10/24/90 - London, UK.
12/5/91 - Nirvana play with Captain America and Shonen Knife in London, UK at the Kilburn National Ballroom.
“We’d like to thank Captain America and Shonen Knife for making us very happy!” - Kurt Cobain.
10/24/90 - London, UK.
Interviewer: “How did you decide on the name Nirvana?”
Kurt Cobain: “There’s no reason at all, it just sounded nice.”
Interviewer: “Do you think that’s the state of mind you should have when you listen to your music?”
Kurt Cobain: “I’d like to think that, I feel that way at times when we’re playing on stage, I can sometimes feel a lot of real human energy, the name means freedom from pain and suffering and the external world. That’s a pretty stupid heavy little statement but it seems everyone is looking for something like that, religions a pretty popular thing, freedom from pain.”
Endless, Nameless. [Studio Demo, 1991, BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, UK]
“Dave and Krist were in another world. They looked drained, zombified, tired beyond all help. But Kurt looked far, far worse. I made a bee-line for him. I stood two inches from his his face and spoke to him, but his eyes didn’t see me, nor did his ears hear me. He hadn’t a clue who the hell I was. We decided to let the guys rest, whilst their crew assembled their equipment and Fred and Mike set up mics and inserted cables and plugged-up compressors, limiters, effects units, reverb, delays, repeats… fairy dust as it’s called in the trade. Kurt fell asleep on the big couch at the back of the recording console.” - Dale Griffin. [producer]
12/05/91 - Kilburn National Ballroom, London, UK.
“What’s the date today? Oh, today’s our day off, see ya!”
Today in 1991, Nirvana had a session in BBC Maida Vale Studios (Studio 4).
“I remember we recorded the session around the time Nevermind went platinum in America, the band’s manager John Silva called up and told Kurt, and said, “You’ve got six white, left-handed Strats in your hotel room.” That was kind of cool. We worked hard doing lots of overdubs and Kurt did several takes for each vocal. We spent the most time on Aneurysm which they’d chosen from an import single. We worked very hard on the vocals to get the right effect. I suggested they fade in and fade out to sound like a backwards vocal and that seemed to work.
Polly became “New Wave”, because the guys wanted to speed it up, “straight punk” as they said, that’s the point of these sessions, it’s a waste of time just replicating songs and they really understood that. There was no way, for example, that they’d have done Teen Spirit; they wanted to give new treatments to obscure stuff. All in all it was a very good session. I was proud that the songs made it onto Incesticide although I didn’t gain financially in any way. I know they really liked it because they later insisted that I do the live recording at Reading. The Foo Fighters have used me ever since, too. - Miti Adhikari (producer)
Today in 1991, Nirvana performed at the Limehouse Studios for “The Word” in London, UK. The band had been booked to play this show by Radio 1 DJ, Jo Whiley, who was then working as a researcher for the show.
“We saw them briefly at the rehearsal, But the thing that made the most impression was the actual performance. I just remember thinking, “This is such an important event, and we’ve got them right here!” Quite a few of their hardcore fans had managed to get into the studio, and it was like having a band play especially for you in your front room.” - Jo Whiley.
