HEROES : NICO

Get into a bookshop, go to the musicbooksection and you’ll be sure to find one about Nico. Nico was a very charismatic artist from whom a lot is known, but at the same little as well.
Nico means a lot to me, perhaps she’s my fave female artist but that’s a question I never could answer.
The influence of her music is bigger than you think, some go so far by saying that she was the inventor of goth music and even if this statement might be a bit over the top, she’s surely one of the first artists who made a very dark sound. Don’t even know if dark is the right word because in all honesty, I remember times in where I was listening to her album “The end” all alone and it scared me so much that I had to take the needle of the record.
Nico was never born under the name of Nico, her name was Christa Päffgen. The name Nico was given by photographer Herbert Tobias after her ex-boyfriend Nikos Papatakis.
Nico’s youth always had been a mystery but what is known is that she became the victim of a violation by a German soldier who was sentenced to death. Both the violation and the death of the soldier marked Nico. If that wasn’t enough, Nico was also deaf at one ear.
By the time Nico went to Berlin, she got discovered as photo model and got photoshoots for the likes of Coco Chanel. But the big public could see her appearance for the first time in Frederico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita”. Not that the role is so important, it even was a sort of joke being made up by Fellini. She got invited to the set and Frederico liked her so much that he created a minor role for her in the movie.
Who was the one who got Nico introduced into making music is an open debate : is it Serge Gainsbourg or was it Brian Jones? Fact is that the first song recorded by Nico was a Serge Gainsbourg-written song (“Striptease”, but the track only would appear in 2001 for the very first time).
With Brian Jones, Nico recorded her first single “I’m not sayin’”.
Nico was the kind of woman who was noticed by everyone (there is a rumour around that she’s the mother of Alain Delon’s son) and also by the inventor of pop art : Andy Warhol.
Andy was extremely interested in Nico and let her appear in his movie “Chelsea girls” and the legend says that it was also him who wanted her to be part of The Velvet Underground.
I always thought the relationship with Nico and The Velvet Underground was a bit strange. Officially she was never been part of them, but I can’t imagine the album “Andy Warhol” being without her….even more, I don’t think if she wouldn’t be part of it that I would like the album that much cos not only my fave tracks are with Nico but from the moment she departed (soon after the recordings of the first album) Velvet Underground were never that good.
It’s also a rumour that Nico’s role in the Velvet Underground was so small because she rejected Lou Reed, she began a romance with John Cale instead…
Soon after Nico recorded her first album “Chelsea girl” which was produced by Jackson Browne with whom she also had a romance, Nico never was in need of lovers!
Even if her debut is quite nice, it stays to her standards a popalbum and the later dark voice from her would only be developed in her albums from the 70’s from which “The marble index” (this time produced by John Cale who then already had a glorious solocareer) is the best one.
“Desertshore” and “The end” were her other two 70’s-albums.
Nico was never afraid of controversial things, for instance there’s the known fact that not everyone was pleased with her cover from the German national anthem (“Deutschland Ûber Alles”) on “The end”.
On the personal level it got worser and worser for Nico. She got dropped from Island Records and she started that other life for which she always would be famous for : the one of a heroin addict.
The fact that “Drama of Exile”, the 5th Nico-album, came out in 1981 wasn’t that much of a coincidence. The musical world was aware of the new dark sounds by bands like Joy Division, Siouxsie & The Banshees or Bauhaus and Nico fitted perfectly into the goth-image (her albums were now released on Beggars Banquet, a label who had various American gothbands under its wings).
In some way, I consider the 80’s tracks by Nico as her best ones. Tracks like “Vegas”or her cover from David Bowie’s “Heroes” belong to my absolute faves and “Hanging Gardens” (which contains some livetracks) is one of my all time fave records.
Sadly enough the eighties brought Nico back but it was also the decade in where the world had to say goodbye to one of the greatest female performers of all time.
On 17 July 1988 Nico fell of her bike while riding her bicycle when being in Ibiza, the fall was caused by a heart attack but the next day Nico died.
She got buried in Berlin along with her mum.
In many ways the life of Nico reads as the ultimate rockhistory cos I guess she saw the holy trilogy (sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll) like no one else. But in stead of being some rock bitch, Nico made the most dark music imaginable and with such an unique voice it made her one of the leading ladies of the musicscene.
Nico’s appearances, how rare they were, always left you heartbreaking and it’s been one of the many mysteries why such a beautiful woman got attracted into a world of morbid emotions and drugs. Whatever the answer might be, it created Nico, a timeless icon.

HEROES : COURTNEY LOVE

I once had the luck to have a long conversation with the organisator of the Vooruit-venue, which is one of the most important ones in Belgium. This man saw thousand stars come and go, automatically I asked him who was the most uneasy, unfriendly and most nasty artist he ever worked with.
The man didn’t think one second, “Courtney Love” of course…she was there when Nirvana played and you could see on the man’s face that he had very unpleasant memories with her…I got tons of phrases in where the man tried to show me that if there is one person you never wanna get in touch with, it must be her.
Is there anyone around who loves Courtney Love? Perhaps more…why is Courtney Love listed in my heroes-list? Why have I decided to give her a tribute out of the other 1000 heroes I have?
Honestly said, I was a bit inspired by the fact that she did a one-time Hole show in London recently (the only original member being her, so man ask if it’s really Hole but…).
Apart from the inspiration I think I just have the need to tell what Courtney Love means for me. I have a very special relationship with her, I am even a man who’s not that wild about Nirvana. Of course I like Nirvana, I have all their albums and I guess Nirvana are Nirvana but Hole means so much more for me. Because I have a soft spot for her? Nope, not even that because she’s not the kind of woman you wanna wake up with, it’s just because of the music and what it means for me.
There are hundreds of books being written about her, and I doubt if there ever is one which covers the whole truth because Courtney is the kind of artist you only expect bad things from. If you should read that she did some charity, you’ll be disappointed…admit it.
Courtney was born as Courtney Michelle Harrison on 9th July 1964. Her dad was Hank Harrison, the manager from Grateful Dead. Later she claims that her dad was given her LSD when she was a kid, but dad denied.
Anyway, it was soon clear Courtney wasn’t the happy child because at a quite young age she ended up in some reformatory schools and ended up being a stripper in several clubs, even in Japan.
Courtney was always the kind of girl who wanted to have famous boyfriends, Julian Cope became one of the first lucky ones, or is a victim a better word?
Anyway, I don’t care that much with whom she shared her bed with cos the list will be quite endless I guess.
The first musical outfits from Courtney was her being the lead singer from Faith No More. It didn’t last that long and she was sooner kicked out then being taken in, but when arriving in San Francisco she met Kat Bjelland with whom she played in unsigned bands like Babydoll and The Pagan Babies, but as soon as Kat started Babes In Toyland, Courtney could go as well…
You can say a lot about Courtney, but being her the rejected one, she always survived in appearing in the right moments (I leave it to your imagination how she managed it anyway) but soon after the adventure with Kat, she got offered the role of Nancy Spungen (Sid Vicious’ girlfriend) in Alex Cox’s “Sid & Nancy”.
But Courtney wanted fame, not being the undergroundstar, and she decided to form her own band. When placing an ad she got the request from one Eric Erlandson, the only member (apart from Courtney) who would be a vast member till the bitter end.
And then there is of course Kurt Cobain… There are a million theories around. Some say it’s Courtney’s fault that Kurt committed suicide, some say Courtney was nothing but a whore who needed attention for her own stardom, some say Courtney is talentless apart from the bed only… It makes me wonder if anyone has the right to judge such things?
It’s clear that both Courtney and Kurt are deranged people but both “Nevermind” and Hole’s debut “Pretty on the inside” (produced by Kim Gordon) were released in 1991. It are two total different sounds, and those who state that Courtney needed Kurt for her music is mental, albeit mental if it comes to musical education.
“Pretty on the inside” is one of the greatest American records ever and it shaped Courtney’s image in a final way, being the ultimate rock ‘n roll-queen whether you like it or not.
Well, undergroundwise that is, because Courtney was known as Kurt’s eccentric wife but only a handful of people were listening to her music.
The musical fame had to come with their 2nd album “Live through this”. Never could be a title so much better (without wanting it) as four days before the release Kurt shot himself in Seattle and two months later bassist Kristen Pfaff died because of a heroin overdose and got replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur.
It was the time of scandals and also the beginning of the end as Courtney soon turned out to be mentally ill, but how much the fans were blaming her for being a mediawhore they also might consider how hard life must have been for her. I never met Courtney so I’m not to comment it, but live with a life like that!
The tour that went with “Live through this” was a strange one, every concert was in doubt and I could see it with my own eyes how Courtney went awol in Brussels just because a fan was wearing a Pearl Jam T-shirt in front of her. She stopped the concert and asked the guy to go away, when she saw he refused the guy was drawn out by the security. Is this going over the top? It certainly is, and you forgive her…just because she’s Courtney.
Apart from tons of bootlegs and compilations (My body, the grenade) Hole made only three albums and in all honesty, my fave is “Celebrity Skin”. I once wrote Everett True (and who knows Courtney better than him?) that I thought it was Fleetwood Mac for mentally people and I got flattered by the fact that he agreed. It’s very difficult to describe the feeling of this record, but even if I never got a needle in my arm (at least not for heroin) it’s like you can feel the weltschmerz of a junk.
From then on everything went downwards. Once she was the honey of the press, now she was the rejected one…nothing from her was accepted, not even her efforts on the brilliant solo-album “America’s sweetheart”.
The album was an immense flop salewise but for those who care : listen to it, and you’ll discover one of the best albums from a woman who has something to say, if she says it in a right way is another matter.
More scandals came, drugaddiction, arrests, quarrelling with daughter Frances Bean Cobain (it looks like she also feels the need to go into music) and the most current news was her going topless on Twitter, but she had a perfect excuse : it was to show her new tattoos…
If everything goes fine, a new album “Nobody’s daughter” will be released in April 2010, but it’s still a grey area if it’ll be under Hole or Courtney Love. Cashing in? Of course, and not in the least, but if everybody can do it then the queen of rock has that right to.
Courtney, you made me laugh, you made me cry, you made me shake the head….whatever that might have been said about you, you’re standing next to PJ Harvey, Bjork, Patti Smith, Nico, Liz Frazer, Siouxsie…what do they have in common? Female heroes of mine.

HEROES : FRANK TOVEY

When interviewing a band myself, one of the questions I like to ask is “Do you have any heroes yourself?”.
Some have, some don’t and sometimes some say it’s better not having heroes as they only can disappoint you. For me this doesn’t count as in a sort of childish way I have tons of heroes (sadly enough some have gone to heaven already) and so far I haven’t been disappointed by them.
Maybe I made a good selection, who knows… Anyway in this section of my fanzine I wanna pay tribute to them. I’m going to do it in my way, what they meant for me, how I experienced their music because if you just wanna read a biography I guess you just can click wikipedia.
Everything started for me when I heard in the discotheque a rather nasty tune called “Coitus Interruptus”, of course there was the title (some years ago I was still listening to the kind discobeats of Boney M). Mind you, I was at a quite early age (14 I guess) to be found at discotheques but I also got attracted by those electronic beats and so it happened I bought my first album “Fireside Favourites”.
It looked like I didn’t miss that much as “Fireside Favourites” was the debutalbum by Fad Gadget that was released in 1980.
Frank Tovey was born as Francis John Tovey on 8th September 1956. Frank met Daniel Miller during a concert of Monochrome Set and they agreed that Frank would be a recording artist for Miller’s label Mute. If you don’t count Miller’s own band (The Normal), Fad Gadget were the first band on Mute.
Frank decided to call his band Fad Gadget and from the very first single (‘Back to nature’) it became clear that Fad Gadget would become one of the most important bands in the electronic scene.
It’s always funny if you ask people the most influential band on Mute, 99% will come up with Depeche Mode but I belong to that 1% who’ll tell you that they think Fad Gadget are more important, even if I do like Dave Gahan’s musical outfit a lot. It’s just that the music from Fad Gadget goes much deeper, a bit darker and far much more innovative.
Fad Gadget were a name but even if tracks like “Collapsing new people”, “One man’s meat”, “Ricky’s hand”, “The Box” or “I discover love” were the vast ingredients that could be heard on every new wave party, the band never got the success they deserved.
Maybe it was the approach of things that stood success in the way, most photos were taken by Anton Corbijn and nice melodies were “disturbed” by unusual sounds like the scream of a baby, a nursery rhyme (you can hear a Dutch one “Kortjakje” on the “Under the flag”-album) or the more industrial beats that took their references from bands like Einsturzende Neubauten.
Whatever it might be, Frank Tovey got many times press-attention because of his unusual stageperformances. Shaving himself, throwing out pubic hair and once he fell in Amsterdam (at the Paradiso-venue in 1983) and broke his two legs and completed the set while crawling across the floor.
In 1984 the dream came to an end, “Gag” was the last album and “One Man’s Meat” the last “hit”.
But one year later Frank Tovey came back as …Frank Tovey. The first solo-single was “Luxury” and everybody was surprised why he ever disbanded the band cuz this song was typical Fad Gadget. Today I still think “Luxury” is one of the best songs Frank penned down.
But it was soon clear Frank wanted something else and on the albums that followed like “Snakes and ladders” (a genius one, although forgotten) he made some paths that would lead to Frank Tovey and The Pyros which is generally known as the folkyears from Frank.
In all honesty, you can never lie to your heroes, it was only after Frank’s death that I gave these albums a serious listen and even if it’s not the “wow”-effect that got created by Fad Gadget, I dig these albums a lot. And in all honesty, I think that most people should give this music a 2nd chance. In any case, it became clear that his folksongs were literally pearls for swines cos nobody would give it a listen, not the press and not even an audience.
It might be a total turn but for those who know Frank’s music, they shall notice that just like with Fad Gadget, Frank wasn’t afraid to spread his critism on society, Thatcher was his fave target…
From 1992 it seemed like Frank Tovey would disappear from view because nothing was heard from the man till 2001 when out of a sudden Frank announced the return of Fad Gadget!
Most concerts were done as the support act from Depeche Mode which meant shows from circa 25 minutes. I myself was one of the lucky ones who saw Fad Gadget headlining the Eurorockfestival in Belgium. They totally blew me away, I never saw them before, and it must be one of the greatest come back-acts I ever saw (and believe me, I saw a lot of come backs).
It was soon clear that Frank didn’t forgot his stage-act…all the 80’s tricks (pubic hair, shaving, climbing on music material) were all there.
A bit more of a half year later I couldn’t believe my eyes when I held the NME in my hands in where was stated that Frank died from a heartattack on the 3rd April 2002, he was 48 years.
It’s always a bitter pill to swallow to see your heroes gone like that, especially someone like Frank who seemed indestructible. But after all he was only human who left manhood with some of the greatest tuners ever written, my faves always will be “Life on the line”, “Love parasite” and “Luxury”.
RIP Frank.