It was 30 years ago today - Reunion gig 1993

[bradski]

Moe and Sterling toured in 1992. I saw them at the Zap Club Brighton, but before that, in the afternoon I interviewed them. I wish I still had the tape. They were very friendly and it was great talking to them. I got a ton of stuff signed. I might have asked them about a full scale reunion but I don't recall. I don't remember anything about the gig either. My memory is shot.

In 93 I saw the VU at Wembley but I was underwhelmed. Lou made a mess of the songs. There was no wildness. There wasn't anything there that made the VU so special. No improvisation. I wish they'd done a 39 minute Sister Ray but it was never going to happen.

I like a lot of Lou's 70s songs. He wrote some good things. But he got caught up in his world of perfect musicianship and production which the VU were never about. Those later 80s /90s / 00s albums are arid and dry to me. Cale should have stuck to minimalism, or at least modern classical. He wanted to make money probably and I don't blame him but many of his albums are far too commercial for my tastes. I don't like to be too negative as I admire the man and he wrote a lot of good songs too ... like Ready For War and Hedda Gabler. But it was the chemistry between the members of the band 66 - 68 that made them eternal. What they created added up to more than the sum of the parts.

[I am the table!]

I also saw Sterling play with Moe in 1992 (at the Clapham Grand, if memory serves). It was touching to see how bashful Sterling was when Moe introduced him.

I wish I had such vivid memories of the Wembley show. When we were in the bar before the Velvets came on there was a bloke who was so paralytic (or maybe on something) that he collapsed and had to be carried out and I remember thinking, he's going to feel a right idiot tomorrow when we've been waiting/hoping all these years for a VU reunion and he won't have any memories of it...... when ironically that's my only specific memory of the night!

I'm unsure if it was my delirious state or simply the volume but at no point did I think to myself that night: what is up with Lou's vocals? Obviously I've heard the recording of that show since and I can hear how wayward they were but I was totally oblivious to that at the time.

If Lou's vocals could be magically erased from Live MCMXCIII, posterity would view it more kindly. There are some great extrapolations of unlikely songs that show they still had The Power (and the chemistry). No doubt it would have been better if they'd only played new stuff so they couldn't be judged against what went before (I kind of get the impression that that would have been Cale's preference) but that would presumably have been a commercial non-starter. Oh well.

[threechordwonder]

I also saw Sterling play with Moe in 1992 (at the Clapham Grand, if memory serves).

It does, probably, they certainly played there (I climbed on to the stage after to get Moe's autograph, the tale is on this forum somewhere).

[searchin4mymainline]

I also saw Sterling play with Moe in 1992 (at the Clapham Grand, if memory serves).

It does, probably, they certainly played there (I climbed on to the stage after to get Moe's autograph, the tale is on this forum somewhere).

Yes they did. Sterling referred to it as "The Grand Ballroom" when he and Moe were signing stuff after the Brighton Zap Club gig.

[searchin4mymainline]

Moe and Sterling toured in 1992. I saw them at the Zap Club Brighton, but before that, in the afternoon I interviewed them. I wish I still had the tape. They were very friendly and it was great talking to them. I got a ton of stuff signed. I might have asked them about a full scale reunion but I don't recall. I don't remember anything about the gig either. My memory is shot.

I have some memories of the gig, although not sure how reliable they are after 30 years. I think when they were about to do "Afterhours" there was this (completely friendly) exchange when someone in the audience said "Play your own songs, Moe", to which Moe's reply was something like "This is my song, no matter who wrote it."

[dial4]

I listen to some of Cale's solo work cause he's still interesting even if I don't always care for it. For Reed, The blue mask is the only album of his I involuntarily listen to, along with maybe half a dozen other songs over his solo career.

After Sally, Lou no longer managed to surprise me even with his jazzy turn on Arista, a label which marked the burial of his career. A few good songs here and there, though. I had read an article about his European tour in 1975 and understood then what state he was in. Here, on Coney Island baby, with quite country arrangements and neat vocals but also shit like 'Ooohhh baby' (this title already), which manages the feat of being even worse than Tin Machine (and God knows that. ..) or 'Charley's Girl'. The blue mask is correct, with its cover of 'Satellite of love' at the end (especially side 1, vinyl addicts will understand). The next not bad too despite some fillers.
For Cale, it's more serious, I don't even know why I have his records after 'Helen of Troy'.