Nico
Icon
Play
By Chris lynch
I met Nico on a couple of
occasions, during the early 1980's in Manchester. She was in decline
by then and fully in the grip of a fierce heroin addiction. It was
awful to see this Goddess, with her dyed, tangled hair, bad make-up
and poor complexion....I'd only ever known her to be the brightest
star in the Warhol world....an absolute Goddess!
I met her again, last
Saturday evening, not a million miles from my first encounters, down
the road, in my hometown at the amazing space called 'Islington Mill' in Salford.
Of course, the real Nico
has long since passed on, but there she was, right infront of me,
sitting on the bar, dressed like she meant business!
Kicking off the fourth year
of the Salford Film Festival Stella Grundy, former singer with
IntaStella is the shining star of the play, she holds down the part
so well, it's almost frightening at times.....the look is right on
the money, the movements, the actions all there in abundance. The
accent is hard to nail, and I guess even Nico couldn't have
recreated her monotone drone, but Stella handled it with style and
flair and was extremely convincing, and totally enthralling!
It all starts with the
telling of how the girl 'Christa Paffgen' became Nico, with a well
crafted opening set back when she was just starting out on the road
to stardom. It's all here, the ambience is created by the low
lighting, bare stage and set, and the split screen 'Warhol wall
images' and clips from his films, with a distant echo of a Velvet
Underground song, candle light, floating silver pillows and joss
sticks. An exploding plastic inevitable!
The move to New York, the
meeting with Dylan and eventually Andy Warhol is as close to the
real event as you could imagine. I mean, its all well documented,
but to see it in front of you brings the whole thing a lot closer
than ever before........it's at this point that we meet Lou Reed and
his Velvet friends, with a 'Live On Stage' rendition of 'I'll Keep
it with mine', 'Venus In Furs' and into 'European Son', finishing of
with a moving 'Sunday Morning', sung by Lou Reed.......the tension
created by the cast is believable, the tantrums and egos are true,
and it is well executed throughout. The clever use of feedback
adding to the accuracy of this event....
were we in the basement
of a Salford textile Mill?
Were we at the Factory
on Union Square? I couldn't tell.........
Moving through the years,
Nico attempts to resurrect her failing/failed career, playing to
small audiences, sometimes not getting paid and the harsh reality of
her drug addiction all starts to take it's toll. It was at this
point that she meets up with a local guy by the name of Alan Wise,
who steers her back on track. The dialogue between the two is witty,
sharp and direct.
Her life really was a tale
of two cities.....NY and Manchester and the format of the play
follows suit. The glamour and hedonism of the Warhol scene at the
Factory and Max's Kansas City, the stardom and adulation, the
cover-girl looks all replaced by a squalid existence on the bread
line with a huge shoulder monkey to feed, jaded, past-her-best and
down. But, Nico was made of strong bones and her will to survive
showed through......She wants to be known as a credible performer,
making cutting-edge art so much that it hurts. Stella Grundy brings
these emotions flooding out onto the stage, her impact is massive
and she feels Nico's pain too.
I'm leaving it here, as we
all know the rest of the story, but one thing is for sure, and that
is when this reaches NYC and the 'art crowd' over there get word, NICO-ICON play will become a huge
hit, and Stella will become 'IntaStella' once more!
You can find out more about
NICO-ICON play by visiting the following links :
Nico
Icon Play Myspace Page
Salford Film Festival
©2007 Chris Lynch / PUNK GLOBE MAGAZINE