Circus Live is a 3-disc live album by John Cale

John Cale

John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....

 released on February 19, 2007. The contents were recorded live on the 2004 and 2006 European tours. One of the discs is a DVD containing rehearsal footage, a music video, and a two audio tracks.

One performance included, September 12, 2004, at the Paradiso

Paradiso (Amsterdam)

Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...

 in Amsterdam, was broadcast on air and online. Video of the entire concert is still available at the venue's live performance archive, Fabchannel.com. Video seems to no be longer be available on Fabchannel.com as indicated.

EMI press release

The ringmaster of the avant-garde, Mr John Cale, releases a double CD set Circus Live on February 5. Featuring artwork by long-time friend Dave McKean, the album is virtually a chronology of Cale's musical career; its inception began on 2005's blackAcetate: album when Cale backed by his new band (Dustin Boyer – guitar, Joseph Karnes – bass and Michael Jerome – drums), really hit pay-dirt on the subsequent tour.

Cale felt like he'd finally found the personnel to interpret his songs with new twists, new dimensions and new emotions. None more so evident than the track "Gun", originally appearing on 1974’s Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 & Phil Manzanera

Phil Manzanera

Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...

 produced Fear but now sounding akin to a heavy arsenal of crunching weaponry, a full sonic catastrophic force to behold. Inspired, Cale recorded the dates and the band began to tear up a 40-year musical history book, challenging and breathing new life into Cale's work. In full, confident stride they take in everything from "Femme Fatale", the Warhol tribute "Style It Takes", a capricious "Pablo Picasso", the sweet groove of "Hanky Panky Nohow" from Paris 1919, "Look Horizon" and "Zen" from 2003's Hobosapiens, the Neptunes-inspired funk of "Outta The Bag" and "Hush" from black:Acetate, an impassioned take of Presley’s "Heartbreak Hotel" and the viola-swathed VU masterpiece "Venus In Furs".

The album begins with a drone and ends with a drone. They signal the very start of Cale’s music career (as recorded in 1965 with LaMonte Young’s experiment the Dream Syndicate) and the closing point of this particular chapter. For the New Year finds John Cale twisting and bending his new brand of drone even further. Firstly with Juan Alderete of the Mars Volta on a forthcoming single "Jumbo in tha Modernworld", and then in the producer’s chair for adroit New York art-rockers Ambulance Ltd and their second album.

Track listing

All tracks by John Cale; except where indicated

CD1:

1. "Venus in Furs
   Venus in Furs
   Venus in Furs is a novella by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the best known of his works. The novel was part of an epic series that Sacher-Masoch envisioned called Legacy of Cain. Venus in Furs was part of Love, the first volume of the series...
   
   " (Lou Reed
   Lou Reed
   Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
   
   )
2. "Save Us"
3. "Helen of Troy"
4. "Woman"
5. "Buffalo Ballet"
6. "Femme Fatale
   Femme Fatale (song)
   "Femme Fatale" is a song by The Velvet Underground from their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. At producer Andy Warhol's request, band frontman Lou Reed wrote the song about Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick...
   
   (Lou Reed)/Rosegarden Funeral of Sores"
7. "Hush"
8. "OuttaTheBag"
9. "Set Me Free"
10. "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"
11. "Look Horizon"
12. "Magritte"
13. "Dirty Ass Rock and Roll"

CD2:

1. "Walking the Dog
   Walking the Dog
   "Walking the Dog" is a Rufus Thomas song. It was released on his 1963 album Walking the Dog. It was his signature hit and also his biggest, reaching number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1963 and remaining on the Hot 100 for 14 weeks...
   
   " (Rufus Thomas, Jr.
   Rufus Thomas
   Rufus Thomas, Jr. was an American rhythm and blues, funk and soul singer and comedian fromMemphis, Tennessee, who recorded on Sun Records in the...
   
   )
2. "Gun"
3. "Hanky Panky Nohow"
4. "Pablo Picasso
   Pablo Picasso (song)
   "Pablo Picasso" is a song written by Jonathan Richman for the proto punk group The Modern Lovers. The song was recorded in 1972 at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, and produced by John Cale, but was not released until 1976, on the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album...
   
    (Jonathan Richman
   Jonathan Richman
   Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...
   
   )/Mary Lou"
5. "Drone - Into Amsterdam Suite"
6. "Zen"
7. "Style It Takes" (Lou Reed, John Cale)
8. "Heartbreak Hotel
   Heartbreak Hotel
   "Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American rock and roll musician Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboards Top 100 chart, became his first...
   
   " (Mae Boren Axton
   Mae Boren Axton
   Mae Boren Axton was known in the music industry as the 'Queen Mother of Nashville'...
   
   , Tommy Durden, Elvis Presley
   Elvis Presley
   Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
   
   )
9. "Mercenaries (Ready for War)"
10. "Outro Drone"

Personnel

• John Cale: lead vocal, electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, electric viola
• Dustin Boyer: lead guitar, toys, backing vocals
• Joseph Karnes: bass, Nord 3, samples, backing vocals
• Michael Jerome: drums, samples, backing vocals