The Velvet Forum

I think I’ve mentioned here a few times about how my father in-law was at the first ever Velvet Underground show, at the Summit High School Auditorium in Summit, NJ. Evidently, a friend of his was tasked to take photos of the headlining act, The Myddle Class, for the school paper, and was specifically instructed to NOT waste any film on the then unknown openers from NYC. However, he remembers taking a few shots during their set to advance the reel, and he thinks he might have actually developed a picture or two of the Velvets. It might be impossible for him to track down, but if he can find this 50+ year old film AND it turns out he has a shot (or even just a partial shot), then this would mean that he is in possession of the first ever photograph of the band performing on stage. I have serious doubts that anything will come of this, but at least in the meantime, there’s a great mini-doc about this show called “The Velvet Underground Played My High School,” which is made entirely out of interviews with attendees from that strange, fateful night in Summit.

Mark wrote: ↑11 Sep 2020 10:51 Well.

http://brettaronowitz.com/ is the website of Al Aronowitz's daughter. On her site, there is a re-jigged version of an old piece of Al's about his time with The Myddle Class, including some John Lynch photos. These are good enough to have been taken direct from source, rather than being scanned in from old magazines.

In the credits, Thom Lynch is thanked, and my guess is he's a relative of John Lynch who provided the photos.

There's a contact form on Brett's site. Anyone feeling ballsy enough to send a "hi! You don't know me but..." message?