The Velvet Forum

Searching through Dutch articles/interviews for info about Sheila Klein/Phil's question about "ten..., ten...songs", came across a 1971 interview with Doug Yule and Willlie Alexander, in which Willie made the following statement:
"In Rock zit best brood, maar niet zoals deze groep gecoacht wordt. Deze groep heeft nooit één cent gezien, alleen als ze er om vroegen voor huur of zo. De jongens woonden bij hun moeder thuis. Alleen in Vancouver hebben we een keer wat verdiend, toen er geen roadmanager mee was en we het geld zelf in ontvangst namen."
"In Rock one can make dough, but not in the way this group is managed. The bandmembers have never seen one cent/penny, except when they demanded it for rent and such. These boys lived at their mothers' homes. Just in Vancouver we once earned some money, when the roadmanager stayed at home and we received the money ourselves."
source: 1971.Nov.19, De Tijd, page 13, interview by Gertjan van Ommen - delpher.nl/nl/kranten/view?identifier=ddd:011235984:mpeg21:p014

This made me curious for those Vancouver dates and found:
--review of 1971.Sep.08 concert at Gassy Jack's, Vancouver
source: "Velvet Sound Fails to Match Legend", 1971 September 09, The Vancouver Sun, page 37, by Peter Wilson - newspapers.com/newspage/492480769/?terms=velvet%20underground
see thumbnail: https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnai ... 5_1925.jpg
--announcement of 1971.Sep.13-18 [Mon.-Sat.] at Gassy Jack's
source: "What's about Town", 1971 September 10, The Vancouver Sun, page 39 - newspapers.com/newspage/492481931/?terms=velvet%20underground

BUT note that the VU played the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on fri.Sep.17 and on sat.Sep.18 the Edmonton Gardens [both together with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band]
SO probably the VU played a stint of shows from Sep.08 till Sep 16 Gassy Jack's, Vancouver

Next to the above I found a definitive date for the first concert by the VU after the Max's Kansas City shows:
1970.Sep.05, Turn on Life Day in Central Park, New York City
source: "Turn on Life Fest in Park", 1970.Sep.03, Daily News [New York], page 3 - newspapers.com/newspage/394989386/?terms=velvet%20underground
see thumbnail: https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnai ... 00_900.jpg

PS: as the forum only allows 2 links per post, I deleted the https parts before the delpher.nl and newspapers.com sources; you'll have to copy the given urls into your browser...

Here's the text of the review of the 1971.Sep.08 show at Gassy Jack's, Vancouver

Velvet Sound Fails to Match Legend
1971 September 09, The Vancouver Sun, page 37, by Peter Wilson
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/492480769/
thumbnail: https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnai ... 5_1925.jpg

The Velvet Underground is anything but velvet, and that should please the regular patrons at Gassy Jack's, where the group opened Wednesday night [1971.Sep.08].
The sound, to judge by what was an extremely short opening set, is one of heavily driven, raunchy rock with lots of body and muscle and sweat, but very little mind. It is the kind of music that defies cerebration but sets the feet to involuntary tapping and lures the energetic out onto the dance floor and exhaustion.
Considering that last week at Gassy Jack's the crowd drove poor Ian Matthews and his acoustic group from the stage twice within two days, the Velvet Underground must be exactly what is wanted by the regulars - something that brings a spring to the step and a ringing to the ears. Certainly the quartet of musicians who make up the group are steadily proficient at producing this effect.
Unfortunately a legend of creativity precedes Velvet Underground, and in the first set Wednesday night it simply wasn't being lived up to. Perhaps later in the week 18the group will settle down into more than going through the motions, but it seems a shame that a band with such a high reputation often ends up sounding like nothing more than an extraordinarily good commercial lounge act.
Not that there weren't flashes of something better, but they rarely lasted long enough to count for much.
Possibly one factor involved is that this is not the group as originally or even secondarily constituted. Only two of the four could be considered regular members.
Gone is former lead guitarist and vocalist Lou Reed and the recently-replaced bassist Sterling Morrison. Long gone, of course, is pianist John Cale.
Still on drums, as she was right from the beginning, is Maureen Tucker, and Doug Yule has moved up to lead guitar and lead vocals. On piano and organ is Willie Alexander, while bass is now being plucked by Walter Powers.
In no way am I knocking the musicianship of the new members, but it seems that no over-all creative concept is now operating in Velvet Underground. I hope that before the week is out they will be able to get things moving in more than just a basic raw sound direction.
-- with picture, caption: Maureen Tucker... one of the originals [Denl Eagland Photo] - thumbnail: img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnail/492480769/400/400/0850_5250_1275_1275.jpg

The 1971.Sep.17 show at Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver [together with together with Quicksilver Messenger Service, Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band] is shortly reviewed/mentioned in:

"Capt. Beefheart Cut Off in Mid-flight"
1971 September 18, The Vancouver Sun, page 31, by Peter Wilson
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/492 ... nderground

...
Velvet Underground, lead off group on the show, were better than they were when I saw them at Gassy Jack's but still nothing to cause a flurry of excitement in anybody's typewriter.

thumbnail: https://img.newspapers.com/img/thumbnai ... 0_2550.jpg

Nice work!

Great research!