For\n John Cale, Andy Warhol\u2019s Factory was like entering a fountain of ideas,\n with \u201cnew things happening every day\u201d; for Lou Reed it was \u201clike \nlanding in heaven\u201d. Everywhere they turned there were odd characters and\n odd situations, and Reed would write down in a notebook fragments of \nwhat he heard and overheard. Many of these fragments would end up in \nsong; others would suggest a title or a story situation. The Factory \ncrowd also noticed Reed as well. \u201cEveryone was certainly in love with \nhim — me, Edie, Andy, everyone,\u201d confessed Factory regular Danny \nFields. \u201cHe was so sexy. Everyone just had this raging crush… he was \nthe sexiest thing going\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warhol and Morrissey had recently been \napproached to get involved with setting up a new discotheque in Long \nIsland; the plans would come to nothing (after seeing the Velvets, the \nclub owner hired The Young Rascals instead), but at this point Warhol \nwas actively looking for a rock band to play there. Bizarrely (according\n to Victor Bockris), Warhol had actually contemplated forming his own \nrock band three years earlier, with LaMonte Young and Walter De Maria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeing\n The Velvet Underground at Caf\u00e9 Bizarre, Warhol liked the fact that Lou \nReed looked \u201cpubescent\u201d, and that the audience left the gig looking \n\u201cdazed and damaged\u201d — according to Reed, Warhol saw them the night they\n were fired. Paul Morrissey claims that it was his idea to marry \nunderground films to rock\u2019n\u2019roll, but that it was a purely commercial \ndecision to work with the Velvets, rather than an artistic one. At the \ntime, Morrissey also thought that Reed and Cale lacked presence, and \nthat what the Velvets needed was a singer with \u201ca bit of charisma\u201d. He \nsuggested someone who was already a part of the Warhol camp: Nico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The suggestion that Nico should join the band\n didn\u2019t go down too well with the Velvets, to put it mildly. Morrissey \nplayed them her single on the Immediate label, and according to him Reed\n was \u201chostile to Nico from the start\u201d. What changed Reed\u2019s mind was the \nfact that Warhol was offering them an enticing management and recording \ndeal. There was of course the recognition that his patronage would \nbring. In the end, it was too good a deal for the Velvets to turn down. \nAccording to Nico, Reed agreed simply because he lacked the confidence \nto refuse — or perhaps, lacked enough confidence in himself as a \nvocalist. Still, at his insistence the billing would distance Nico from \nthe group, making it crystal clear that she was not a band member. They \nwould be The Velvet Underground and Nico. So Aronowitz was ousted (he\u2019d \nonly had a \u201chandshake deal\u201d — something he subsequently regretted) and \nMorrissey and Warhol officially became joint managers of The Velvet \nUnderground. In return for 25%, Warhol would invest in new equipment, \nget them gigs and a recording contract. In fact, after buying two \ninstruments from Vox, Warhol got them to supply further equipment for \nfree, having arranged an endorsement deal (the band would later endorse \nAcoustic, and then Sunn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a problem remained: Nico wanted to \nsing all the songs, which Reed refused point blank to allow. But since \nher presence meant that some gentler songs were now needed, Reed wrote \nthree ballads for her, which suited her unique, breathy singing style \n(\u201clike an IBM computer with a German accent\u201d, as Warhol put it): “Femme \nFatale”, “All Tomorrow\u2019s Parties” and “I\u2019ll Be Your Mirror”. The gentler\n songs contrasted interestingly with John Cale\u2019s experiments in \ndrone-like repetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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According to Cale, Nico was deaf in one ear \n(from a perforated eardrum), which caused her to go off-pitch from time \nto time, much to the band\u2019s amusement. \u201cLou never really liked me\u201d Nico \nlater complained — though that\u2019s hard to believe when you listen to \n‘I\u2019ll Be Your Mirror\u2019. She and Reed were lovers early on, and even lived\n together for a while. Recalling this period, Nico described Reed as \n\u201cvery soft and lovely. Not aggressive at all\u201d, and even that \u201cyou could \njust cuddle him like a sweet person\u201d. Sterling Morrison was more \ncynical: \u201cYou could say Lou was in love with her, but Lou Reed in love \nis a kind of abstract concept\u201d. The relationship lasted eight weeks, and\n was supposedly ended by Nico. Cale, meanwhile, had been seduced by Edie\n Sedgwick within 48 hours of arriving at the Factory, and moved in with \nher for the duration (six weeks) of their relationship. Edie had also \nhad a brief affair with Nico. John Cale has described the material Reed \nwrote for Nico as \u201cpsychological love songs\u201d, and even Reed acknowledged\n her strengths as a performer. Yet after Nico left the Velvets, Reed \nwould write no more songs for her — despite being asked to by both Cale\n and Nico herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nico had little to do on stage when she wasn\u2019t \nsinging except stand stock-still and play tambourine (usually out of \ntime), and at times things could get a little tense between her and the \nband. Even so, she was a striking vision: dressed all in white in \ncontrast to the Velvets\u2019 black attire. Her modeling days had certainly \ntaught her how to strike a dramatic pose. She was also taller than all \nthe men surrounding her and, inevitably, she captured most of the media \nattention. As Maureen Tucker said: \u201cShe was this gorgeous apparition, \nyou know. I mean, she really was beautiful\u201d. Critic Richard Goldstein \ndescribed Nico\u2019s stage presence as \u201chalf goddess, half icicle\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Singing For \u2019Drella<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n However \nlittle Andy Warhol knew about music (and he never expressed any noted \npreferences), even he must have sensed that in TheVelvet Underground \nhe\u2019d found more than just another rock band. \u201cAndy told me that what we \nwere doing with music was the same thing he was doing with painting and \nmovies i.e. not kidding around\u201d Lou Reed recalled. He was bowled over by\n Andy\u2019s way of looking at the world and once remarked that sometimes he \nwould spend days thinking about something Andy said. Reed was also \nimpressed by Warhol\u2019s work ethic: \u201cI\u2019d ask him why he was working so \nhard and he\u2019d say, \u2018Somebody\u2019s got to bring home the bacon\u2019\u201d. Warhol \nwould ask Reed how many songs he\u2019d written that day; Reed would lie and \nsay two. Lou also remarked on Andy\u2019s generosity, pointing out that \nthough Andy was the first to arrive for work at the Factory and the last\n to leave he\u2019d still take them all to dinner: \u201cHe gave everyone a \nchance\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the exact nature of the group\u2019s relationship to their\n new manager remains vague. As Sterling Morrison pondered: \u201cWas The \nVelvet Underground some happy accident for him, something that he could \nwork into his grandiose schemes for the show? Would another band have \ndone just as well? I don\u2019t think another band would have done just as \nwell. At that time we seemed uniquely suited for each other\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Cale described Warhol as \u201ca catalyst\u201d for the Velvets, that he understood exactly what they were about, how best to bring that out. \u201cI doubt that Lou would have continued investigating song subjects like he did without having some kind of outside support for that approach other than myself\u201d he elaborated. \u201cI think it was just basically Andy and I who really encouraged that side of a literary endeavour\u201d. Morrison echoes the fact that Warhol gave them \u201cthe confidence to keep doing what were doing\u201d. It\u2019s probable that Reed and Warhol each saw \nechoes of themselves in the other. But Warhol had earned the nickname of\n \u2019Drella (a combination of Dracula and Cinderella) that Ondine, another \nof the Factory crowd, had given him. Warhol had an acid wit that Reed \ncould seldom match, and his jibes were less malevolent than Reed\u2019s — \nthey could be bitchy and funny at the same time, whereas Lou was often \njust bitchy. But as Malanga states, Warhol also had his dark side: \u201che \ncould slice a person with a glance\u201d. In fact, Lou actually came in a \npoor third to Nico when it came to put-downs. Meeting again shortly \nafter their break-up, there was a moment of frosty awkwardness between \nthe two, followed by a long pause after which Nico came out with the \ncharmless \u201cI cannot make love to Jews any more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the end, the \nVelvets\u2019 relationship with Warhol is best summed up by Mary Woronov, \nartist and collaborator: \u201cThey were with Andy and Andy was with them and\n they backed him absolutely. They would have walked to the end of the \nearth for him\u201d. All of the Velvets spoke highly of Warhol ever after, \nCale perhaps most succinctly of all: \u201cHe was magic\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this point the Velvets had been ordered by\n police to stop rehearsing in their West 3rd Street apartment (above a \nfirehouse), and told to rehearse in the country if they were going to \nmake that kind of noise. Cale was experimenting with an electronic \n\u201cthunder machine\u201d at the time. The same cop had also accused them of \nthrowing human excreta out of their window. So they began to rehearse at\n the Factory every day, accompanying Warhol in the evenings to art \nopenings, cocktail parties, dinners and nightclubs, as part of his \npermanent 10\u201320-strong retinue. It\u2019s doubtful whether the drug-free \nTucker tagged along, and she must have been somewhat bemused by the \nFactory\u2019s denizens. (They in turn liked the fact that she looked boyish,\n which fitted right in with all the blurring of gender going on there.) \nLater on, Moe worked at the Factory briefly, transcribing tapes of \nOndine\u2019s rantings for Warhol\u2019s book A: A Novel<\/em>. However, she \nrefused to type any of the swear words, substituting asterisks instead. \nMeanwhile, Ondine had turned Lou Reed on to methedrine, which became \nbecame his main indulgences for years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\n poet and photographer in his own right, Gerard Malanga (b.1943) met \nAndy Warhol while still a student at Wagner College on Staten Island. He\n soon became Warhol\u2019s assistant in silk-screening (where he probably did\n most of the actual physical work, and originated at least some of the \nideas), also introducing him to New York\u2019s literary, theatrical and \nmovie crowds. Malanga also eventually assisted Warhol in his own \nmovie-making. His habit of carrying a leather bullwhip everywhere led to\n his \u201cwhipdance\u201d routine on stage with the Velvets during \u2018Venus in \nFurs\u2019 (Malanga had earlier been a dancer on DJ Alan Freed\u2019s Big Beat<\/em> TV show). He went on to found Interview<\/em> magazine with Warhol. in 1983, Malanga co-wrote (with Victor Bockris) Up-tight: The Velvet Underground Story<\/em>, the first book to appear on the Velvets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\n photographer and lighting designer who subsidized his artistic work \nwith hairdressing, Billy name (real name Billy linich) once decorated \nhis entire apartment with silver foil. Warhol liked the look so much \n(\u201cSilvermakes everything disappear\u201d) that he asked Linich to decorate \nhis new studio — the original Factory — in the same way. Billy also \nworked with Gerard Malanga as an assistant on Warhol\u2019s silk screens, \ndesigned the cover for White Light\/White Heat<\/em>, and claims to have\n been one of Reed\u2019s lovers. Also a musician, Linich was in LaMonte \nYoung\u2019s group for a year, leaving them just before the arrival of John \nCale. A genuinely eccentric character, Name was effectively the \nFactory\u2019s caretaker, living in one of its black-painted toilets (which \nhe used as a photographic darkroom) for years, studying astrological \ncharts and books on the occult given him by Reed; when the Factory moved\n home, Billy simply moved into the equivalent space in the new one. In \n1968, he sealed himself into this room, and was seldom seen at all \nbetween then and the time he finally left the Factory (in the middle of \nthe night) at some point in Spring 1970, leaving a note behind telling \nWarhol not to worry. Linich subsequently gave up amphetamines, moved \nback home to Poughkeepsie and pursued his own individualistic \nspirituality. Today, his photographs of the Factory era are much in \ndemand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\n Californian debutante from a rich but troubled Bostonian socialite \nbackground, Edith Minturn Sedgwick (b.1943) had spent her late teens in a\n mental institution (as had several of her brothers, two of whom \ncommitted suicide). In 1964, at the age of 21, she moved to New York and\n met Andy Warhol in early \u201865; for the following year, they were \nvirtually inseparable. She dyed her hair silver to match Warhol\u2019s wig \nand became a kind of mirror image of him, escorting him to society \nparties and appearing in a dozen of his movies. \u201cShe had more problems \nthan anybody I\u2019d ever met\u201d, Warhol later said. Perhaps that was the \nappeal of their relationship, which was certainly not sexual (Truman \nCapote thought that Andy wanted to be<\/em> Edie).<\/p>\n\n\n\n She became the face of young Manhattan; Vogue<\/em>\n magazine dubbed her a \u201cyouthquaker\u201d, and she seemed the archetypal poor\n little rich go-go girl. Reed wrote “Femme Fatale” about her (at \nWarhol\u2019s request) and, according to some, Bob Dylan\u2019s “Just Like A \nWoman” and “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat” are both about her. But though \nundeniably beautiful and pursued by innumerable suitors (including John \nCale), Edie was not so much a femme fatale<\/em> as a femme catastrophique<\/em>.\n She might have been a mainstay of Warhol\u2019s movies and danced on stage \nwith the Velvets during their first couple of gigs, but most of the time\n she was out of her head on a cocktail of drugs of every description, \nmany prescribed by the legendary \u201cspeed-doctor\u201d Dr Roberts (immortalized\n by the Beatles as \u201cDr Robert\u201d). She later blamed Warhol for her \ncondition. \u201cWarhol really fucked up a great many people\u2019s — young \npeople\u2019s — lives\u201d, she once complained. \u201cMy introduction to heavy drugs\n came through the Factory. I liked the introduction to drugs I received.\n I was a good target for the scene. I bloomed into a healthy young drug \naddict\u201d. \u201cEdie never grew up\u201d, Warhol responded, probably accurately. \nHowever, comments of his such as \u201ca girl always looks more beautiful and\n fragile when she\u2019s about to have a nervous breakdown\u201d don\u2019t show him in\n too sympathetic a light. When Edie left him in 1966, Warhol joked \nbleakly to playwright Robert Heide: \u201cWhen do you think Edie will commit \nsuicide? I hope she lets us know so we can film it\u201d. After Warhol, Edie \nattempted to carve a career as an actress (but didn\u2019t really have the \ntalent) and a model (but her reputation as an unreliable druggie \npreceded her), without much success. She died in 1971 of an overdose of \nbarbiturates, at the age of 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Underground\n filmmaker Morrissey (b.1938) had made his own movies ever since his \nteenage years. As well as managing Warhol\u2019s business affairs for many \nyears, from 1966 Morrissey worked closely on numerous movies with him, \neventually making several of his own movies under the Warhol banner. The\n best known of these are the trilogy of Flesh<\/em> (1968), Trash<\/em> (1970) and Heat<\/em>\n (1972), all of which starred hustler Joe Dallesandro. Morrissey parted \ncompany with Warhol in the mid-1970s, after two final exploitation \nfilms, Flesh For Frankenstein<\/em> (1973) and Blood For Dracula<\/em> (1974), made with Warhol\u2019s backing. he continued to make movies into the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Real\n name Bob Olivo (b.1939) he was also nicknamed \u201cthe Pope\u201d. Ondine was a \nmanic and charismatic actor and writer, the hub of the \namphetamine-driven \u201cMole People\u201d gay crowd at the Factory. he had \nnothing to do with the fashionable new York nightclub Ondine\u2019s — Olivo \nhad adopted the name of the lead character in Jean giraudoux\u2019s 1939 play\n Ondine<\/em>, which had been played on Broadway by the iconic Audrey Hepburn. He appeared in numerous Warhol movies, beginning with Batman Dracula<\/em> (1964), and Warhol\u2019s A: A Novel<\/em>\n was simply a transcription of tape-recordings of Ondine\u2019s speed-fuelled\n rantings over a 24-hour period. he toured the college lecture circuit \nduring the 1970s, talking about Warhol and screening his performances in\n Warhol\u2019s S&M movie Vinyl<\/em> (1965) and Chelsea Girls<\/em> \n(1966). In the 1980s, he appeared in numerous off off-Broadway plays, \nuntil ill health forced him to retire. After Ondine\u2019s death from liver \nfailure in April 1989, his mother burnt all his writings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brigid\n Berlin (b.1939) and her sister Richie, who also hung out at the \nFactory, were heirs to the Hearst publishing empire. Brigid created \nmontage \u201ctrip books\u201d — scrapbooks of anything that took her fancy, the \nmost extraordinary containing the impressions of the scars, genitalia, \nbreasts or navels of anyone willing to contribute. She appeared in Chelsea Girls<\/em> (1966), and also with Edie Sedgwick in the film based on the Factory crowd Ciao! Manhattan<\/em>\n (1972). She tape-recorded pretty much everything she encountered, from \nphone calls to orgies. This led to her taping Lou Reed\u2019s last concert \nwith The Velvet Underground in 1970 — eventually released commercially \nas Live At Max\u2019s Kansas City<\/em> in 1972. Her \u201cPolk\u201d nickname evolved\n from Factory slang — \u201ctaking a poke\u201d meant shooting up with a needle. \nBerlin gave up amphetamines and alcohol in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary\n Woronov (b.1943) was an art student at Cornell University when she met \nAndy Warhol and became involved with the Factory. She was one of the \nprincipal dancers with The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, accompanying \nGerard Malanga\u2019s whipdance to \u2018Venus In Furs\u2019. Having appeared in \nWarhol\u2019s movies Hedy The Shoplifter<\/em> and Chelsea Girls<\/em>, Woronov moved to Los Angeles and acted in a zillion B-movies, of which the most notable is probably Roger Corman\u2019s Death Race 2000<\/em> (1975). She revealed herself as a talented comedy actress in Rock And Roll High School<\/em> (1979), and Paul Bartel\u2019s black comedies Eating Raoul<\/em> (1982) and Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverley Hills<\/em>\n (1989), as well as making cameos in mainstream Hollywood movies. Liver \ndamage caused her to give up all drugs and alcohol in the 1980s. She has\n been a writer-director for the TV show The Women\u2019s Series<\/em> and is the author of four volumes of fiction: Snake<\/em>, Niagara<\/em>, Blind Love<\/em> and Wake For Angels<\/em>, which also contains some of her paintings, and Swimming Underground<\/em> (a memoir of her time with the Factory).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpted\n from The Rough Guide to the Velvet Underground, publishing 1 September \n2007 by Rough Guides, a division of Penguin Group International. \nCopyright 2007 by Rough Guides. All rights reserved.<\/em>velvet underground<\/a>rough guides<\/a>nico<\/a>andy warhol<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925669\/980x.jpg\")
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Factory people<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925624\/980x.jpg\")
Gerard Malanga<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925628\/980x.jpg\")
Billy Name<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925632\/980x.jpg\")
Edie Sedgwick<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925635\/980x.jpg\")
Paul Morrissey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925637\/980x.jpg\")
Ondine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925641\/980x.jpg\")
Brigid Polk (Berlin)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.rbl.ms\/11925644\/980x.jpg\")
Mary Woronov<\/h2>\n\n\n\n