Bureau Of Lost Culture: NICO (11/04/2021)
She was a singer, songwriter, musician, muse, model, actress and artist. She had roles in several films, including La Dolce Vita and Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls, fronted The Velvet Underground, made many albums solo and toured for over two decades. She inspired many other artists including Bjork, Iggy Pop and Morrissey. Yet NICO’s life has often been reduced to a series of myths about junkiedom, decay, difficult behaviour and wasted talent.
Rock ’n’ Roll historian Jennifer Otter Bickerdike comes to the Bureau to set matters straight and talk about her upcoming book ‘You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone: The Biography of Nico’ (Faber). We dig into why female musicians, junkies and artists in the counterculture have been treated differently, even mythologised differently, than their male counterparts; why Iggy Pop is so cool and why Nico still matters.
