which was threatening to engulf us all. At this point, most of the audience retreated in horror for the safety of their homes, thoroughly convinced of the dangers of rock and roll music. My friends and I moved a little closer to the stage, knowing that something special was happening.
Sterling Morrison : We opened with There She Goes Again, then played Venus In Furs, and ended with Heroin. The murmur of surprise that greeted our appearance as the curtain went up increased to a roar of disbelief once we started to play Venus, and swelled to a mighty howl of outrage and bewilderment by the end of Heroin. Al Aronowitz observed that we seemed to have an oddly stimulating and polarizing effect on audiences.
John Cale (viola, The Velvet Underground] : When Lou and I started the group, there was a basic understanding. It seemed more important to be different than immediately successful, to have a personality of our own, to have arrangements like Venus In Furs, and to give concerts that were never the same.
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Rob Norris (audience) : When the curtain went up, nobody could believe their eyes! There stood the Velvet Underground - all tall and dressed mostly in black; two of them were wearing sunglasses. One of the guys with the shades had VERY long hair and was wearing silver jewelry. He was holding a large violin. The drummer had a Beatle haircut and was standing at a small oddly-arranged drumkit. was it a boy or a girl? Before we could take it all in, everyone was hit by a screeching surge of sound, with a pounding beat louder than anything we had ever heard. About a minute into the second song, which the singer introduced as Heroin, the music began to get even more intense. It swelled and accelerated like a giant tidal wave which was threatening to engulf us all. At this point, most of the audience retreated in horror for the safety of their homes, thoroughly convinced of the dangers of rock and roll music. My friends and I moved a little closer to the stage, knowing that something special was happening.
Sterling Morrison : We opened with There She Goes Again, then played Venus In Furs, and ended with Heroin. The murmur of surprise that greeted our appearance as the curtain went up increased to a roar of disbelief once we started to play Venus, and swelled to a mighty howl of outrage and bewilderment by the end of Heroin. Al Aronowitz observed that we seemed to have an oddly stimulating and polarizing effect on audiences.
John Cale (viola, The Velvet Underground] : When Lou and I started the group, there was a basic understanding. It seemed more important to be different than immediately successful, to have a personality of our own, to have arrangements like Venus In Furs, and to give concerts that were never the same.