The Velvet Forum

It's introduced as "Sweet Caroline" but it's not the Neil Diamond song. I don't know if it is "Caroline" from Squeeze because I've never listened to that LP.

Sheila Klein wrote: ↑13 Oct 2025 05:02

09: Sweet Caroline 3.05

The Neil Diamond song?

lurid wrote: ↑13 Oct 2025 00:31 yes - probably here as well as one of the VU Facebook groups. I'm still going through the rest of Bill Allerton's cassettes and digitising/transferring them. His copies of the Lou Reed 1972 concert recordings seem to be much closer to the masters than the copies in general circulation (in some cases I think his cassettes ARE the masters).

Can I be nosey and ask - did you acquire those through one of the recent auctions or did he bequeath them to you? I really do miss his shop. I wish I could be beamed back in time there, now that I know so much more than I did then.

I won Bill's cassettes at the most recent Omega auction of his collection - here's a link to the results, filtered for VU material.

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction ... LI-hWlHIjw

I was the only bidder for the cassettes (lot #51), but I would have been prepared to go a fair bit higher if needed. In the image, I could see the 30/11/72 VU tape and knew that if it was dated correctly, then it hadn't been in general circulation before. I thought that the Jan 1970 VU Pennsylvania tapes were probably mis-dated and was correct - from the track listings they are the commonly available Jan and May 70 Second Fret recordings. I've not listened to them yet to assess sound quality but they're unlikely to be better than what we have already.

The VU 4/67 cassette turned out to be an unedited (?) copy of the Gymnasium soundboard tape that has now been officially released. There are longish silences/tuning between some songs and also a ~30 second snippet of "Venus In Furs" that I'd not heard before. Listening to this "raw" tape made me realise how much processing and tidying up they must have done for the official release - there are various volume/level shifts throughout it.

But what I was really gambling on was the hope that the Lou Reed live 1972 tapes would be better quality than the copies in general circulation - this did prove to be the case and I suspect that either Bill taped these shows himself or he knew who did and got copies from the masters. A couple of the tape inlay cards have the original concert start/finish times so I am pretty sure that Bill attended them.

A wee bonus was that Bill had slipped his own concert ticket stubs into a few of the cassette cases.....5 stubs, 4 of them new to me. All in all, a result I think!

I did bid on a few other items but didn't win them.....

I am the table! wrote: ↑13 Oct 2025 18:33

lurid wrote: ↑13 Oct 2025 00:31 yes - probably here as well as one of the VU Facebook groups. I'm still going through the rest of Bill Allerton's cassettes and digitising/transferring them. His copies of the Lou Reed 1972 concert recordings seem to be much closer to the masters than the copies in general circulation (in some cases I think his cassettes ARE the masters).

Can I be nosey and ask - did you acquire those through one of the recent auctions or did he bequeath them to you? I really do miss his shop. I wish I could be beamed back in time there, now that I know so much more than I did then.

Congrats!

lurid wrote: ↑14 Oct 2025 12:03I thought that the Jan 1970 VU Pennsylvania tapes were probably mis-dated and was correct - from the track listings they are the commonly available Jan and May 70 Second Fret recordings. I've not listened to them yet to assess sound quality but they're unlikely to be better than what we have already.

The VU 4/67 cassette turned out to be an unedited (?) copy of the Gymnasium soundboard tape that has now been officially released. There are longish silences/tuning between some songs and also a ~30 second snippet of "Venus In Furs" that I'd not heard before. Listening to this "raw" tape made me realise how much processing and tidying up they must have done for the official release - there are various volume/level shifts throughout it.

These still sound like a couple of great finds!

I'd love to hear the Gymnasium tape prior to it being screwed around with for the official release. And if you listen to the Second Fret track on, say, the Screen Test Falling Spikes LP as compared with the version on the Loaded box (purportedly taken from the master in recent times) it does seem the tape has deteriorated. An earlier dub might have more to offer than what we have at the moment.

lurid wrote: ↑13 Oct 2025 00:31 yes - probably here as well as one of the VU Facebook groups.

Mark wrote: ↑12 Oct 2025 22:52 Wow - after all this time, a new tape. Not exactly peak era VU of course but sounds really interesting all the same. Will you be uploading it anywhere?

I would really like to hear this - I have a kind of morbid interest in post-Lou VU

Wow, this is cool! I didn't know about an alternative take of I'm Set Free.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - I'M SET FREE - ORIGINAL 8" DCT RECORDERS ACETATE RECORDING. Fantastic piece of Velvet Underground history with this original DCT Recorders single sided 8" acetate recording of I'm Set Free. The song was not released as a single thought would appear on the eponymous 1969 album The Velvet Underground. The acetate (the playing surface measuring approx 6 1/2 inches on a 8 inch disc, spinning at 33RPM) is in VG+ condition showing a few light surface marks, though no heavier feelable scratches and without any deterioration to the lacquer. The printed orange labels are in clean order, with what appears to be some glue residue to the label. Housed with original Audiodiscs sleeve. The recording is an earlier take of the commercial release and is a mono mix. Please get in touch for an audio sample.

https://bid.omegaauctions.co.uk/auction ... 8&pn=1&g=1

There is a rough acetate mix of I'm Set Free that's circulated before, don't know if this is the same one? Main difference is a heavy reverb on the drums.