James Young (British musician)

James Edward Young (born 17 September 1952) is a British musician and writer. Young grew up in Oldham, Lancashire and began learning piano at the age of 7. He studied Art History briefly at the University of East Anglia before moving to Oxford to study at the Polytechnic and in 1982 was accepted as an MPhil student at Oxford University. This period coincided with his meeting Nico (Velvet Underground) and Young took the decision to work with her instead of continuing with academic life. Young toured and recorded as keyboard player and arranger with the group Faction until Nico's death in 1988. Since then Young has written books, recorded solo albums, created BBC radio features, written on Outsider Art and curated exhibitions.

With Nico + Faction:

With John Cale:

With Faction:

With Suns of Arqa

With Nico

In 1994 Young was invited by Alan McGee, founder of Creation Records, to record a musical representation of his memoir of the Nico years (see below).

In 2003 Young recorded an album of solo piano music: joanna 2003 (Voiceprint BP357CD) produced by Henry Olsen. (see below)

Young appeared in the multi-award-winning documentary Nico Icon (1996) describing his life touring with Nico.

Young’s memoir of his years travelling with Nico Songs they Never Play on the Radio, titled in the USA as Nico The End, was published to international critical acclaim in 1993, winning the In The City award for music book of the year. Described by Greil Marcus in Esquire as ‘A coolly literary masterpiece about the geography of nowhere’, the book was later serialized in 1996 for BBC Radio 4. Songs They Never Play On The Radio (Bloomsbury Publishing) ISBN  Nico The End (Overlook Press) ISBN  This was followed in 1996 by Moscow Mule ((Century) ISBN ), a dystopian travelogue situated within and around the Moscow Metro, also serialized for BBC Radio 4 in 1997. Young interpreted the book’s milieu in Last Train To Taganskaya recorded for the BBC Radio 3 experimental audio feature Between The Ears.

...
Wikipedia