John Cale

John Cale was born in 1942 in Garnant, West Glamorgan, Wales. Cale was a student of viola and keyboards at London's Goldsmith's college when introduced to electronic music. He later moved to New York where he joined the Dream Syndicate, an avant garde ensemble founded by LaMonte Young.

During this period, Cale began playing rock and met Lou Reed, with whom he formed a group that later evolved into the Velvet Underground. Cale remained with this highly influential act until 1968, when he was dismissed.

He produced a record for Nico, and worked with The Stooges, before embarking on a solo career with Vintage Violence. Church Of Anthrax, a pairing with Terry Riley and The Academy In Peril, later reaffirmed his experimental reputation. While working for the Warner Brothers Records label in studio production and A&R, he assembled a backing band that included the services of Little Feat members Lowell George and Richard Hayward and recorded Paris 1919.

Cale's production on Patti Smith's Horses (1975) led to an interest from a punk rock audience. Songs For Drella, a 1990 collaboration with Lou Reed that paid tribute to their recently deceased former mentor, Andy Warhol, was rightly lauded by critics and audiences alike.

After a brief Velvet Underground reunion in 1993, Cale has continued to create highly respected solo albums, soundtrack compositions, with credits including scores for I Shot Andy Warhol (1995) and Basquiat (1996).