‘Hip-hop is the new avant garde’: John Cale on Lou Reed, anger and continual reinvention
He made rock history with the Velvet Underground and produced landmark albums for the likes of Patti Smith. At 82, his 18th solo outing proves he’s still at the bleeding edge
March 2024
Alexis Petridis's album of the week
Nico: The Marble Index/Desertshore review – an unforgettable trip to a very dark place
These two reissued solo albums from the German singer have a fearsome reputation – but they offer an experience like no other
January 2023
Artist of the week
John Cale: Mercy review – the titan of cool misses a trick
The 80-year-old’s latest album features some inspired younger guests but cries out for less dated beats and a visionary producer
October 2022
Ranked
The 100 greatest BBC music performances – ranked!
As the Beeb celebrates its centenary, we take a look at its most memorable pop moments, from the birth of grime to the first sightings of Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, plus TOTP goes Madchester and countless classic Peel sessions
July 2021
You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike review – the biography of Nico
A not always flattering portrait of the enigmatic Velvet Underground singer’s troubled life and legacy
June 2021
You Are Beautiful and You Are Alone review – Nico as the gothic Garbo
Jennifer Otter Bickerdike’s biography is absorbing and informative but paints a flattering portrait of the enigmatic model turned singer
March 2020
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Poem of the week: Winterpause by Naomi Foyle
This homage to the melancholy singer Nico makes striking connections with German history
July 2019
The Nico Project; The Fountainhead – review
The Nico Project review – Maxine Peake digs deep into a nightmare
Femme fatale: Maxine Peake in The Nico Project – in pictures
Nico in Manchester: 'She loved the architecture – and the heroin'
June 2019
Maxine Peake: 'The truth seems slippery with Nico'
The Nico Project, debuting at Manchester international festival, investigates the truth and lies surrounding the singer and actor
August 2018
From Nico to Tonya Harding, women’s true stories are being told on film at last
‘I wasn’t happy when I was beautiful’: the movie Nico, 1988 shows singer’s resilience in later life, signalling a change in how biopics treat their subjects
April 2018
Nico 1988: the film about the Velvet Underground's doomed singer
The director and star of a drama about the latter years of the cult singer talk about her unusual life and how she battled against her beauty
November 2017
Why The Velvet Underground’s landmark debut album still resonates after 50 years
Ed Vulliamy
The Velvet Underground & Nico comes home this week, as John Cale and guests prepare to play it in its entirety in New York
August 2017
10 of the best
The Velvet Underground – 10 of the best
Pioneers in almost everything except commercial success, the Velvets put drugs, fetishism, infidelity and heartbreak into song and changed music completely
May 2017
The Velvet Underground & Nico Reimagined review – thin echoes of a pop masterpiece
A live celebration of the album, masterminded by onetime band member John Cale and featuring young indie guests, was a muted and messy affair
September 2015
I shot Andy Warhol: photographer Billy Name on drugs and shootings at the Factory
Billy Name was Warhol’s boyfriend. Then one day the artist gave him a camera and said: ‘Billy, you do the stills.’ He relives his wild times with Lou, Nico and Bob
October 2013
Lou Reed's New York City: Chelsea girls and parking lots
The city The Velvet Underground frontman made his name in has changed since the sixties and seventies and his old haunts have been overtaken by sushi restaurants and parking lots
April 2013
Jonathan Jones on art
Andy Warhol's iconic New York anti-films come to London
Jonathan Jones: Warhol's most famous movies – including Sleep, a five-hour film of his lover dozing – capture the avant garde New York of the Velvet Underground and the Chelsea hotel
