Billy Yule played a brief role in
the Velvet Underground story, filling in as drummer for a few months when Maureen Tucker was pregnant in 1970.
Yule got the gig because he was younger brother of bassist
Doug Yule (who had only been in the band since late 1968, when he replaced
John Cale). As it turned out, however,
Yule only drummed on a few of the tracks of the final studio album to be recorded with
Lou Reed as leader,
Loaded; they were otherwise handled by session man Tommy Castanaro, producer/engineer
Adrian Barber, and
Doug Yule. In fact, it's not entirely certain who played drums on what track, although it seems fairly certain that
Billy Yule wasn't involved on all of them.
Yule, however, is the drummer on
Live at Max's Kansas City, recorded on August 23, 1970,
Reed's final night with the band.
Maureen Tucker came back into the band in late 1970. For a while,
Billy Yule was in a band called
the Rockets (not be confused with
the Rockets who recorded an album in the late 1960s and evolved into
Crazy Horse), which was managed by
Velvet Underground manager Steve Sesnick. ~ Richie Unterberger