I recently finished watching a documentary on the group the  Velvet Underground and not for the first time, I was spellbound by the amazing look and ‘interesting’ sound of Nico, who was part of the whole Warhol factory circus at the time. She has frequently reminded me of David Bowie in some way, the pair of them appearing otherworldly.

She was born Christa Paffgen in Cologne in October 1938. Her Father, Wilhelm was part of the Paffgen Kolsch brewing family. Mother was Margarete better known as ‘Grete.’ Aged two, Grete and her father took Christa to a forest near Spreeland, outside Berlin, in an attempt to escape the nightly bombing of Cologne during the second World War. Wilhelm disappears from the story here. Conflicting reports tell of him being shot on duty in the war, dying in a concentration camp, or dying at the hands of superior officer, after he was badly wounded, to him, sustaining head injuries that caused severe brain damage and saw him end his days  in a psychiatric establishment.

In 1946, Crista and Grete moved to central Berlin. She left school at 13, to work in a department store. By then she was already very striking looking, with a very pale skin over a very fine bone structure and standing at 5ft 10. Not surprisingly, she began to get noticed and pick-up modelling jobs. Then aged 15, whilst working as a temp at a US Air base, it is said she was raped by a black American sergeant, though no official evidence of the crime is said to exist.

Aged 16, she was ‘discovered’ by photographer Herbert Tobias who christened her Nico, after the filmmaker Nikos Papatakis. She dyed her naturally brown hair, blonde, and moved to Paris where she worked for all the leading fashion magazines of the day. Coco Chanel contacted her to be the face of the label, but at 17, Nico was off again, this time to New York. She slowly gave up her modelling career as she took acting classes, studying the ‘method’ technique in the same class as Marilyn Monroe, under the tutelage of Lee Strasberg. In 1959, she played ‘herself’ in the film La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, followed by roles in A Man Named Rocca in 1961 and Strip Tease in 1963, for which she also recorded the title track, which was written by Serge Gainsbourg. One of her last modelling jobs, saw her on the cover of the album Moon Beams by Bill Evans in 1962.

That year she gave birth to a son, Christian Aaron Boulogne, or Ari as he became known. The father was said by Nico to be actor Alain Delon, though he denied paternity. Struggling to bring up the child herself, Delon’s parents took over the child’s care.
In 1965, she met Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and shortly after, recorded the single I’m Not Saying which was produced by Jimmy Page for Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate label.

By 1967 she had begun turning up at The Factory, home of Andy Warhol and his coterie of superstars, after first hitting his radar due to her appearance in La Dolce Vita . She then made appearances in Warhol’s experimental films Chelsea Girl, Sunset, The Closet and Imitation of Christ. Away from film, Warhol was now managing the group the Velvet Underground. He had the idea of putting Nico and the Velvet’s together as part of  his Exploding Plastic Inevitable arts project. Despite not being totally convinced of the idea, Nico went on to appear on four songs Femme Fatale, All Tomorrow’s Parties, I’ll be your Mirror and Sunday Morning off their debut album, The Velvet Underground and Nico, in March of that year.

Richard Goldstein, reviewer – ‘(Nico) is half goddess, half icicle (and ) sounds something like a cello getting up in the morning.’

Tensions soon emerged between Nico and the band however, with Lou Reed increasingly irritated at her behaviour. She was also often off key when singing, the result of her partial deafness.

She released her debut album Chelsea Girl  in 1967 , backed by the likes of Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin and Jackson Browne, who also contributed songs. Nico herself was unhappy with the final result.

‘I cried when I heard the album. I cried because of the flute. There should be a button on record players, a ‘no flute’ button.’

Next up, was the Marble Index in 1969, backed by John Cale, who had left the Velvets that year. Her look changed again, with her hair now red in colour. A darker side to he, also emerged around this time.

Danny Fields, music executive described her as ‘Nazi-esque’ ‘Every once in a while, there’d be something about Jews and I’d be, ‘But Nico, I’m Jewish,’ and she was like ‘Yes, yes, I don’t mean you.’ She had a definite Nordic Aryan streak, [the belief] that she was physically, spiritually and creatively superior. Once (Nico) was, I don’t know, feeling neglected, or drunk, but suddenly she said, ‘I hate black people,’ and smashed a wineglass on the table and stuck it in this girl’s eye. There was lots of blood and screaming. Fortunately, she just twisted it around her eye socket, so the glass never reached [the eye] but it’s not like she was being cautious.’

The Warhol machine kicked in and somehow managed to placate the victim and Nico was on her way out the country the next day, with the whole event seemingly hushed up at the time. She continued to release solo work with Desertshore in 1970 and The End in 1974 and in between played live, backed by a fine array of musicians such as her old friend John Cale, and Brian Eno and Kevin Ayers. She also made seven films with French director Philippe Garrel, who she lived with during this period. It was while with him, she picked up her heroin habit, that would be part of her story from then on. 

She returned to New York in 1979 and staged a comeback gig at CBGB’s, but was soon on the move again a year later, sharing her time between London and Manchester. There, she picked up a management deal with Alan Wise of Factory Records and  released the single Procession in 1982, produced by Martin Hannettt. She also toured that year, with Blue Orchids as her backing band. For a time, she lived in a building in Brixton with fellow junkie, the poet John Cooper Clarke, who told The Guardian a few years later…

‘(We) were living together in Brixton, but not as a couple’ He smiles ‘Who wouldn’t like to think you were with one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world, official – and that was in the day of Brigitte Bardot and Julie Christie. Well, we were junkies, so it doesn’t really come up. It’s not a physical world. It’s just not a sex drug, heroin. You just don’t get round to thinking about it.’

Nigel Bagley co-manager, promoter – ‘We were booking artists for the Rafters nightclub in Manchester in 1981 when I got a call from an agency telling me that Nico was in a pub in London, was a mess and was borrowing money off everyone. The person said: “You can book her, but I’ve no idea if she will turn up.” I’d had the Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno and Nico June 1, 1974 live album since I was 12, which led me to The Velvet Underground & Nico, so it was a chance to put on my childhood heroine. I booked her for £200. Then the agency called back, asking: “Can you get her some heroin?’

Martin Bramah, singer, songwriter  – ‘In the car, she would get herself nicely stoned and reminisce about her lovers – Bob Dylan, Brian Jones, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Jim Morrison. She knew it enthralled people. Lovely, romantic tales.’

Nigel Bagley ‘ ‘There are so many stories about her. The ones about racism … we never saw that in Manchester. She was in a multicultural city and was good friends with Yankee Bill, our American-Jamaican doorman.’

Graham Dowdall, drummer – ‘She played an Indian instrument, worked with north Africans, and brought that to her music. She was certainly capable of very casual racism about Alan [Wise], who was Jewish, but that was a way of having a go at Al. Their relationship was among the most complex I’ve encountered. They were interdependent. He loved Nico, but it was unrequited.’

Her last album Camera Obscura was released in 1985 produced by old friend John Cale and though on the road less frequently then, she still performed in Europe, Japan and Australia. Her last ever recording was Your Kisses Burn with Marc Almond in 1988.

She died later that year in Ibiza, aged 49. She was there on holiday with her son Ari. Having stopped using heroin, she was cycling everywhere as part of her new health regime.

Ari  -‘My mother told me she needed to go downtown to buy marijuana. She sat down in front of the mirror and wrapped a black scarf around her head. My mother stared at the mirror and took great care to wrap the scarf appropriately. Down the hill on her bike: “I’ll be back soon.” She left in the early afternoon on the hottest day of the year.’

Not wearing a helmet, she fell off the bike, hit her head, and fell into unconsciousness. She was found by a passing taxi driver and when finally he managed to get her into a hospital, they mis- diagnosed her as having heat stroke, when cause of death was later revealed as a Cerebral haemorrhage.

Nico’s cremated remains are buried in her mother’s plot in Grunewald, a forest cemetery in Berlin.  John Keenan, promoter – ‘I overheard her being asked how she would like to be remembered. She deadpanned: “By a tombstone.”

 

The Mumper of SE5

Read The Mumper’s other weekly musings on ‘The Speakeasy’ blog page

 

 

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