The Velvet Underground

In 1966, The Velvet Underground evolved out of Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable. They infused a sense of documentary realism into rock, writing songs about heroin addiction, homosexuals, sadomasochism and urban decay while everyone else wrote about peace, love and flowers.

German-born female vocalist and Warhol superstar, Nico, left the band shortly after the release of 1967s The Velvet Underground and Nico to pursue a solo career. She died in July 1988 of a cerebral haemorrhage following a bicycle accident.

By the end of 1967, celebrity benefactor Andy Warhol was losing interest in the band, prompting singer/lyricist Lou Reed to call on Boston businessman Steve Sesnik. The new manager urged Reed to pursue a more commercial agenda - to the displeasure of bassist/organist John Cale.

Their second LP, White Light/White Heat, contained extremely perverse subject matter, with the tunefully distorted title track advocating amphetamine use, a song (The Gift) about a guy who is so afraid his girlfriend will be unfaithful that he mails himself to her, and Lady Godiva's Operation putting a queasy medical spin on the medieval legend. Sex Rock, meanwhile, was the Big Bang of noise-rock: 17 minutes of sex, drugs and guns carried along on tidal waves of serrated feedback, discordant keys, and primal garage pounding.

White Light/White Heat shifted even fewer units than their debut album, peaking at Number 199 on the Billboard chart.

Cale left The Velvet Underground in 1968 and was replaced by Doug Yule. Tucker was replaced in 1970 by Billy Yule.  Lou Reed left the same year, just before the critically acclaimed Loaded. Reed subsequently mythologized urban decadence in his classic Walk On The Wild Side, and maintained a depressing depravity in the face of escalating commercial success.

The Yule brothers kept the group going for a time with new members, releasing a further album (Squeeze) in 1972. This version of The Velvet Underground consisted of Yule, Rob Norris (guitar), George Kay (bass guitar) and Mark Nauseef (drums). Yule pulled the plug on the band when the brief tour ended in December 1972. As many feared, The Velvet Underground's 1992 and 1996 reunions merely gave drummer Maureen "Moe" Tucker a payday and robbed the group of a little mystique.

Sterling Morrison died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995.