The Velvet Underground played their last gig with Lou Reed on August 23, 1970 at their old haunt, Max’s Kansas City in New York City.
Despite how popular the Velvets may be today or how many bands they’ve influenced decades after Andy Warhol produced their first album, during their run they were relegated to clubs culminating in a nine-week residency at Max’s from June 24th thru August 28, 1970.
As Brian Eno famously said, “I was talking to Lou Reed the other day, and he said that the first Velvet Underground record sold only 30,000 copies in its first five years. Yet, that was an enormously important record for so many people. I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”
Being the singer and songwriter of the Velvet Underground was so financially unrewarding that once Reed left the band, he took a job with his father’s tax firm as a typist where he pulled down $40 a week.
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