The South Bank Show: Velvet Underground

Lewis Allan Reed was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was the guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the rock band the Velvet Underground, with a solo career that spanned five decades.

John Davies Cale, OBE, is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer. At an early age Cale discovered a talent for the viola, and became a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Wales at the age of 13. He was later awarded a scholarship at Goldsmiths College, London, England. In 1963, he travelled to the United States to continue his musical training with the assistance and influence of Aaron Copland. He was a founding member of the American rock band The Velvet Underground. Over his five-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde and electronic music.

Christa Päffgen (16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988), known by her stage name Nico, was a German singer, songwriter, actress and model. She had roles in several films, including Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) and Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966). Reviewer Richard Goldstein describes Nico as "half goddess, half icicle" and writes that her distinctive voice "sounds something like a cello getting up in the morning". Description above from the Wikipedia article Nico, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Holmes Sterling Morrison, Jr. was an American guitarist, best known as one of the founding members of the rock group the Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.

Maureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is an American musician and singer best known for having been the drummer for the New York City-based rock band the Velvet Underground.

Gerard Malanga is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, curator, and archivist, best known for his collaborations with Andy Warhol. Malanga worked closely with Warhol from 1963 to 1970, during which time he was involved in all phases of Warhol’s creative output in silkscreen painting and filmmaking.

Born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing, and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics. Warhol died on February 22, 1987, in New York City.