Moe interviewed by the Sunday Times

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Silly British posters, if I didn't have finals to avoid studying for I never would have found this during a pointless google search.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 90,00.html

With a touch of Velvet
Steve Jelbert

Maureen Tucker, drummer with the Velvet Underground, explains why she has come out of obscurity to lend some Danes a hand
SOME 40 years since their foundation in New York City, the Velvet Underground, the first band to combine the worlds of high art and rock?n?roll, still exert a powerful fascination. Even those who?ve never heard of anyone billed at this weekend?s All Tomorrow?s Parties festival know its name is borrowed from a Velvets song. Why, a couple of years ago a friend of mine, already well into his thirties, had their name tattooed on his arm, justifying it with impeccable logic ? ?I?ve liked them for over half my life already so it?s unlikely I?ll come to regret it,? he told me.

Less indelibly Denmark?s rock fetishists the Raveonettes enlisted the Velvets? drummer Maureen ?Moe? Tucker for their forthcoming album Pretty in Black. The singer/ guitarist Sune Rose Wagner, now resident in Manhattan, recruited his idols for the project ? other guests include Ronnie Spector, the former wife of Phil and still in fine voice, and Martin Rev of electronic pioneers Suicide. (It speaks volumes about Tucker?s own attitude that even at 60 she?s excited to share the grooves with the chief Ronette. ?To be on the same record as Ronnie Spector? Cool!? she says.

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Tucker had been tipped off that the Danes? appearance on a late-night television show would probably appeal. ?I watched it and was really impressed. They were going to play in Atlanta, so it occurred to them that if they got a studio maybe I could come up. I live four hours away,? she says. ?They?re extremely nice young people ? I don?t want to say ?kids? ? and very talented. I?d like to see them do really well in America, though you have to be one of those horrible girl singers to do that. What a drag, huh?? The Velvets were the most defiantly urban rock band of theirs or any era. ?Managed? by Andy Warhol, their unusual line-up, including a viola player and a female drummer, stood out even in the capital of the weird in 1966.

?New York was a place for artists and musicians and writers who didn?t have two cents but could go and get a crappy apartment and work in a restaurant or whatever and pursue their art,? Tucker says. ?Boy, that?s out of the question now. It?s a real shame and it really does take away from the feel of the city, the idea of the city. Who the hell can afford to live in these places? Everybody isn?t a lawyer.?

Such financial horror stories haven?t put her youngest son off though. In his twenties and playing in a band in the college town of Athens, Georgia, he fancies a bite of the Apple. ?He has a plan to move to New York. I didn?t discourage him. I just said, ?You better get three jobs and start saving?,? she says.

Tucker, the definitive rocking grandmother, loves a moan but too often she?s right. After all, she saw the Stones ?in an old movie theatre. They were incredible. No light show, just their amplifiers. Was that something!? Things are different now. ?People will pay unbelievable amounts to go to a stadium to hear music and wind up watching a monitor because it?s so far away. What the hell is that all about?? She still loves Bo Diddley, a major influence. At her 60th-birthday party last year she received a rectangular guitar, just like Bo?s. Even Lou Reed flew in.

?Wasn?t that sweet? I was really surprised he did that, not just for the trouble he took, but also those situations are not his favourite. He gave me a nice amplifier,? she says, still delighted.

Despite their legendary status, the Velvet Underground didn?t actually sell many records. Once, their acting manager, Warhol?s factotum Paul Morrissey, was asked what they lived on. After pondering the question he announced brightly: ?Well, they eat a lot at parties.?

After their dissolution in the early Seventies, Lou Reed and John Cale went on to erratic solo careers, while the guitarist Sterling Morrison captained a tugboat, later becoming an English professor. Tucker found herself a single mum of five in rural Georgia, where she?d moved to be near her mother, before starting a solo career, performing songs about her unglamorous life. As she says: ?I could only write about what I knew about, which was trying to make a living.? Her kids knew little about her youthful exploits ? explaining how Mom used to play on songs like Heroin might have been problematic.

?They didn?t really realise the significance for a long time. I didn?t sit around saying: ?I was in the Velvet Underground.? That reunion tour was when they first started realising that a lot of people liked the Velvets. We?re in a very small town. People are into country and western.

This is not Velvets territory, believe me,? she laughs. ?They started realising it was a little more than I had led them to believe.?

Tucker?s influence can?t be understated. The Sixties beat explosion was a time when only boys hit things, and girls who sang were tolerated. Did she mean to blaze a trail? ?No, no. I was just having fun. I don?t think anyone who winds up blazing a trail is thinking about that as they?re doing it. They?re just doing what they want to do,? she protests. Making no apologies about her straightforward style, she admits, ?I can?t play with anyone else. If someone said, ?I?ll give you a million dollars if you do a roll?, I couldn?t. For me to play with 99 per cent of what?s going on is out of the question. But it worked for the Velvets.?

And if you were wondering what she thinks of another imperfect drummer who?s absolutely perfect for the music she plays, Tucker has only caught the White Stripes on television once, ?But I thought, ?Holy s***!? This is great!? I haven?t heard another thing since, but that 30 seconds was great.?

# The Raveonettes? Pretty in Black is released on April 25 by Columbia. Their tour starts on Thursday at Cardiff Barfly (0870 9070999)

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Thanks for finding this interview. Moe has such a refreshing attitude...no diva bs.