Nirvana

Music
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First real thoughts when I saw their name, it’s a song by The Cult, Bleach looks like Superfuzz Bigmuff - Mudhoney.

Then, oh my word, I cannot state this enough - that journey. Seeing them live initially on that Sliver mini-tour, then 4 more subsequent times. Every time, some kind of unreal connection and performance. Like they didn’t care. Like they cared too much. Like you just totally got it. Like they nailed the whole Hardcore goes Pop. Rooted in everything you were signposted to, taking that stratospheric. I always thought one band would do this, I never knew it would be Nirvana.

I, personally fell off them around In Utero because music changes and I genuinely felt they were in a bad place. I loved their music and seeming stance immediately. They aren’t the most important band ever to me but they also kinda are.

So, a thread to celebrate Nirvana, no ranking, categorising, album sleeve disputes, or anything such. Let the music and impact do the talking / writing.

The Cult - Nirvana (1985)

When the music is loud, we all get down…

Nirvana - Drain You (1994)

I only saw this for the first time yesterday. I’ve never seen Kurt without a guitar on stage, when he discards it and Smear takes the lead (guitar), he looks so awkward without it… but Jesus that scream, still painful that a mere moths later he was gone.

I’m not sure you, we, will ever get a band crossover to the extent like Nirvana did ever again, those boundaries are down now. Miss them.

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That (The) Cult song still slaps. Damn.

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Damn that was great, never seen him without a guitar either. Never saw them live, but could have. I didn’t go to a lot of shows before 94, if any come to think of it. I had some close friends that saw a lot of the Seattle bands at the time (lived in Texas then), and even though I listened to all those bands too I just wasn’t going. Regret that, mostly for Nirvana.

I remember the year Nevermind came out, didn’t know about them before. Was curious about the album, having heard and loving the first single. Distinctly remember leaning over and asking a cute classmate how the album was when I saw the cassette on her desk, maybe she was sticking it in her Walkman or something. She responded very favorably. Why hadn’t I gotten it yet? Don’t know, think it has literally just been released. Wasn’t long before I had my own copy of course.

The impact that album had just can’t be overstated. Still love it. And that song there is one of my favs.

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I was just too young to have seen them live.

They meant everything to me when I was 12/13 (and after) though, Nirvana and R.E.M. were the first bands I loved.

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Kurt died the year I was born so I was never lucky enough to see them live. I’ve watched their 1992 Reading performance more times than I can count though. I remember seeing it as a kid and being like “wow, here’s this band making ludicrously angry, catchy music and they look like supermarket workers”. I don’t listen to them anywhere near as much as I used to, but they were certainly the band that changed my perception of rock music aesthetics beyond anybody else.

Although I still love most of their music, I think I’ve had the realisation that sonically - up until In Utero anyway - they weren’t really doing anything that hadn’t been done before. Kurt was never shy about his favourite bands and influences, and Nevermind is basically Husker Du but slower and more nihilistically considered. The spectre of Frank Black’s songwriting is also inescapable, for my money. But they obviously had something, a spirit that captured the time way more than any of those bands (as well as being the most straight ahead) and so I’m not taking anything away from them. But I think really it was probably personality that set them apart.

Stumbled back across this yesterday on my travels and blasted it obscenely loudly three times in a row. Still one of their most overlooked ragers IMO.

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Never heard of them

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way to make me feel ancient! :wink:

I was 26 in 1994 and it was the year I lost my arm due to cancer so obviously I had other things on my mind, but similar to how older folks say they remember where they were when JFK was shot I can remember the moment I heard he’d died, that was quite the shock. Nevermind was the first I heard of them, the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit was on MTV constantly and it was an album I rinsed like millions of others.

I never got to see them live although I certainly could have, I just never went to gigs in those days. I regret that as there were tons of bands I now wish I’d made the effort to see. Ah well.

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Being as to how I am a great deal older than most of you (but younger than @LastAstronaut haha) I was around for pretty much Nirvana’s entire lifespan. My sixth form mates and I were Sub Pop kids pretty much from when the NME started writing about the label, so we all had copies of Bleach early on (I have the original Tupelo green vinyl pressing, which would be worth a bit if my brother hadn’t scratched it as soon as I went to uni). I remember five or six of us chaotically dancing to Negative Creep on an otherwise empty dance floor in the alternative club. First time I saw them was at Nottingham Polytechnic in October 1990, which was good messy fun, think this was the Sliver tour MP mentions. Then the Reading 91 appearance, famously below Chapterhouse. I was in the front three or four rows of people going mental while the rest stood and watched. And then Nevermind and Teen Spirit happened.

It was a strange experience to watch something I knew and loved explode so quickly. I’m not being Mr Indie Wanker, it was also great. Loads of great memories from the time, like watching them on Jonathan Ross in my mate’s bedroom when they played Territorial Pissing instead of whatever had been announced, laughing as the campus glam rock band started covering Teen Spirit instead of the Black Crowes, watching the yellow corporate whore T-shirts appear all over the city (I will admit to being bit of an indie wanker by loudly preferring my original white circles of hell crack smoking motherfucker version). Nirvana were everywhere that autumn and winter, and I was loving it. It was kind of like a slow motion version of the euphoric rush you get from Nirvana’s best records. I saw them again at Rock City in December (luckily I’d bought the ticket months in advance) and that was the last time I ever saw them. By the time In Utero came out I’d discovered the delights of loud electronic music in fields, and so I was interested and enjoyed it, but the passion wasn’t the same. It wasn’t them, it was me. Still undeniably a great band, and I’m so grateful that I was there at the time. I learnt about Kurt’s death from Teletext, and can still remember the moment now.

There’s a good clip from Japanese TV about that Rock City gig. Nirvana - Rock City, Nottingham 1991 - YouTube

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Friday night. I first found out when going onto the Channel 4 teletext music news page. That was our/my internet back then.

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I had a ticket for one of the 1994 Brixton gigs but obviously it didn’t take place.

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Exactly the same for me!

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cheeky young whippersnapper, get off my lawn! :older_man:

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I had the radio on and was actually sat on the bog, most memorable shit ever! :grinning:

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On a side thing.

Anyone know who the editor of the Channel 4 music teletext was?

They seemed like they really loved music and their job was more of a labour of love. It used to be the first place to report when bands were touring/releasing new stuff.

Despite the lack of pages they were allocated they reviewed some brilliant under the radar albums when they could have done the easy thing and just review the most popular acts back then.

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it was john earls later on, dunno how long he did it for but he was great. dunno how much music writing he does these days

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Great clip. I moved to Nottingham in 1991 with my family when I was 10. It would be a few years before I discovered Rock City (world’s best venue)! Loved seeing the early 1990s Notts folk. Just can’t imagine how mind-blowing it would have been in the crowd when Teen Spirit kicked in.

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Yes, all of two (2) years younger!

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No Nirvana, no Puddle of Mudd so I guess there’s that.

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This is now the Nirvana thread.

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According to this, John Earls only started writing for teletext in 1999 and that was for the Club section not PS. I thought it was way before that. Before John Earls, Stephen Eastwood was the PS editor

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