MovieChat Forums > I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) Discussion > factory party scene

factory party scene

posted 19 years ago by psycho_devochka
12 replies | jump to latest

what band is that suposed to be? the drummer would sugest the velvet underground(moe tucker, female, style of playing), but the front man cannot be lou reed (look, manerisms, no guitar, ect)

anyone know?

[–] chiefbucknell 19 years ago

i wondered about that, too, but then i saw ira kaplan in sunglasses, playing a guitar, and i figured he was supposed to be lou reed. i read somewhere that for the song "venus in furs," the velvets had someone act out the sado-masochistic lyrics with a whip. i suppose the whip-guy was not meant to be lou reed. it did seem there was a lead singer-type without a guitar, but... was that the "whip guy" or someone else? anyway, yes, georgia does a good job as moe tucker on the drums.

[–] bhoover247 19 years ago

I think I read somewhere that Lou Reed wouldn't give permission for any Velvet Underground songs to be played in this film. Something about he didn't want to glorify the person who shot Andy. The band is supposed to be the Velvet Underground, but they couldn't play a VU song. I guess the director wasn't that worried about having a Lou Reed looking person as the front man.

[–] contrastxcompare 19 years ago

I'm pretty sure that the band who plays the velvet underground on this film is "yo la tengo" a band from NJ.

[–] rkemp78 19 years ago

The band is Yo La Tengo. Lou Read refused to allow any VU music to be used for the film because of what Valerine did to his friend, Andy Warhol. John Cale on the other hand was said to have enjoyed the film.

[–] daniel_luke 19 years ago

The Velvet Underground formed part of two shows created by Andy Warhol: Andy Warhol, Uptight and The Plastic Exploding Inevitable. These shows included lights, Warhol films playing on the band, Nico singing, and Gerard Malanga (played here by Donovan) dancing to the music with his whip (something he did the first time he encountered the band).
What we see is a recreation of this, not necessarily an exact copy, but a example of the kind of atmosphere one would find at the Factory.

[–] avidagreedy 17 years ago

That factory looked like such a huge and fun place to party.
I wonder how much rent in that place would be now in NYC?
Also, I wonder who lives there now--if anyone.

[–] FreewheelinVertigo 13 years ago

Answering to an ancient post!

The Factory has been demolished and CBGB is a trendy designer store. So much for past ideals, New York.

The band's drummer who looks like Moe Tucker has her cymbals. Moe never used those things.

[–] katiethelalady 17 years ago

I believe that it was Jim Morrison because it sounded like him and the guy looked like him. Yep, I think it was the Doors.

[–] chickendave 17 years ago

The guy dancing with the whip was definitely Gerard Melanga and not a member of the VU. The guy who played Lou Reed had the right guitar but not the right appearance.His hair was way too long and curly and Reed had more of a Beatle style cut.Also,the female drummer had the right look,manerisms and drumsticks but she was far too pretty to play Maureen Tucker.

[–] randycoates 16 years ago

Go Velvet Underground!

[–] paultagonist 16 years ago

I thought the singer was meant to be Jim Morrison, with the hair, leather pants, half-butonned shirt and beads around his neck.

The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery. -Fred Alan Wolf

[–] e-hutch 15 years ago

Look, this isn't that hard:

Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo was the short-haired Lou Reed type with shades and a striped t-shirt under a leather jacket. What may be confusing is that the longer-haired guitarist was actually a bit more visible in the editing. That would have been the Sterling Morrison figure, played by Tara Key from the band Antietam.

The guy with the whip wasn't a member of the band; that would have been Gerard Malanga (though I don't think the whip dancer in the film was played by the same actor who played Malanga--I guess this is a little confusing after all), who used to do a "whip dance" with Mary Woronov during the Velvets' set. Only thing is, I think they condensed the duet to a single male dancer--I don't remember seeing his female partner, and I think Woronov was the whip-wielder anyway. They must have had a good reason--you'd think an s&m performance featuring a female dominatrix would have been a good image to have in this film. You could have a reaction shot of Solanas focusing on it--another little tantalizing bit of a reason to think maybe Andy would end up being on her side after all.

Here's a youtube video where you can get some idea of the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT6lL7DGb2Q