by Everett True
Tad and Nirvana on tour in Europe, October/November 1989. Above: Nirvana, Craig, a stone lion and various band members in Trafalgar Square.
Four major influences on early Nirvana (clockwise from top left): Bleach producer Jack Endino outside Reciprocal Studios, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover from Aberdeen’s own Melvins, Earth founder Dylan Carlson,
Nirvana, post-Chad, with temporary drummer, Mudhoney’s Dan Peters, Seattle September 23, 1990. “If I’d known they were that serious I’d have purchased another drum kit somehow” – Dan Peters (IAN TILTON)
Charles Peterson, the photographer responsible for the ‘look’ of Seattle grunge. “Charles was the essential ingredient, particularly early on. It was a visual signature that defined the whole scene” – Jonathan Poneman
Krist and Shelli Novoselic indulging in a spot of home cooking,
“Who will be the king and queen of the outcast teens?” Tobi Vail, inspiration behind ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. “If you find out your boyfriend is doing heroin and he’s not going to change and you break up with him, are you the bitch? I mean, really?” – Slim Moon (CHARLES PETERSON)
Boston singer-songwriter Mary Lou Lord: “Sometimes you meet people and you know right away that your life is about to change. That’s how it felt when I met Kurt.” ( HAYLEY MADDEN/SIN)
(Above, and next page) Nirvana in one of their first photo shoots with new drummer, Washington DC’s Dave Grohl at London’s Dalmacia Hotel, October 24, 1990.
Nirvana, Reading Festival, August 23, 1991. “There was a kind of cockiness
Krist Novoselic, Amherst, MA, 1990. “ Krist was very outgoing. He liked to party. He and Matt Lukin, those guys could rage. A lot of what touring is about is networking and meeting people and forging contacts. So Krist was the guy forging the social connections” – Bruce Pavitt (STEVE DOUBLE/SIN)
Kurt Cobain and Jonathan Poneman, Seattle, 1990. “Kurt was an enigma. He’d get moody and sit in the corner and not talk for 45 minutes” – Butch Vig (IAN TILTON)
Kurt Cobain in full-on destruction mode, The Axis, Boston, MA, September 24, 1991 – the same day that Nevermind was released. “The club was shaking with energy.
Backstage at Reading Festival, August 1991; a heavily bandaged Kurt Cobain with Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines) and Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub) (STEPHEN SWEET)
Spot the Daniel Johnston T-shirt! Original owner Everett True with Courtney Love, slightly inebriated, backstage at Reading 1991; Kurt Cobain with Krist and Dave, 1992
Sonic Youth ( Thurston Moore in foreground), live at Kitsap County Fairgrounds (‘ Endfest’), August 8, 1992. “[Sonic Youth’s] Sister is more bad acid trips I never took, plus physics or psychics, Philip K Dick, astronomy, best bending of English and football, no boyfriends at all, lots of cigarettes and bad drugs…” – Courtney Love (CHARLES PETERSON)
Jennifer Finch, L7 bassist: “I told Courtney, ‘You don’t want to meet Kurt, he’s a terrible person and he’s going nowhere’ …see. That’s why I’m not a good
Kurt Cobain with Nirvana/Sonic Youth manager John Silva and Mudhoney bassist Matt Lukin. “Those Sonic Youth kids, they’re wild; their manager, also. He antagonises people and leaves us to take the rap, beating us up, tearing our pants, turning beetroot red when he’s
Kurt Cobain vainly attempts to disguise himself as a ‘rock star’,
Nirvana, live and backstage with Everett True in Stockholm: “They don’t deserve any of this. Forget any reports you may have heard that rock is alive and kicking. The world’s only credible arena rock band is
Everett True pushes Kurt Cobain on stage for Nirvana’s headline slot at Reading Festival, August 30, 1992. “The lights. That’s all I can remember. The lights. You can’t see a single face. The crowd is invisible, and all that you feel is this incredible euphoric roar that increases every step you make towards the microphone.”
Kurt and ‘Diet Grrrl’ Frances Bean Cobain, Seattle, late 1992. “I’ve pretty much exhausted the baby options. I mean, duh, it’s fun, it’s great,
Nirvana, New York City, July 24, 1993, the day after the band unveiled their new ‘acoustic’ section live at Roseland, and less than 48 hours after Kurt OD’d
Nirvana, NYC, July 24, 1993: Kurt and Krist; Kurt reading the same Melody Maker live review of Neil Young and Pearl Jam that later caused Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder to storm out of a rival magazine cover interview and refuse to return; Dave and Kurt
Nirvana guitar ‘doctor’ Earnie Bailey, backstage; “You never really knew what was going to get it, and things got it for different reasons. I felt the destruction set should have been phased out by the In Utero tour.” (COURTESY OF EARNIE BAILEY)
The Cobain family at the MTV Awards, September 2, 1993. “That was the first of Courtney’s ‘trying to be somebody else’ dresses” – Cali DeWitt ( LFI)
Kurt relaxing – with Frances Bean, and preparing to go hang-gliding in Rio de Janeiro, January 1993. “Kurt said he’d never done anything in his life
Nirvana on the In Utero tour in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Springfield, Massachusetts, November 9/10, 1993: Krist Novoselic and second guitarist Pat Smear; Pat in typically playful mood; Kurt resting backstage before the show. “Pat’s energy onstage was so different to what they were used to. Once it started
In Utero tour, 1993: cellist Lori Goldston, Kurt Cobain; Dave Grohl with a set list from tour support, Japan’s Boredoms. “Nirvana were like Melvins but catchy. Black Sabbath meets Bay City Rollers, or whatever he said, that’s how it works
Krist backstage at the taping of MTV’s Live And Loud, Seattle Pier 48, December 13, 1993 (STEVE GULLICK)
Eric Erlandson and Frances Bean Cobain, St Louis. (STEPHEN SWEET)
MTV Unplugged, November 18, 1993. “That was an incredible show. Kurt was so focused and in it. He was so excited about his songs being taken seriously” – Janet Billig
Kurt Cobain in his ‘Dennis The Menace’ bumblebee jersey,
Backstage on the In Utero tour, 1993. “Why do I do it? Why not? It feels good. Somebody already cut down a nice old tree to make that fucking guitar” – Kurt Cobain ( EARNIE BAILEY)
In London, at the Astoria gig on November 5, I watched genius beat poet group Television Personalities deliberately fuck up their last shot at fame, playing all of their achingly honest songs at half-speed as the self-consciously ‘grunge’ crowd looked on bemused. Eugene Kelly’s fairly ordinary Captain America provided main tour support.
Dan Treacy’s TV Personalities started as a post-school project in Chelsea, London around 1977, and soon gained notoriety for their portrayal of the burgeoning, media-fed punk movement in ‘Part Time Punks’. The single was direct, humorously observant: “They pay half-fare on the buses/ And they never use toothpaste/ But they’ve got two-fifty/ To go and see The Clash/ Tonight.” The song was representative of one side of the TVPs’ oeuvre – the fun, ‘light’ side, one populated by characters from Swinging London, pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Sixties beat group The Creation and David Hockney. One where Dan could dream of hanging out with his heroes of the printed page and celluloid, everything was easy and free, ‘happenings’ coloured in with the odd blissed-out trip and sly art . . . nostalgia as only young people can handle it: trauma heightened by inexperience, regret tempered by deep longing.
By the time Dan came to record the TVPs’ fourth album, however, 1983’s The Painted Word, he’d lost his joie de vivre. Nothing could’ve prepared fans for the complexities and tortured fevers of his dark side that were thrust into the spotlight – songs of immense longing and loneliness. Often overtly psychedelic with lashings of backwards guitars and delayed vocals, the lyrics introspective and hurting, everything drawn out and lingering, it was a 60-minute album without any waste – as record label magnate Alan McGee put it, Treacy’s own Sister Lovers.5
“Kurt Cobain was sweetness on the occasions we met,” wrote Treacy in his online diary. “He stood at the side of the stage watching as we finished with �
��Seasons In The Sun’. Afterwards Krist went up to us and said, ‘ Shit, guys, you know that’s Kurt’s favourite-ever song?’ Just then Kurt introduced himself and said, ‘Hey, what was the B-side of Terry Jacks’ version?’ ‘ “Put The Bone In”,’ I replied. He smiled and shook my hand. To this day I cannot remember a top headline act letting the support use their equipment . . . really nice guys.”
Backstage, Nirvana set up a booby trap of a plate of cold cuts and assorted condiments on the top of the dressing room door, waiting for me to step through – retaliation for the MM cover story that ran a few weeks earlier, that they felt portrayed them unfairly as rock’n’roll animals.
I’d been banned from going backstage – until Dan’s girlfriend, photographer Alison Wonderland acted as a go-between and explained to Kurt that I was truly sorry for having caused offence. “Hello guys,” I blathered, opening the door. “How’s . . . oh!” I stood there, dripping from head to toe, covered in sweaty ham and processed cheese.
Courtney later screamed at Kurt for an hour down the phone over the incident: hurling barrage upon barrage of invective about rock stars who think it’s funny to bully sensitive writers. “ Jeez, Courtney,” Kurt tried to explain. “It was a joke. The Legend! doesn’t mind.”6
I have a memory of waking from a blackout backstage, to find Courtney and a female PR seated on each knee fighting for my attention, no holds barred, Mudhoney crowded round with cameras, crowing, “Look! Look! The Legend!’s scored!” – but was it that show? Who knows? Later that evening we went clubbing, and Courtney and I got into a fist fight with a magazine editor. At least . . . it was somewhere around this time.
On November 23, in Ghent (Belgium), Nirvana covered Leadbelly’s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ – Dave playing bass lying flat on his back, Krist on drums and Kurt with his guitar jammed into the drum kit. Bits of the instruments ended up all over the stage. “I remember that,” Craig Montgomery exclaims, “when they smashed the bass and part of it flew out into the audience and hit this kid in the face.” Krist tried to comfort the stricken fan while paramedics strapped him into a wheelchair, blood pouring on to the dressing room floor.
“By that tour,” the soundman continues, “there were a lot of times where it seemed like Kurt wasn’t enjoying himself, or maybe he was preoccupied with Courtney, but it felt down at times – when that kid got hit, that was a real downer. We were afraid that someone was going to get sued or arrested . . .
“We were also concerned for the kid’s health,” he adds hastily. “I think it knocked a tooth out. Krist felt pretty bad.”
Courtney was becoming inescapable. Hole played support that night – linking up with Nirvana briefly in the middle of their own European tour – and Courtney was egging Kurt on from the side of the stage. According to Oor journalist Willem Jongeneelen, “ Krist was playing bass naked7, and Hole were provoking him. [Guitarist Eric Erlandson also ran on stage and rugby-tackled Kurt – a favourite sport for rock stars back then.] I do not know exactly when their child was born but it would not surprise me if it had been conceived that night. After the show, Kurt and Courtney were horsing around and playing tag like little children.”
Nirvana travelled to Amsterdam, where they stayed at the Museum Hotel. Meanwhile, Hole played in Nijmegen, where Courtney stated that she’d fallen for Kurt, and asked from on stage if someone could drive her to Amsterdam. Nathalie Delisse, a local musician, took up the offer.
“It was like an auction,” she told Oor in 1994. “She offered 150 guilders, I raised my hand: deal. Complete madness. When the show was over there were some calls made to the hotel, to announce her arrival. She had to perform in Lyon the next day, so I had my doubts, but we went to Amsterdam in my Citroën 2CV, through the fog. She was still wearing her stage dress and started talking about babe bands like Babes In Toyland, the Chili Peppers and her love for Kurt. She had a real crush on him. After the Belgium show the day before, they really seemed to hit it off. She told me that together with Kurt they smashed guitars and she found it to be a very sensational, liberating experience. She was tired, busy and chaotic. At the hotel she invited us in but I did not feel like it. The rest of Hole was not so happy with the departure of Courtney. The manager was very pissed.”
The couple bought heroin, and spent the day in bed together. “That was bad news, her missing that show,” comments Craig wryly. “So yeah, Courtney was riding around in our van, which was fine, she was fun to have around. Everyone was getting along with her back then.”
The show the following night – at the legendary Paradiso Club – was the hottest ticket in town. “It sold out in 10 minutes,” enthuses Dutch promoter Carlos van Hijfte. “It was a lot of excitement for those of us who had been supporting the American underground guitar scene. We realised that one of the bands we’d booked in clubs, put in vans, slept on our floors, had become huge in the mainstream world. Susan Sasic [Sonic Youth/Nirvana lighting director] invited me to dinner with the band and crew. We went for a nice Indonesian meal – everybody except for Kurt. In the afternoon, someone from Belgium showed up who’d been hit by a guitar. They wanted some payback maybe, for some damage.”
A bailiff temporarily impounded the band’s equipment. “Four minutes before the band went on stage a settlement was reached,” recalls Paperclip’s Ruud Berends. “Money was not an issue.”
The following day, Nirvana returned to the UK for yet more dates. Shonen Knife was the opening act: “ Shonen Knife were very shy,” says Craig. “And they were much more mild-mannered than L7 [the previous tour’s opening act]. They’d drink a beer but they weren’t going to be destroying stuff. They played beautifully, and sang like angels. Shonen Knife was exactly the kind of band that Kurt liked.”
“I’m sure that I was twice as nervous to meet them as they were to meet us,” Kurt told me in ’93. “I didn’t want to offend or scare them in any way, because I know I’m a scruffy, slimy person who might scare them off . . . and that’s exactly what I did. They were afraid of me. In fact, on one of our first dates together, they saw me in the backstage area walking towards them and they screamed at the top of their voices, turned around and ran away from me, and then peeked their heads out of their dressing room. I had to say, ‘I promise, I won’t hurt you!’ The communication we had with them was deathly silence and a lot of smiling.”
Growing up in Aberdeen: Kurt, April 1969. (COURTESY OF EARNIE BAILY)
The Cobain family (Wendy, Don, Kim, Kurt) 1974. ( TDY/ REX)
Early Nirvana, with Dave Foster (left), 1988. “Dave was a lot closer to what they wanted, because he was a Dale Crover wannabe. Me and Dylan referred to him as Anger Problem Dave because he would blow up and scream at Kurt or Krist” – Slim Moon (RICH HANSEN)
“Kurt was schooled in Olympia. Kurt made money in Seattle. And Kurt probably partied in Tacoma” – Bruce Pavitt at the
Slim Moon, founder of Olympia Riot Grrrl
“I know I’m going to sound like a complete country bumpkin… but to have a real live British music journalist in our midst! I was in awe” – Jonathan Poneman with Everett True, Seattle, 1991 (CHARLES PETERSON)
Nirvana, Seattle 1989 with temporary extra guitarist Jason Everman (third left) and Bleach drummer Chad Channing (first left). What do you think Jason brought to
Krist Novoselic, London Astoria (‘ Lamefest’), December 3, 1989. “ Krist was swinging his bass around, when all of a sudden it got loose and I fucking had to put my hand up. If I’d been any slower it would totally have gotten me” – Dan Peters (STEVE DOUBLE/SIN)
Kurt Cobain airborne at the ‘ Lamefest’. (STEVE DOUBLE/ RETNA)
Nirvana, London Astoria, December 3, 1989. “Remember Lamefest? The show scarred me. Mudhoney headlined, but Nirvana stole the show.
Grunge takes Seattle: “Gritty vocals, roaring Marshall amps, ultra-loose GRUNGE that destroyed the morals of a generation” – early Sub Pop press release describing pre-Mudhoney band Green River. Top: Soundgarden, Seattle, 1987 (from
l-r: Kim Thayil, Hiro Yamamoto, Chris Cornell, Matt Cameron). Bottom: Mudhoney, 1987
Tad Doyle proudly sporting his ‘Loser’ T-shirt, 1989. “We discuss to this day
On November 26, Nirvana played Bradford – and then Birmingham and Sheffield, the latter town on the same day that they travelled down to Shepherds Bush in west London to make their legendary appearance on chart show Top Of The Pops. Kurt sang the vocals to ‘Teen Spirit’ live, dressed in bug-eyed sunglasses and striped top, stuffing the microphone in his mouth and lowering his voice until it was a grotesque baroque approximation of the former Smiths singer, Morrissey. Meanwhile, Krist and Dave hammed it up, not even pretending to play their instruments. At the end, a handful of grungy 14-year-olds climbed up to dance with the band in what had to be one of the lamest stage invasions ever: but still, it was nice for the kids watching on their parents’ TV sets to see teenagers like themselves momentarily hogging the spotlight.
“I’d pay a lot of money to see a playback of that again,” smiles Craig. “We were laughing so hard we were crying and couldn’t sit up any more. They were always a hilarious band. People forget that it wasn’t all drugs and angst and downers, it was the funniest thing you ever saw and if they played on a festival with serious bands they’d make the serious bands look silly. They had a great sense of humour, including Kurt, even though he was very devious about it. That Top Of The Pops thing might be one of the best comedy moments ever on British TV.”