Velvet Underground Surfaces in Europe

Nearly 25 years after it disbanded in virtual obscurity, the Velvet Underground has returned to confront the myth that has grown around it.

They are the dead painters of rock: never acknowledged during the group’s lifetime, now recognized as one of the most important and influential bands of all time.

But unlike Van Gogh, the original Velvets--Lou Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker--have been able to witness their transformation from footnotes to legends. And now, after more than two decades apart, they have taken to the stage again, facing immense expectations.

Spurred by their impromptu, one-song performance at an Andy Warhol retrospective outside Paris in 1990, the band has reunited for a monthlong European tour that has brought them the attention, accolades and ticket sales that bypassed them the first time around.

“We thought it would be fun,” says Reed, the guitarist and composer whose dark songs about drug addiction, deviant sex and bleak urban life played counterpoint to the flower-power sounds of the 1960s.

Such Reed songs as “Heroin,” “Sweet Jane,” and “Rock and Roll,” are considered classics, having been made all the more popular by their inclusion in his solo performances.

Why did they choose this time to re-form?

“Why not?” asks Reed, sitting with Tucker in the bar of their London hotel. “It’s just the way things worked out.” He breaks into song: “When I’m in control of my destiny, please let me know.”

Though the band is certain to reap financial rewards from the hugely popular tour and its effect on sales of their record catalogue, they have bristled at suggestions that they’re doing it for the money.

“If I thought we weren’t going to uphold our reputation I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars,” says Tucker, the band’s drummer and the mother of five children. “Because that’s more important to me. We’re doing this because we want to have fun.”

They decided to tour Europe, rather than the U.S., because, says Tucker: “We’ve always done better over here. There was just more interest.”

Cale, who plays viola, keyboards and bass, still sounds bitter about how the band was treated in America. “Everybody hated us,” he says, during a separate interview. “They thought we were going to give everybody drugs.

“The Europeans, because they’re dealing with a foreign language, they pay closer attention. They have a better understanding of what we’re doing.”

There are no plans for a U.S. tour, the band members say, although they haven’t categorically ruled it out.

“It came to this,” Cale said. “What do I remember about the meaningful places to play in the U.S.? Boston was a breakout area. There’s Cleveland. They hated us in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The South is a dead issue. Philadelphia, maybe. New York, maybe.”

The band’s tepid feelings about playing New York come as a surprise, considering they were so closely linked to the city and its underground art scene in the ‘60s. The Velvets received their initial boost under the guidance of Warhol, who made them the musical component of his multimedia show the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.

For now, though, their focus is on a mix of small and large venues in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and elsewhere on the Continent. They will record a live album in Paris during a three-night stint there.

And since announcing their tour, they have added four stadium concerts--opening for U2, who have acknowledged the influence the Velvets had on them.

“I’m glad we’re able to help them,” Reed jokes. “They were in trouble, and we’re just trying to do our little bit for them. They’re good boys.”

Playing a sold-out show Saturday night at the 1,800-seat Forum in London (they also sold out the 13,000-seat Wembley Arena), the band kept the adoring--and youngish--crowd captivated with a heavy dose of their best-known numbers.

The bouncy rocking of the opening song, “We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together,” quickly dissolved into the funereal rhythm of “Venus in Furs,” Reed’s ode to sadomasochism (“Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather”).

Included in the set were “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “I’ll Be Your Mirror,” “Waiting for the Man,” “Rock and Roll” and “Heroin.” The crowd joined in the singing for “Sweet Jane” and “I’m Sticking With You,” one of two songs sung by Tucker. The band concluded the concert with a new song called “Coyotes.”

In all, the band played 21 songs in more than two hours onstage, and proved they could still sound raw and energetic, despite the passage of time and the acquisition of expensive equipment.