There was a time in early eighties London when you could not escape seeing Nico live.
She was probably often still billed as Nico from the Velvet Underground on the posters but truth be told by now she was the legendary Narco from the London Underground. (That's stolen unashamedly from 'Nico: Songs They Never Play on the Radio' by James Edward Young which is one of the funniest books you will ever read.)
Nico would be on this bill and that one and there are esimates that she played live in the region of 1200 times between 1980 & 88.
Sometimes you had no idea that she would be taking part that night as when Rip Rig & Panic had a gig at the Wag Club on a very sultry summer night and yeah Nico joined them for a couple of VU tunes (thinking Sunday Morning and Heroin) and that WAS something special.
Anyway I decided to move to Amsterdam in 84 and look there is Nico playing The Paradiso again. And again...
My friend Laurie's abiding memory of a visit to Amsterdam in the early seventies was having his acidtrip totally turned into a freak out by witnessing her performing Janitors of Lunacy live at the...you guessed The Paradiso.
My ex- wife even had a flying visit to her home town here in Melbourne when we were living in London and yep...there was Nico performing at The Prince of Wales in St. Kilda. That was with Dr John Cooper Clarke in tow and the tales of their life in their Brixton flat in Young's book are fugn hilarious. Highly recommended
I also had Dick Witts' biography of her but I just realised that didn't make the move to Exile Towers. With the stolen book list also including Vivien Goldman & David Corio's Black Chord it is really easy for me to know who took them. (Nico fan and a photographer you say and only steals hardback copies. Hmmm)
Not only is she a khunt she is also a very rich khunt too
Those Tapes Are Dangerous / Destroy Me (Version) / Rootsman VS The Bug (Version) / Killer Queen Dub / Fire Version / Zim Version / Opi Teng / One Shot Version / Living Dub / No Version / Void Version / Dem Version / Angry Dub / Bad Riddim / Box (Instrumental)
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The Bug with Manga St Hilaire - Live Railway Hotel Brunswick Melbourne (15/3/15)
Tonite in Melbourne was messy, it was raw, dirty, tense & nasty..LOVED IT, despite and maybe because, the lying fuck of a venue owner promised the promoters, his building was 'Fully sound proofed' prior to the event, when the dude was desperate to have the show hire his venue….but then the idiot kept bringin out bigger bouncers over time, throughout the set to try and intimidate me and the promoters to turn down the voliume..….which actually just added fuel to my fire..lol. (Although i gotta say i was sorry for the don dadas/show promoters Ben/Tom from ‘Echo Chamber’ who had to feel the heat and were forced to compromise somewhat…)
i made mistakes, tech probs occured, It wasn’t as overwhelmingly loud as our normal sets, it didn’t have the light assault we normally employ, YET it absolutely rocked, cause the good ppl of Melbourne that showed, gave us maximum energy…Big yourselves up indeed……It was a psychotic rollercoaster at the 'Railway Hotel' last night …we dug it, and Manga was almost literally on fire as he rinsed the mic..
Major shout to the 'Echo Chamber' crew for sortin last night's show at 4 days notice, it was an incredible effort, + cheers for fillin the house with a sick crowd & the sweetest reggae/bass/junglegrime sounds….
I guess me and Manga really did fuck up Melbourne...It was pure madness..Crowd were incredible..Max energy. Madman victory !
Hilarious that Manga saw two women literally rip off their bras and throw them in the air, whilst i saw another girl literally clinging on to the bassbins for most of the set..The people they expressed themselves proper....hahaha.. Sorry it couldnt have been as intense an experience as we generally like to detonate, but actually it was still a blast..!
And yo, can the fucker that stole my shades, plz return them, as my weakass blue eyes will fry in the sunshine down under....
(Great selfie by Manga)
Taking me back to London in the early-mid eighties when I caught this band SO many times live.
From their first gig billed as The Ex Pop Group at The Planetarium in Kings X to the last one wherever it was. I honestly can't remember. Hardly surprising but I did record a LOT of their shows on my Walkman. Every London gig they played plus others outside the city including an amazing improvisation by Springer on the organ at York Cathedral when they were strolling around town before playing at The Territorial Army Hall, where they had been double booked with Wall of Voodoo. WoV got a wee bit stroppy so RRP played first and then fucked off.
I hope the person who nicked all those tapes knew exactly what they were getting tho I suspect not
(Play full album)
Fuck The Shit That Was It to paraphrase their first poster.
They really were just the most amazing band and so many good times was had though I did nearly get arrested while working for them in Manchester.
Neneh had been driving the tour van around a car park in the city centre and as Neneh couldn't drive the van basically bunny-hopped around it. Driving off to the venue at some student place I seem to remember they went upstairs and I started to get their instruments together to take into the venue too, when suddenly there was quite an angry knock on the back door and there was one of James Anderton's finest wanting to have a word.
Now while there was really only one member of the band who smoked grass boy did he smoke a fuck of a lot and I knew that the van stank of grass. Really strongly stank. Anyway I opened the door and watched this cop's face as he probably got very high just from the waft.
Yes it was all about Neneh's er 'erratic' driving and was put down as just giving her a driving lesson.
I have to say I'm surprised they didn't have me arrested for being the world's worst roadie to be honest!
Not that long ago Tessa from The Slits posted that her and Sean's daughter having her own kid meant that Sean would have been a Grandad and that is happening to me in November despite my protestations that I am far too young
Thinking of Sean quite often leads to thinking about this night when Gareth and him invaded the stage at a Birthday Party gig at North London Poly. Photographic evidence turned up in the last year or so...
Now why this happened I think was because Mr Cave had expressed his admiration for The Pop Group when first arriving in London but I do seem to remember he didn't think much of How Much Longer...when that album was released.
Probably and I'm being honest here, it was all a bit agit-prop and at the time I think Cave had other things on his mind than enjoying the underlying heavy funk rhythms of the Pop Group live.
Anyway that may be where the animosity, and it was very mutual, came from.
So after this two man invasion (and it was a very polite one, just jumping onto the stage and then sitting on the drum riser and having a wee chat amongst themselves) it got even funnier (tho perhaps Cave remembers this differently)
After the gig it suddenly came to me that I had never seen him so flustered and impotent onstage before.
Now as fate transpired we all found ourselves in the same underground carriage heading to wherever we were all going on the last train of the night.
At this point in the story you have to understand that there was a reason why Steve Beresford (anonymously) described Gareth to the NME as someone you sometimes just wanted to put across your knee and give a good slapping to
So being the last train on a Friday night the carriage is jam packed and lo and behold Cave is spotted behind a newspaper trying to ignore the Rip Rig contingent when Gareth creeps up and sets fire to the bottom of the broadsheet newspaper in Cave's hands.
Oh man I actually still think it was absolutely hilarious but that is probably my inner twenty two year old self smiling.
My sixty one year old self wonders why didn't Tracy Pew intervene that night onstage or was this during the time of his incarceration back in Australia dating this gig to between February and August 1982?
I also had Dick Witts' biography of her but I just realised that didn't make the move to Exile Towers. With the stolen book list also including Vivien Goldman & David Corio's Black Chord it is really easy for me to know who took them. (Nico fan and a photographer you say and only steals hardback copies. Hmmm) 
