Timeline: 2003
Paris soundtrack
Writes an an electronic score for Paris, a film by Iranian director Ramin Niami, who also directed Somewhere In The City in 1998, to which soundtrack Cale contributed six tracks.
One track - Wilderness Approaching - is released on the 5 Tracks EP. Another track was included on a various artists promo album.
Angus MacLise – The Cloud Doctrine
Four experimental recordings featuring Cale can be found on the Angus MacLise 2CD The Cloud Doctrine: Trance #1, Trance #2, Two Speed Trance, and Four Speed Trance. The tracks were recorded by Tony Conrad in New York in 1965. Cale plays guitar, viola and keyboards.
Letter From Abroad on High Fidelity
Letter From Abroad is on the High Fidelity Reference CD No. 77, that comes with the Danish/Swedish magazine High Fidelity.
Back to Goldsmiths'
Cale revisits his old school Goldsmiths' in London, where he was studied musicology from 1960 to 1963:
"I did go down to Goldsmiths and I thought my God nothing has changed. I mean the traffic is still shit. The way the whole convergence outside the building and everything else. The women’s dorm is gone which is a crying shame... I used to run upstairs up to the art department all the time. It was a lot of fun. They were all wearing mini skirts and you know, all the action was upstairs in the art department. I mean you’re around all these different kind of influences."
5 Tracks EP
In May the long wait for new John Cale songs is finally over with the release of the 5 Tracks EP, his first new studio release since the Walking On Locusts album in 1996.
One of the tracks, Verses, has a barely recognizable vocal track by his daughter Eden.
On "Later With Jools Holland"
Performs Venus In Furs on the May 13 broadcast of Later With Jools Holland.
Sedition and Alchemy - A Biography of John Cale
Sedition and Alchemy - A Biography of John Cale by English writer Tim Mitchell is published by Peter Owen Publishers on August 1.
A limited hardcover edition (500 copies) includes a free CD signed by John Cale. It contains an exclusive, previously unheard and commercially otherwise unavailable song entitled Imitating Violin.
Dave Couse covers "Close Watch"
Irish musician Dave Couse covers (I Keep A) Close Watch on his Genes album. Also released as the B-side for his Familiar Feeling promo single.
Cale Vs The Bees Vs Doctor Rockit
EMI releases a white label remix 12" to get some traction on the 5 Tracks EP.
A special 12" single with four remixes of tracks:
A1 E Is Missing (The Bees Is Missing Mix)
A2 E Is Missing (The Bees Is Missing Instrumental)
B1 Chums Of Dumpty (Doctor Rockit's Blood Vocal)
B2 Chums Of Dumpty (Doctor Rockit's Blood Dub)
Fragments of a Rainy Season DVD
The live video of Fragments of a Rainy Season is re-released on DVD by two different companies for the Japanese, and European and North American market.
Includes a poorly designed biography with lots of mistakes.
Dal: Yma/Nawr (Still: Here/Now)
Cale plays piano and sings the traditional Welsh folks song Ar Lan y Môr (Beside the Sea) in the Marc Evans movie Dal: Yma/Nawr (Still: Here/Now).
Evans also directed House of America, scored by Cale in 1997, and Beautiful Mistake in 2000.
HoboSapiens
A new "rock" album HoboSapiens is released in September. Among the tracks are Things (To Do in Denver When You're Dead) and Over Her Head, which were performed live on a regular basis in 2001.
The Japanese edition has three bonus tracks: Where The Creepyboyz Sing, Reading My Mind (Paisley Sound Remix), later included on the Perfect single), and a live version of Set Me Free (which is a hidden bonus track in Europe and the UK). The album finally gets an USA release in 2004.
Things single
Things is released as a single in Europe and the US, with a reworked version Things X - with Brian Foreman (bass), Marco Giovino (percussion) and Nick Franglen (voice, megaphone, monster toys) as an extra track. A promo with different artwork is send out to the press.
Shelved "JC-03" promo DVD
EMI shelved a 31 minutes promo DVD for the album, directed by Grant Gee and edited by Jerry Chater. It is called JC-03 and contains footage of Cale recording tracks from the album and Imitating Violin, which is released on an autographed multimedia CD that comes with the hardcover limited edition of the Sedition and Alchemy biography.
At an in-store at Borders in Oxford on May 5 with biographer Tim Mitchell to promote the book he answers questions and plays a couple of songs. Footage of the in-store is interspersed with Cale reading the review). He also reads his Paranormal Bedtime Story (unpublished), accompanied by a drone. Coaches his band during tour rehearsals. The band is caught live at the Glastonbury Festival, playing Lament and Venus In Furs.
Bicycle 12" with Look Horizon remix
EMI puts out a 12" single of Bicycle (same version as on HoboSapiens) and the B-side is the Zongamin remix of Look Horizon, which also got additional production by Smukai @ House Of Zongamin For Burning Bridges Productions.
Bataclan 1972
An official CD release of the legendary January 29, 1972 performance at the Bataclan in Paris with Lou Reed and Nico is released on October 20th. The shows has been bootlegged in abundance, but this official release does not contain the best sound. On the upside: the otherwise unavailable songs The Biggest, Loudest, Hairiest Group of All and Empty Bottles are now finally released officially.
Also exists as a limited numbered edition and a 180 grams 2LP.
"E Is Missing" & "Venus in Furs" at "Later with Jools Holland"
Plays E Is Missing and Venus In Furs on the October 31 broadcast of the long running Later With Jools Holland TV show.
John Cale "In Session" on BBC4
A free concert at St. Luke's in London on October 26 is taped by BBC4. First broadcasted on December 9, 2003. Rebroadcasted quite a few times.
Cale on Jools Holland DVD
Cale's live performance of I Wanna Be Around is included the Hootenanny DVD by Jools Holland. This was broadcasted by the BBC on December 31, 2002.
The studio version can be found on the Jools Holland album Small World Big Band released in 2001.