VU Footage
Posted: 19 Dec 2004 18:26
Where is the footage that exists of the band available? Specifically that Sunday Morning video and the Symphony of Sound Stuff. Thanks
I don't think the Sunday Morning film is available anywhere but the Italian company rarovideo have put out the Symphony of Sound film out on vhs & DVD under it's alt title 'The Velvet Underground & Nico'... - reccommended!
I had the Sunday Morning thing from a copy of the 8 hr VU BBC special, when it was broadcast at 4 am or something, but I don't know if I still have it (it wasn't that long ago I got the copy, but I just don't label my vids very well ...)
It's not that amazing really - it's an erratically shot short silent film maybe a minute long, on which they may be or may not actually playing Sunday Morning, that is looped and slightly edited to fit the running time of the studio Sunday Morning. Interesting certainly, the band look so fresh-faced and young, but not really offering anything startling, IMO.
The kind-of bleached out colour footage of the band at the Psychiatrists convention in early '66 was shot by Jonas Mekas and is included in a scrapbook-ish film called Walden, and re-used in another film called Scenes From The Life of Andy Warhol - the latter is avail on vhs from a French company called Re:Voir. The VU footage is very short and bitty, most of the time it's used in it's entirety or even slowed down to cover more screen time. This video release also includes the impressionistic colour film by Ronald Nameth of the EPI in Chicago, but it doesn't really show the band at all, and this version is the one without the live tracks sung by John Cale, has 1st LP trax with added reverb & echo effects instead.