John Cale, the imported scene’s concert highlight
Judging by the imported concert activity that has either already passed through or been announced for the winter, it looks like a forthcoming visit by John Cale, the esteemed musician who emerged with the Velvet Underground in the mid-1960s, will go down as the winter season highlight. Cale, who will perform at Thessaloniki’s Mylos Club on January 20 and at the capital’s Gagarin Club the following night, will be accompanied by a band. Bob Mould, formerly of the popular American indie rock band Husker Du in the ’80s, will open as a solo act. Cale, a hard-to-define Welsh musician with rock leanings and schooling in classical and avant-garde music, has rendered anything from pop-oriented work to demanding material. He has visited Greece for performances three times in the past, two of these more recently. Cale, 63, was a child prodigy, performing an original composition on the BBC before reaching his teens. He was granted a scholarship to study in the USA and, soon after his arrival, joined LaMonte Young’s minimalist ensemble the Dream Syndicate, whose use of drones influenced Cale’s next group, the Velvet Underground. He spent three years with the band for its first two albums before leaving under ambiguous circumstances. Countless solo albums, as well as soundtracks and production work, have since followed, including «Black Acetate,» Cale’s latest album.
