The concert of John Cale on June 19 is coming - the basis of the programme is already known
Press Release from June 15, 2001
The Czech audience will have the rare opportunity to welcome the legend of world rock music. John Cale will perform only with piano and guitar. What the audience can look forward to are new compositions that have never been heard before in the Czech Republic, such as "Sold Motel", "Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead" or "Over Her Head". The concert would not be complete without his classics "Leaving It Up To You", "Hallelujah", "Ship Of Fools", "Dying On the Vine" or "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley in Cale´s extraordinary arrangement. So, the evening will be the subject to a moment of suprise.
John Cale was born in 1942 in the town of Garnant, Wales. As a wonder child, he played the viola, at the age of eight he composed and also played the organ in the local church. For him, this was preparation for his further studies in London. Here, he received a scholarship to the American university, Berkshire School of Music, where he met Terry Riley, Iannis Xenakis, La Monte Young and John Cage. Cage influenced Cale's absolvent composition for the piano and table, when he destroyed the instruments with an axe in the middle of the composition.
He entered into the history of music as the bass guitar player of The Velvet Underground, which he founded together with Lou Reed in 1965. Later, he showed his excellent skills as a producer on many albums (Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Nico etc.)
Since the 70´s, Cale has been publishing solo albums of which each is suprising in it's own special way, each having a different style. He recorded with Terry Riley the minimalistic Church of Anthrax. We can find his courtship with classical music on the albums Paris 1919 (1973) or Words for the Dying (1989), which he recorded with Leningrad Symphonic Orchestra in a production of Brian Eno. The hard rock style of Cale´s music is best represented in the album Fear (1974) or live in Cale Comes Alive (1984). As a composer, he has participated in the album Songs For Drella (1990) with his rival Lou Reed - album dedicated to Andy Warhol. With Brian Eno, he examined pop-music on the album Wrong Way Up (1990).
John Cale is the Godfather of the Archa Theatre. In June 1994, he created a very unique opening ceremony with Japanese buto dancer Min Tanaka. John Cale performed most recently in the Czech Republic at the Archa Theatre in 1998.