By 1982, Nico—former model, film actress, singer with the Velvet Underground and darling of Andy Warhol's factory—was living in Manchester and feeding her heroin habit when local promoter Alan "Dr. Demetrius" Wise hired musicians, rented a van, and set off with her on a tour of Italy. James Young played keyboards for the band and worked with Nico until her death in 1988. His vibrant, affectionate portrait is "a coolly literary masterpiece" (Greil Marcus) full of poets, artists, gangsters, losers, and drifters, with appearances by John Cale, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and John Cooper Clarke.