NTSC / region 2,3,4,5

John Cale has recorded critically acclaimed rock albums, film scores, symphonies, chamber music and an operetta. He says, "I want to sell records. I don't want eulogies, I'll leave them for my gravestone". Yet, paradoxically, his chosen milieu has always been outside the mainstream. He remains an uncompromisingly individual figure, never allowing his status as 'legend' to encumber his work in any way. This film is an appraisal of one of music's most important characters. It asks whether the sheer scope of Cale's talents and his determination to follow his muse wherever it may lead him might be one reason why, after 30 years, the music industry still isn't sure what to make of him.

This film covers all aspects of Cale's career, providing for the first time an authoritative overview of his amazing journey. It is a story of almost epic proportions. His journey began in improbable fashion, a child prodigy from a tiny Welsh village performing improvised compositions for the BBC at the age of eight. Cale's prodigious talents took him to Goldsmith's College, where he met Aaron Copland and won a Leonard Bernstein scholarship to Tanglewood. He became a leading light in the New York avant-garde movement and, in one of the chance meetings destined to pass into musical folklore, he met Lou Reed and went on to form the definitive anti-establishment rock band, The Velvet Underground.

The Velvet Underground broke down many of rock music's boundaries and taboos and, a quarter of a century after their break-up, their importance continues to grow. Much of the group's ground-breaking reputation was founded on Cale's contribution: his profound musicality and avant-garde sensibility gave the group its cutting edge.

Cale holds a uniquely respected position. His musical credibility has remained undiminished and virtually every influential artist of the last 30 years will say that they, in turn, have been influenced by Cale. He has been a key player in some of the seminal moments in rock music history, yet his own story has never been told until now.

Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.