Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga Page B

weekend with The Young Rascals,’ starring Felix Cavalieri of Syracuse managed by Sid Bernstein who promoted The Beatles in the US.”
    MORRISON: “Murray Kaufman (‘Murray The K’) was involved in this thing too – if not initially, then certainly atthe end. The place was full of gangsters; one night we all went out there to look at the place and a limo full of them spilled out to challenge our right to enter. I’d seen enough already, and perhaps they had too. Inside, for an awkward moment, Lou and I ran into Felix Cavalieri, who must have known what mischief was afoot, but said nothing. The Rascals were a better band to open the place anyway, especially since it was closed down on opening night for liquor violations and never re-opened. Eventually the club, which had finally been called
Murray The K’s World
, burnt down under the usual mysterious circumstances. Still, the price offered us to play there and hang out was $40,000 for the first four weekends. That would have been good pay for one night if we had collected it in advance. I don’t know whether The Rascals got any money out of it.”
    MORRISSEY: “I remember going down to the Cafe Figaro in the Village where Gerard had taken Andy to see Allen Ginsberg, who was about to go to Europe. I said, ‘Andy, they’re not going to sign the agreement, we don’t have a club for The Velvets.’ Andy had already invested this money in their equipment. I think we even got a management contract out of them.”
    MALANGA: “What were the stipulations?”
    MORRISSEY: “For presenting them and financing their equipment and supporting them and making them famous we got 25 per cent of their earnings.”
    MORRISON: “Our agreement with Warvel, Inc., which we set up with Andy, called for our sharing in his many sources of revenue. After the initial purchase of a Vox Super Beatle and a Vox Westminster bass amp, we soon were able to make an endorsement deal with Vox and got all of their stuff free (even guitars). I’m playing a Vox Phantom in the movie that Andy made of us. We were the first American band on endorsement to Vox, and in England they only had The Beatles, Stones, and Hollies. I always liked Vox. Later we endorsed Acoustic, and finally Sunn (very goodequipment). Paul, in other words, is not talking about major expenditures.”
    MORRISSEY: “The idea was that they could’ve become very famous from being presented in this night club. Now, suddenly, my plans for presenting them fell through. But, as I was telling Andy this at the Figaro, sitting at the table behind me was Jackie Cassen and Rudi Stern and they heard me talking. They said, ‘You’re looking for a dance hall to present a rock’n’roll group? We present dance concerts with light shows and we know a wonderful place.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding, where?’ They said, ‘On St. Mark’s Place.’ I said, ‘You’re kidding, I know that street. I never knew there was a place there.’ I went over with them and I saw the Dom and I came back and arranged a rental deal through Sy Litvinoff on Wednesday. It was only signed on Friday and that afternoon The Velvets and Faison moved their equipment in. They never saw the place before. We couldn’t go in until the lease was signed. It was very hard getting the lease signed. Andy paid the money for the lease for the month of April. We moved in on Friday. Gerard was up on the back painting the wall white. I had to put the ad in the
Village Voice
the previous Monday. It was put in on the deadline. It was some sort of miracle that with in that short space Andy Warhol presenting THE EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE was created. The term ‘Exploding Plastic Inevitable’ came from sitting around with Gerard and Barbara Rubin thinking of a name. I picked up a record album with Barbara on the back massaging Bob Dylan’s head(‘Bringing It All Back Home’). There were some amphetamine Bob Dylan gibberish liner notes. I looked without reading and saw these words