It's a cold January evening in Paris 1972. Outside Le Bataclan an estimated 2,000 disconsolate rock fans are milling around in front of the ornate Chinese-style theatre on the Boulevard Voltaire. They are ticket-less and unable to gain access to a concert which would later be considered the venue's most famous. For the first time since the demise of the original Velvet Underground, co-conspirators Lou Reed and John Cale with 'chanteuse' Nico were to perform a one-off acoustic set at Le Bataclan for the benefit of French TV show Pop 2/INA and one thousand grateful fans.
In 1972, Velvet Underground alumni Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico reunited before the cameras of the POP2 TV program at Le Bataclan, a well-known and very intimate Paris venue. It was Cale's gig originally and he invited Reed and Nico to join him. Reed, who hated rehearsing, spent two days with Cale working out what they were going to do. According to Victor Bockris' Lou Reed biography Transformer, rock critic Richard Robinson videotaped these rehearsals, which took place in London.
The Velvet Underground had been defunct for two years, but this quiet, circumspect gathering at Le Bataclan of its key elemental forces and voices looks and sounds like a reunion of much older and wiser figures. They play acoustic guitars, piano, violin and accordion; they look intently at each other in a brightly lit concert hall; there is little distortion or feedback.