Someone once described
Nico
as "famous but not popular," and it was sadly fitting that her greatest moment of public recognition came on an album that was initially a massive flop. At the behest of their manager and mentor,
Andy Warhol
,
was briefly a member of
the Velvet Underground
, and sang three songs on their groundbreaking 1967 debut
The Velvet Underground & Nico
before being edged out of the group over personal and creative differences. For the next 21 years,
stubbornly carved out a career making purposefully difficult music that often had more to do with European art music than rock & roll, even the intelligent and innovative sort the
Velvets
pioneered, and she attracted a small if loyal following, along with a somewhat larger number of curiosity seekers wondering what she's been doing since the
VU
's debut. Through most of the 1970s and '80s, she did this while maintaining a dependence on heroin that governed her life as much as her art.
James Young
, who played piano in
's band in the last years of her life, wrote a witty but harrowing account of working with her titled Songs They Never Play on the Radio, and in the book he described her June 1985 show in London's Chelsea district as one of the best they ever played, in part due to the presence of "celebrity junkies" and a nearby rehab clinic.
Young
describes most of their gigs as shambolic, but
Chelsea Town Hall
, a restored and remastered 2025 release of that 1985 concert, reveals an artist who was still a commanding performer, even if she wasn't working with ideal accompanists. Percussionist
Eric Ramsden
and synth player
Graham Dowdall
have an unfortunate habit of trying to give some of the tunes a bit of new wave edge with busy beats and electronic squeals that were a poor fit then and sound comical now, especially in contrast with
's dour vocals, the determined wheeze of her harmonium, and the relentlessly gloomy tone of her lyrics.
's music was not fun, and she never meant it to be, and in this performance it works best with the least accompaniment, such as "Janitor of Lunacy" and "You Forgot to Answer," which feature just
's voice and harmonium, and an a cappella version of
classic "All Tomorrow's Parties." That said, the band does manage to rise to the occasion on several tunes, and "Tananore," "My Heart Is Empty," and "Sixty Forty" find them effectively matching her strong Teutonic spirit. Not everyone took
seriously in her years as a solo artist, and that was one of many things that hobbled her art, especially in the '80s, but
shows she was far from a spent force, and the best moments here are remarkably powerful. (An edited and re-sequenced version of this concert was previously released in 1994 as
Chelsea Girl Live
.) ~ Mark Deming