Nice and Tricky Velvets Quiz

Answer: The Primitives

The Primitives were artificially formed by Pickwick records, who Lou was working for at the time, to tour his minor hit 'The Ostrich', but soon split, leaving Lou Reed and John Cale to find a new guitarist (Sterling Morrison, who they met by chance at a tube station) and drummer (Mo Tucker, sister of Sterling's best friend).

Answer: Cafe Bizarre

Warhol, having been talked into taking his pop-art experiments into rock and roll by friend Paul Morrissey, was recommended the Velvets by Gerard Malanga, another Factory resident, and so went to see them at this tiny Greenwich Village bar. Their residency ended a few days later. The management hated them. Andy didn't, and invited them to the Factory.

Answer: 1993

Although they were due to tour Europe in the winter of '67, it was suddenly cancelled with the death of Brian Epstein who, unlikely as it may seem, was a huge fan of the group and was to be their European tour promoter. The 'Velvet Underground' did reach foreign shores in 1971, however only Mo remained of the original members.

They weren't to cross the Atlantic together until the 1993 reunion tour.

Answer: Waldo Jeffers

'The Gift' was based on one of Lou Reed's essays, written for his English diploma, and spoken, with his laconic Welsh accent, by John Cale. The band, one of the first to truly experiment with stereo, put the lyrics on one track and the instrumental on the other so that, according to Reed, if you didn't like the lyrics played through the left, you could just listen to the music on the right.

Answer: Doug Yule

John Cale left the band in late '68 after his long, bitter relationship with Reed came to an end as Lou gave his other bandmates an 'either he leaves or I do' ultimatum. Billy Yule (Doug's brother) was hired for 'Loaded' as drummer, Angus Maclise was the band's drummer before Mo joined.

Answer: David Bowie

After leaving the Velvets, Cale went on to have a successful recording and production career, first recording The Stooges' 'The Stooges' in 1969, then going on to produce artists as diverse as Nico, Patti Smith and Sham 69 in the 70's. He was even responsible for the Happy Mondays' debut 'Squirrel And G-man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile' in 1987. David Bowie produced Lou Reed's debut 'Transformer'.

Answer: Candy Says

Lou brought in Doug to sing on 'Candy Says' as he'd strained his vocal chords in a concert done a few days earlier. Doug would soon begin to take more and more of the limelight from Lou, mainly at the behest of their new manager Steve Sesnick, who built up an immense dislike of Reed, and who would eventually force him out of his own band. Mo Tucker sang on 'After Hours'.

Answer: Mo was pregnant

In contemporary interviews with the band, Mo was always said to be the 'kid sister' of the band, seemingly never part of the bitter infighting that characterised the group. Interestingly, as a sidenote, none of the band members ever admitted to taking heroin while a member of the band - Lou especially frequently became upset at the idea that they glamourised the drug - however the sheer weight of the song 'Heroin' and his subsequent slide into heavy heroin use in the 70's makes these comments a little suspect.

Answer: Max's Kansas City, NY

It was at Max's, where the band, containing only two founding members, lost their leader and driving force. They continued for a few years afterwards with Doug Yule replacing Reed as the band's leader, but recorded nothing even approaching the band's earlier work. On the night Lou walked off the stage Andy Warhol's collaborator, Brigid Polk, who was sitting in the corner, recorded the legendary show that she would later sell to Atlantic for $10,000.

Answer: Lou Reed

The eponymous 'Lou Reed' was the first to be recorded after the split, mostly consisting of unrecorded Velvet Undergound songs. It wasn't until the release of 'Transformer', produced by David Bowie (whose constant plugging of the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed himself was perhaps most crucial to the record's success), in November of the same year that Reed finally achieved the success he so deserved, having achieved very little commercially with the Velvets, as 'Walk On The Wild Side' became a global hit.