John Cale setlists 2017

New York 2017-04-17

Keynote at the Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, USA - April 17, 2017.

Invited by board member James Murphy he delivered a speech for a benefit for Art Space The Kitchen. All attendes are presented with a toe bag printed with a Fear s a man’s best friend. He discussed language:

"Language was both a problem and an inspiration for me. I grew up with my mother speaking Welsh, and the rest of my family speaking Welsh. I was seven years old when I learned English at school, and could speak to my father and have a conversation."

And improvisation:

"The BBC would come by and see what’s going on with the student body. I’d written a toccata in the style of Khachaturian, and they said, ‘Oh really? Let’s see it.’ And they went away and came back about three weeks later and said, ‘Let’s record.’ And I said, ‘O.K., give me the music back.’ And they said, ‘Whoops, we’ve forgotten it.’ So immediately I had to get on with it and play the piece, and improvise the end of the piece. And that was where the danger was."

The other keynote speaker was conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner.