by James Young

This is the story of the last 'scene' of the art rock diva Nico, whose 15 minutes of fame included her tenure with Andy Warhol's Factory, the films Chelsea Girls and La Dolce Vita, and a stint with The Velvet Underground. In 1982, Nico was living in Manchester, England, far from her '15 minutes' and interested only in feeding her heroin habit. Local promoter Dr. Demetrius saw an opportunity, hired musicians to back her, and set off on a disastrous tour of Italy. In a daze of chaotic live shows and necessary heroin scores, she toured the world with assorted thrown-together bands, encountering a wild crew of personalities, including John Cale, Allen Ginsburg, John Cooper Clarke, and Gregory Corso.

A tour de force in the literature of failure, Nico: Songs They Never Play on the Radio is an unflinching look at the final days of a celebrity in the twilight zone of faded fame. This story of Nico and the characters who orbited around her may be the truest book yet written about life inside the rock world.