The Velvet Forum

sm7609 wrote: ↑

29 Jun 2018 21:06

By the way, I just found some new (to me) 1966 footage from (probably) the Fillmore Auditorium in SF. I'll post about that separately.

sm7609 wrote: ↑

03 Jul 2018 03:41

Hey guys!

Sorry! I've been a bit under the weather and haven't been able to separate and upload the footage for you all. Before you get excited, there isn't much footage at all, and what I found was quite by accident.

I was watching the documentary ACID TESTS, released by Ken Kesey's Key-Z Productions in 1989 (I think). At one point in the middle of the film, I saw some dancers intercut with shots of a mirror ball -- a very unique-looking mirror ball. Where had I seen it before? In the Velvet Underground In Boston film. Neat, I thought, but didn't think anything more of it. After all, it's just a mirror ball. But those dancers looked -- I don't know, familiar somehow. It just didn't LOOK like an Acid Test to me.

Well, imagine my surprise when a moment or two later I see a young, short-haired woman playing drums with mallets while standing up, the bass drum turned toward its side like a snare. "Nahhhhh..." I thought, then wound it back and watched about 10 more times. Sure enough, it was unmistakably Maureen Tucker, banging away (no sound, natch). Weird! Then a few moments later, there she is -- a very brief shot of what very much appears to be Nico onstage. One of the other musicians is in the foreground of the shot, but I cannot tell who it is (my money is on Sterling though).

So where is this from? And why is it included in an Acid Test video? We don't know, and we probably will never know. Obvously Kesey didn't pick up on this when editing his video, taking it to be footage from an Acid Test. It has a WAY different feel that any real Acid Test footage. Now we know that the Velvets played at the Fillmore in late May 1966, San Francisco being ground zero for the Merry Pranksters at the time (an Acid Test was held at the Fillmore in January). Could Kesey have filmed the Velvets at the Fillmore? The other possibility -- based on nothing -- is that the footage is from The Trip in L.A. in early May. The venue looks smallish, so it could be either.

In any case, I will upload couple of screenshots if I can. Judge for yourselves. They're not great, but I'm satisfied that we have another precious few minutes of VU footage -- from a most unexpected source.