January ?-23, 1971
The Alpine, North Conway, New Hampshire

Week engagement.

Line-up: Doug Yule / Maureen Tucker / Sterling Morrison / Walter Powers

Press article: Velvet Underground at The Alpine in Valley Signal (?). Reproduced in NYROCKER July/August 1980 (p. 27) and The Velvet Underground & Lou Reed (Mike West, Babylon Books, 1982).

"The band at the Alpine this week is none other than The Velvet Underground, the group that was originally organized by Andy Warhol for his travelling show, "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable".

There have been a couple of changes in the four-member group over the years, but the constant has been an important one - pretty Maureen Tucker on drums. Others by name are Doug Yule, lead vocal and guitar; Sterling Morrison, lead guitar and Walter Powers, lead vocal and bass.

The group has always laid down a heavy sound, and like the Jefferson Airplane, for instance, has amassed a following even though it has never produced a hit single. Like the Airplane, they write all their own material.

They have two albums to their credit, one on Verve which is a year or so old and another just released on Atlantic titled "Loaded." Under promotion - minded Atlantic, they expect to release a single for the hit market soon.

After this week's Alpine engagement winds up on Saturday night (the 23rd), they will head back to New York for a January 29-30 appearance at The Electric Circus. They are expected back at The Alpine the first week in February for the Wednesday through Saturday engagement."

Photos: the Valley Signal article comes with a photo which could be from The Alpine. MOJO #75 (p. 44) has a different photo shot at the same place.

Doug Yule: There's very little difference between a ski lodge and a bar - a ski lodge is a bar in a ski country. We played at one place where I met my first wife; we played on a stage that was as big as a dining-room table, in the corner. It was jammed with people attempting to dance and attempting to drink themselves into oblivion; it was, in fact, one of the more popular ski bars. We played the Alpine in North Conway[New Hampshire] for weeks, many weeks. We played there so long that I learned how to ski. There was no record company footing the bills and Sesnick was having trouble booking the group. So he got whatever he could. [in Afterhours: the twilight of the Velvets, MOJO #75, February 2000, p. 44]

January 29-30, 1971
Electric Circus, New York City, New York

Mentionned in Velvet Underground at The Alpine article.

Handbill: 10½ x 8½", black and white. Reproduced in The Velvet Underground - New York Art (p. 315).

February 3-6, 1971
The Alpine, North Conway, New Hampshire

Mentionned in Velvet Underground at The Alpine article.

April 23-24, 1971
The Rock Pile, Island Park, New York

50 Austin Blvd, Island Park, NY 11558
Google Maps

with: Hog Heaven, Cactus.

The Rock Pile was formerly The Action House.

Ad: in The Village Voice, April 22, 1971, p. 48.

April 28, 1971
The Agora, Columbus, Ohio

with: The Blues Project

Handbill: 11 x 8½ inch, on thin purple paper. Reproduced in The Velvet Underground - An Illustrated History Of A Walk On The Wild Side (p. 150).

May 5, 1971
The Music Palace, Saint Louis, Missouri

with: Bittersweet

Poster.

Jim Laverty: The VU played a club named The Music Palace in the St. Louis Missouri area on Weds, May 5, 1971. I was the drummer in Bittersweet, the opening act that night.

May 1971
Cleveland, Ohio

Mentionned in Velvet Underground resurfaces in Cleveland by Anastasia Pantsios, in The Scene, May 6-12, 1971.

May 8, 1971
Palladium, Birmingham, Michigan

With: Mutzie, Salvage

Mentioned in The Motor City Music Archives.

June 1971
Gloucester, Massachusetts

Mentioned in I was a Velveteen by Rob Norris.

Line-up: Doug Yule / Moe Tucker / Sterling Morrison / Larry Estridge (replacing Powers on bass who had fallen down some stairs in Detroit and had broken his jaw).

Doug Yule [about the guy replacing Walter Powers] : His name was Larry Estridge and he filled in for Walter for a few gigs. We were travelling in a bus at the time, a dreary road trip.

June 15, 1971
Palladium, Birmingham, Michigan

With: Formerly Joe Cocker's The Grease Band, Tea

The date is listed in The Motor City Music Archives, but The Velvet Underground is not mentioned.

Poster.

June 18, 1971
Vanity Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan

1024 Newport St, Detroit, MI 48215
Wikipedia

With: Guardian Angel, Magic Ring, Coming (Grand Reopening!)

Mentioned in The Motor City Music Archives.

Card.

June 24-27, 1971
Main Point, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Line-up: Yule/Tucker/Morrison/Walter Powers

July 10, 1971
The Park, North Baltimore, Ohio

OH-18 & Hough Rd, North Baltimore, Wood, Ohio 45872

With: Paul Butterfield.

Poster: 25 x 19".

Ad and review: in Toledo Ohio Blade. It says "New Concept in Outdoors Concerts July 10th 1971 - 2 P.M. Featuring PAUL BUTTERFIELD, VELVET UNDERGROUND, UP, BRAT, NIGHT WATCHMEN, RAIL". The review has some pictures of the concert. It is mostly concert goers and a picture of Rail performing. The review talks about the event and only mentions the Velvet Underground as being from NY.

August 20-21, 1971
Liberty Hall, Houston, Texas

The show on the 21st was Sterling's last before leaving the band and heading up to Austin. Liberty Hall, 1610 Chenevert, was a converted movie theater that seated maybe 200. Touring bands not big time enough to play the Music Hall would perform there. It was on the edge of Downtown Houston.

Flyer: "2 shows nightly!". Orange ink on yellow paper, 10.25" x 7.75". Exists also as poster.

Press ads:

August ??, 1971
Aquarius Club, Revere Beach, Revere, Massachusetts

Mentioned here and there.

September 3, 1971
The Vanity Ballroom, Detroit, Michigan

With: Jam Band, Heresy, Elephant. MC: Mr. Belvedere!!

Mentioned in The Motor City Music Archives.

September 6, 1971
The Park, North Baltimore, Ohio

With: Savoy Brown, Cactus, Atomic Rooster.

Handbill: 11 x 8½" concert handbill designed by the legendary Grande Ballroom and MC5 artist, the Motor City Master, Gary Grimshaw, advertising shows at The Park in North Baltimore, OH on 09/03/1971 by the Amboy Dukes, Parliament Funkadelic and Sweet Tain, then on 09/06/1971, Savoy Brown, Cactus, Velvet Underground and Atomic Rooster. Signed in pencil by artist Gary Grimshaw.

September 17, 1971
Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada

With: Quicksilver Messenger Service, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band.

Flyer(?): reproduced in What Goes On #3.

Poster: same artwork as the one for the September 18 show.

September 18, 1971
Jasper Place Arena, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

With: Quicksilver Messenger Service, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band.

Poster: approximately 16" x 22". Reproduced in The Velvet Underground - An Illustrated History Of A Walk On The Wild Side (p. 150).

Late 1971, UK/Netherlands Tour

Line-up: Willie Alexander / Walter Powers / Maureen Tucker / Doug Yule

1971 tour dates are given in the following UK music papers:

• DISC June 1971
• SOUNDS 5th June 1971
• MELODY MAKER 3rd July 1971

October 8, 1971
Birmingham University, Birmingham, England

Poster.

October 9, 1971
Kingston Polytechnic, Kingston Upon Thames, England

Mentioned in Lowdown on the Underground in New Musical Express, October 30, 1971.

October 10, 1971
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ad: in Aloha no. 11, 24/9/1971, Netherlands.

Review: by Laurie Langenbach in Aloha no. 13, 1971, Netherlands.

A concert hall filled to the brim where no VU shows up.

When I come home (at 'Aloha's') I am told that they have just arrived in the hotel 'Trianon'. And they are hungry. Marjolein proposes to cook them a meal. I leave to get them. To my surprise I meet a bunch of 'fresh' looking, everything but junky types. No likeness whatsoever to the morbid atmosphere coming from the first albums. They are completely taken aback having missed this Amsterdam concert. The greed of their managers is to blame, they made the group travel in a little bus for fourteen hours because they didn't want to pay for a flight. The dinner is cozy but short..... our guests are very tired. The Next day I go with them to the NOS studio. There I meet their female drummer Maureen Tucker, for the first time. She way she looks is hard to define. Long red hair tightly bound into a pony tail, stern figure, manly walk. She's got her baby Carrie with her. One of the nicest children I have ever met.

The recording takes place in a enormous and empty space. No atmosphere at all. To make the disaster complete the singing can't be heard at all. That makes playing not much fun for a band. I stand, with the baby on my hip, watching. She kicks with her leg along with the rhythm, and applauds when it is over.

The group consists now of Doug, Maureen and two darling boys from Boston: William Alexander on organ and Walter Powers on bass.

At seven o'clock p.m. we are with Wim van der Linden at home looking at the results of the hours in the studio. It is watched with scrutiny, because the band hasn't seen itself on television for a long time. Doug looks away in agony every once in a while. He thinks he sings terribly and says 'I look like my baby brother'.

Laurie Langenbach
Aloha: a Hippie mag formerly called 'Hitweek'

[Thanks to Chris Van Tuyll for translation.]

October 11, 1971
AVRO Studio, Hilversum, Netherlands

Rolf Asselman: In 1971 The Velvet Underground made a TV appearance in the Dutch programme Top Pop with Rock And Roll. In the book Avro's Top Pop written by my friend Richard Groothuizen there is a picture in color of this appearance wich was in AVRO (Dutch broadcast) studio in the city of Hilversum.

October ?, 1971
Speakeasy Club, London, England

Review: by Richard Williams, in Melody Maker, 16/10/71.

October 14, 1971
London College of Printing, London, England

Poster: 60 x 80 cms. Run of 50 designed and printed at the London College of Printing.

October 15, 1971
Reading University, Reading, England

October 16, 1971
Dagenham Roundhouse, London, England

October 20, 1971
Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland

October 21, 1971
Warwick University, Warwick, England

October 22, 1971
Southampton University, Southampton, England

October 23, 1971
Manchester University, Manchester, England

October 26, 1971
St John's College, Oxford, England

October 28, 1971
Bristol University, Bristol, England

October 29, 1971, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England

With: Gravy Train, Pink Custard Lights

October 30, 1971
Liverpool University, Liverpool, England

November 2, 1971
South Parade Pier, Southsea, England

Ad: in Melody Maker.

November 4, 1971
Kent University, Canterbury, England

November 5, 1971
School Of African And Oriental Studies, London, England

Tape: audience, 65 minutes, B. Source: Final V.U. 1971-1973 disc 1.

1. Chapel Of Love (0:44)
2. I'm Waiting For The Man (4:55)
3. Spare Change (3:50)
4. Some Kinda Love / Turn On Your Love Light (12:44)
5. White Light/White Heat (4:34)
6. Pretty Tree Climber (5:00)
7. Rock And Roll (4:46)
8. Back On The Farm (6:45)
9. Dopey Joe (2:55)
10. Sister Ray / Never Going Back To Georgia (13:08)
11. After Hours [encore] (2:58)

November 6, 1971
Leeds University, Leeds, England

November 11, 1971
Grays Technical College, Grays, England

November 12, 1971
Friars Club, Town Hall, Aylesbury, England

Support: Gothic Horizon.

Poster.

Ad: in Melody Maker.

November 13, 1971
Hull University, Hull, England

November 14, 1971
Bumpers Club, Coventry St, London, England

Mentioned in "Velvet Underground The Janitors of Lunacy - on the college circuit" by Geoffrey Cannon in Time Out, London, October 8-14, 1971 which has a short tour date listing some of the upcoming London shows.

November 19, 1971
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tapes:

1. Soundboard, VPRO Radio, Netherlands. The complete tape remains in VPRO's archive but two incomplete tapes circulate. First one is 21 minutes, AM quality (4, 6, 7, 9). Second one is 4 songs (1, 4, 7, 10 + brief part of 11) from a one-hour Dutch 747AM radio show Night Train: Het VPRO Muziek Archief - Concertopnamens van Velvet Underground (1971) en Nico (1972) broadcasted on October 19, 2002.

2. Audience, 75 minutes. Sources: Live In Amsterdam 1971 CD (audience, 1-13) & LP (audience, 1-9, 11-13); Final V.U. 1971-1973 disc 2 & 4.

1. Waiting For The Man (4:54)
2. Spare Change (3:31)
3. Some Kinda Love (6:51)
4. White Light/White Heat (4:33)
5. Pretty Tree Climber (4:58)
6. What Goes On (4:02)
7. Cool It Down (4:07)
8. Back On The Farm (7:04)
9. Oh Sweet Nuthin' (8:21)
10. Sister Ray (15:02)
11. After Hours (3:19)
12. Dopey Joe (3:23)
13. Rock And Roll (4:43)

November 20, 1971
Ergens In Nederland, Netherlands

Ad: in Aloha no. 15, November 19 - December 3, 1971.

November 21, 1971
Concertzaal de Jong, Groningen, Netherlands

Ad: in Aloha no. 15, November 19 - December 3, 1971.

Poster [thanks to Koen van Krimpen, Dossier Popmuziek Groningen]

Late 1972, 'Squeeze Tour', Great Britain

Line-up: Doug Yule / Rob Norris / George Kay / Mark Nauseff
Nine shows.

November 18, 1972
Malvern Winter Gardens, Malvern, England

With: 9.30 Fly / Sidewinder

Ad: in Melody Maker, November 18, 1972

November 20, 1972
Top Rank, Doncaster, England

With: Budgie, Iguana

Ticket: light pink card, 75 x 85 mm, and only lists the venue, date, time, price and the phone number of the venue.

November 22, 1972
Acton Town Hall, London, England

With: McKendree Spring / Noble Savage

Ad: in Melody Maker, November 18, 1972

November 26, 1972
Top Rank, Cardiff, Wales

With: Thank You / Sullivan

Ad: in Melody Maker, November 4, 1972 (immediately below an ad for Lou Reed at the Pheasantry Club, King's Road, Chelsea, November 2, 1972!).

Rob Norris: We had one really rough time in Cardiff - the club was supposed to pay us cash up front and they didn't, and our road manager said, "Well, then they're not going to play." We were in the dressing roomand this real sleazy, low-brow guy with the club went on-stage and got these skinhead types all revved up, like "Well, they're here but our money's not good enough for them." They came after us and tried to bang down the door. It was George Kay who said, "Shit-ass punks aren't gonna bother us - we're gonna go out that door, we're gonna get in the car and get out of here, and they're not even gonna touch us." We formed a 'V' with the guitar cases, burst the door down and moved through the crowd, and they didn't bother us. But I was fearing for my life. [in Afterhours: the twilight of the Velvets, MOJO #75, February 2000, p. 47]

November 30, 1972
Sundown, London, England

supporting E.L.O.

Ad: full-page poster-size (approx. 16 x 11"), in New Musical Express, November 8(?), 1972.

Ticket.

December 2, 1972
City Hall, St Albans, England

With: Fusion Orchestra / Pugma Ho

Ad: in Melody Maker, December 2, 1972.

Review: by Meredith Noel, in Melody Maker, December 9, 1972:

"The evening at Words in St Albans City Hall last Saturday turned out to be a night of rock 'n' roll. (...)
On came Velvet Underground every inch a rock 'n' roll band. A lot of material was old stuff - necessary as the band pointed out because British fans have yet to hear the new material (their most recent album hasn't been released here). Old faithfuls like "Waiting For My Man" and "Sweet Jane" harked back to the days when Lou Reed was in the band.
Half the audience were there to see a group which must be legend now. The other half were there to rave so everybody was happy.
The Velvets had been jamming in the dressing room for two hours before they came on stage - they obviously like playing. The line-up nowadays is Doug Yule; Rob Norris, guitar; George Kay, bass; and Mark Nauseef, drums.
People were listening, people were dancing and everyone had a good time and an encore - "Heroin."

December 4, 1972
Reading Suite, Reading, England

With: Fat Grapple

Ad: in Melody Maker, November 25, 1972.

December 6, 1972
St David's University, Lampeter, Wales

Tape: audience, 64 minutes, B. Source: Final V.U. 1971-1973 disc 3.

1. Waiting For The Man (5:29)
2. White Light/White Heat (2:06)
3. Some Kinda Love (5:39)
4. Little Jack (3:25)
5. Sweet Jane (3:33)
6. Mean Old Man (3:07)
7. Run Run Run (5:57)
8. Caroline (3:46)
9. Dopey Joe (3:13)
10. What Goes On (4:10)
11. Sister Ray (8:57)
12. Train 'round The Bend (4:34)
13. Rock And Roll (4:29)
14. Waiting For The Man (5:30)

December 9, 1972
Northamptonshire Cricket Club, Northampton, England

with: McKendree Spring, Gnidrolog.

Ad: in Chronicle & Echo, December 6, 1972.

From The Music Capitals of the World in Billboard, January 13, 1973: "NEW YORK -- The Velvet Underground, headed by Doug Yule will be going on the road again in the U.S. The group's upcoming tour is being booked by ATI."

May 27, 1973
Oliver's, Boston, Massachussets

The final appearance as The Velvet Underground - it was the booker's idea that they were billed under that name. 2 sets.

Line-up: Doug Yule, Billy Yule, George Kay, and Don Silverman

Tape: from first set. 40 minutes, B+. Last three tracks appear only on the original tape recorded by Joe Viglione. Source: Final V.U. 1971-1973 disc 4.

1. I'm Waiting For The Man (5:00)
2. Little Jack (3:39)
3. White Light/White Heat (5:12)
4. Caroline (3:08)
5. Sweet Jane (4:32)
6. Mean Old Man (2:54)
7. Who's That Man [cut] (4:05)
8. Let It Shine (4:33)
9. Mama's Little Girl (3:40)
10. Train 'round The Bend [cut] (2:15)
11. Zonk: Baby Moon Rider
12. What's Your Name
13. What Goes On

Doug Yule: "There was a cover band in 1973 - me and my brother and two other guys, doing rock 'n' roll tunes both Velvet Underground and non-Velvet Underground, and some original tunes. We met somebody who started booking us around New England. He was supposed to bill us as featuring me from The Velvet Underground, but he wasn't supposed to say it was The Velvet Underground. We played next to [Boston's] Fenway Park in Kenmore Square, probably our second-to-last show. The last show was some ski-place in Vermont or someplace; we drove in, saw "The Velvet Underground" and said, "That's the last straw." Plus, the place turned out to be a real dive. It was one of those places you hear (in whining voices) "Can you turn down? Can you play Louie, Louie?" We didn't even play the second night; the guy asked us to leave." [in Afterhours: the twilight of the Velvets, MOJO #75, February 2000, p. 47]

Rob Norris: "(...) I stayed on in England for a while before ending up in New Hampshire in early '73 where I found one last version of the Velvet Underground about to perform in Boston without Sesnick's consent.
This version had Doug Yule on lead guitar, Billy Yule on drums, and George on bass (the Old Rockets rythm section) with a friend of George's from California named Don on rythm guitar. they played one weekend at a small club in Boston, to a small but appreciative audience, unveiling even newer material... Shortly thereafter this little-known version of the Velvet Underground disbanded and the saga of the post-Lou Reed Velvet Underground came to a close. AMEN!" [in I was a velveteen, Kicks, 1979]

Home

Thanks: Gordon Lyon, Aral Sezen, Chris Van Tuyll, Mark Skobac, Jeff Blake, Koen van Krimpen, Nick Huckle, Arjan de Weerd, Jeff Gold, Doug Yule, Rolf Asselman, Jim Laverty, Nick Blakey, Phil Gammage, Rob Cutler.

by Olivier Landemaine
last modified: February 6, 2010

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