All language subtitles for When.Nirvana.Came.to.Britain.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

Having sold over a million records
in six weeks,

they're straight in at number nine,
here's Nirvana,

with Smells Like Teen Spirit.

CHEERING

MUSIC: Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Nirvana

It was a time when the
music industry, rock and roll,

just needed to be shook up.

This little band from Seattle,
having the audacity to, like,

break on to TV and be so subversive.

It was punk rock.

# With the lights out

It's less dangerous

# Here we are now

# Entertain us

# Yeah! #

The UK definitely responded
to Nirvana

much more before America.

You guys were the first
with everything.

It really is like a second home.

Nirvana brought to Britain
the most exciting time in music.

They left an incredible legacy
to so many bands

and so many music fans.

I'd never seen somebody
running at full pelt

and taking a dive onto the drum kit.

# With the lights out

# It's less dangerous... #

We didn't know then we were
sitting in a room with a band

who were going to go on and be
the biggest band in the world.

If you say to people now that
Nirvana played in my pub,

they go, "Aye, right".

But it happened!

# Entertain us

# A mulatto

# An albino... #

He came on in a medical smock.

It was just wonderful
rock and roll theatre.

# A mulatto... #

Everybody's talking grunge.
What exactly is it?

They made it all right
to be an outsider,

they made it all right
to not fit in.

A lot happened to Nirvana
in a very short period of time,

and that can be hard to survive.

# A denial! #

This programme
contains strong language

MUSIC: I Should Be So Lucky
by Kylie Minogue

The '80s in Britain was all about
wealth and affluence and power.

Music was very formulaic.

You had a lot of
Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

Everything was just
very shiny and very happy,

and there was very little rebellion.

MUSIC: Cross My Broken Heart
by Sinitta

I was always one of those people
who never felt like they fitted in.

And I think a lot of people
like myself were seeking something

else that was an alternative.

# Cross my broken heart
and said goodbye... #

In July of '88, I'm running this
little agency, working out of my

bedroom in Nottingham.

I had no cash, and I was
promoting gigs and losing money,

Purely by chance, somebody called me
up and said, "Oh, you know, there's

"these people in Holland
and there's these guys in Germany

"and they're bringing bands to
the UK. I wonder if you might be

"interested in helping them
to set up some shows."

And I started to develop
these relationships

with these American artists
and the American labels.

And I begin to hear
about the label Sub Pop.

Sup Pop were an independent
record label based in Seattle,

in the Pacific Northwest
of the United States.

They were known for this strain
of music that would become known,

in time, as grunge.

They had the likes of Mudhoney,
Tad and Soundgarden.

I think Sub Pop was probably
a reaction to the government

and the society that was going
on in America at the time.

So it was very anti-conservative.

It was very much about the spirit
of independence. It was about doing

it yourself. It was about
the spirit of rebellion

in a record label.

And one day, through the post,
I get sent a seven-inch single

of Love Buzz,
the first Nirvana seven-inch...

MUSIC: Love Buzz by Nirvana

..with a little note,

"I think you'll like this."

I'm about 20 seconds into
this record and I think,

"I don't like this, I love this."

# Would you believe me
when I tell you

# You're the queen of my heart? #

This very raw, vocal,

and this really...
real melodic sensibility.

# Can you feel my love buzz?
Can you feel my love buzz? #

And I started petitioning Sub Pop -

"We've got to get Nirvana
over here to tour."

MUSIC: School by Nirvana

Nirvana came to Britain in 1989.

They were touring with Tad,
a double headliner,

Sub Pop extravaganza,
and also with an opening band

called The Cateran, who were
from Edinburgh in Scotland.

# Won't you believe it?
It's just my luck

# Won't you believe it?
It's just my luck

# Won't you believe it?
It's just my luck... #

We did the tour as sort of first on.

It was fantastic.

There was Kurt and Krist,
and the drummer at that point

was Chad Channing.

That was the last tour
he did with them.

Lovely guys.

# Won't you believe it?
It's just my luck... #

Yeah, I'd never been
to Great Britain, and we got

off the plane and we were
in this...a different world.

Just got to be careful which way
you look when you cross the street.

Whenever I went to London or
Manchester or Leeds, Newcastle,

I always had a great time there.

Just your typical kind of
working-class lads,

very kind of overwhelmed

that they were in Britain.

There was a British road crew

because the record label
had no money.

We were in a Transit van, Tad and
Nirvana were in a slightly more

upmarket Transit van
that had seats in it.

But there was a lot of them
in it, and a couple of roadies

and a driver,
so they were pretty cramped.

And we were staying in a manky flat,
having to share beds, dirty sleeping

bags, scabby carpets, people's
flats, that kind of thing.

You know, people were putting us
up at some of those gigs.

It wasn't hotels, it wasn't
glamorous, and it was hard work.

We did drink a lot of beer,
you know, mess around a lot,

but it wasn't that kind of
hell-raiser sort of thing.

It was a bunch of guys who needed
to get to bed at some point

because they were going to be up,
into the van at seven o'clock

the following morning without
having had a shower, sick

of the sight of each other,
in for another day's slog.

So it's kind of rock and roll,
but not very,

not what people think of.
# No recess! #

MUSIC: Been A Son by Nirvana

1989, I would have been 20.

I was pitching around,
following bands.

There was, like, a real
underground little movement of

people who just were
living that life.

A lot were students,
a lot were just signing on.

The future didn't seem
very bright for a lot

of young people at the time so it

was like, well, let's make our own
fun. It was a way of life, really.

Got to the first Nirvana gig, got
there for sound check, introduced

myself, and me and all my friends

would be on the guest list
for the rest of the tour.

They were like, "Would you like
a job, selling T-shirts for us?"

You'd get paid a T-shirt
a night, which was £5.

"You can either keep
the T-shirt or the £5."

I thought, "Well, I'll keep the £5,"

because that was a lot of money
back then,

I only had £27
a week to live on, on the dole.

But if I'd kept the T-shirts,

they're worth 450 quid
each now, so...

I remember at Duchess of York
in Leeds - pub by day,

gig venue by night -

it was small but excellent,
and filthy beyond words.

The Duchess was basically
a starting point for bands coming

on to the scene.
Tad were the headliners -

they were considered to be
the better band - and Nirvana

were in the middle.

I'll be honest, I certainly didn't
think that they'd be the band

that they turned out to be.

This is a really good photo of them
loading in, and I think

Kurt's in the picture somewhere.

It just shows the mundane
side of touring with bands.

It's not like today,
where they roll up with three

artics, these bands, and loads of
make-up people and wardrobe and,

you know, yoga instructors. It
just like, you know, three guys

in the band. That was it. Going on
stage, you know. What's the story?

We went up there
and just did our thing.

People were connecting
with it right off the bat.

In those days, you know,

they were all prepared to, like,
just doss down anywhere, you know,

just to get gigs.

And Nirvana went upstairs
and they kipped everywhere

around the dressing room.

We had a white leather sofa

and the bands used to write
their autographs on it,

and Kurt slept on
the sofa in my office.

In the end, I gave it to
the Sheffield Rock Museum,

which I thought was quite funny.

It would have normally been
the situation that we would

have played at the University
of London Union,

which was the established venue
for breaking artists coming

from the sort of alternative music
world, but they didn't want us.

I think they considered that
there was something rather

undesirable about these
noisy and filthy punks.

So we ended up at the School
of Oriental African Studies.

It was very chaotic,
just constant stage diving,

just absolute total chaos.

The stage diving came
out of the hardcore scene

in the United States.

That just followed us
from the punk rock scene

into the mainstream.

Kurt was coming off the stage
and I'm like, "What are you doing?

"Why don't you let
the fire extinguisher off?"

And his face just lit up
and he grabs the fire extinguisher

and just runs on stage
and lets it off.

Just like being in charge of,
like, naughty kids, you know.

The other side of it is, like, we
were getting paid for it and just

getting away with it, you know?
So it was all good.

And that was Kurt.
He could be so intense.

And that's what appeals
to so many people.

And in the meantime, we would try
to have as much fun as possible

and just be really silly.

Maybe that was just kind of
to balance the intensity.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

Well, 1989 was a year of flux, and
I think it's a revolutionary year

in a way. With the Berlin Wall
coming down, East Europe changed,

and those countries getting
out of that oppression

they'd had for years, it felt
like everything was possible.

And in a sense,
that's what the music was.

There was so many diverse and
different scenes all colliding at

the same time. The Manchester
thing was really massive,

so it's the Stone Roses
and the Happy Mondays.

Things were definitely breaking
down and changing politically,

socially and musically.

We Conservatives know what we
believe, say what we believe

and stand by what we believe.

We'd had a right-wing government
in Britain for ten years

at that point, there didn't seem
to be any potential end to that.

There was a cultural reaction, and
you saw that manifest in Britain,

specifically in the rave scene
and the acid house scene.

HOUSE MUSIC PLAYS

People were taking matters
into their own hands, and the

authorities were trying to clamp
down on these illegal rave parties.

And in a way, the music that
came out of Sub Pop and came

to the UK was a similarly
joyous expression

of people's discontent.

There was a lot of pent-up
frustration and anger, I felt,

and people were looking
for a way to express that.

Between 1989, when they toured
the UK for the first time,

and when they came back in October
1990, Nirvana had a line-up change.

Chad Channing left.

Chad was a great drummer,
but in Kurt's

mind, he was the wrong type
of drummer for Nirvana.

I was 21 years old, and the band
that I was in, that was called

Scream, we had kind of fallen apart,
broken up while we were on the road.

I was stranded in Los Angeles
with no way to get home.

And then I got a phone call from
a friend, and I had told him

that Scream had broken up.

And he said, "Hey, have
you ever heard of Nirvana?"

And of course I'd heard
of Nirvana because everybody loved

that album Bleach.

He said, "You know,
they're looking for a drummer.

"You should call them."

And so Kurt and I go to the airport
and we picked Dave up, and we found

this barn studio place

in North Tacoma, and so it
was just like, "Let's play."

MUSIC: Sliver by Nirvana

And then we would just kind of jam,

and we knew right away
it just clicked.

# Mom and dad went to a show

# They dropped me off
at Grandpa Joe's

# I kicked and screamed
Said "Please, don't go!"

# Grandma take me home
Grandma take me home

# Grandma take me home
Grandma take me home... #

Within a few songs, I just knew,
they knew, we knew that this is it.

We just had this feel together
that sounded like Nirvana.

And I think it was maybe about 30
days before we went over to the UK

for that tour.

Hey, man!

If this bird goes down,
this is the safest place to be!

I'm going to be here,

and I'm going to be safe

as can be.

Wooo!

I remember bringing a video camera
and it was just to be as silly

as possible, putting on this
persona, that's just not...

It's not the real me.

Welcome to British Airways!

Please follow all the rules.

You hear me?

As soon as you walked on this plane,
I took one gander at you and I saw

nothing but trouble.

I joined a band with strangers,

these two guys I didn't fucking
know, so that I could, like,

just kind of experience
the adventure and the mystery,

not really ever knowing
what was going to come next,

Because it says it's almost
3:00 in the morning.

Meaning we've been on
this thing for five hours.

You never know. Time flies
when you're having fun.

LAUGHTER

20th of October, 1990,
we picked them up from Heathrow,

we brought them into town
and they went and stayed

at the Dalmacia, which is a
guesthouse in Shepherd's Bush Road.

Russell! Goddamn it!

It was fairly unremarkable, but the
guy that owned the place, George,

was very, very accommodating
towards musicians.

One day, Nirvana basically
knocked on the door and said,

"Have you got any rooms?"

So I said, "Yeah, OK,
how many nights do you need?"

So they came in, they had a look
and said, "Yeah, this is fine."

Got them upstairs
to sign the visitor's book,

and that was that, they came in.

They said, "Oh, we've
got all of this stuff."

And I said, "Well, OK,
I'll stick them in the basement."

There were all three of us, like,
crammed into one little room,

like The Monkees, you know.
We're like, "Krist's bed's there,

"Kurt's there, and I'm over here."

We'd wake up in the morning,

there was this nice family
that would make us fried toast

and beans and bangers, and we'd just
sit there drinking tea all morning.

It was a massive upgrade
from the Scream days.

I mean, in Scream,
we stayed in squats.

We stayed in places where you'd show
up and they'd be burning the linens

out front because there's
a fucking scabies outbreak.

And so when I joined Nirvana,
to me, that was like...

That was some Four Seasons shit.

Dave Grohl, he's one of the few
people I've met who's always happy.

Kurt, he would be
sometimes withdrawn.

I couldn't pin him down,
character-wise.

Whereas Krist, because he was
Croatian and we're half Croatian,

we'd have a bit of a connection.

My favourite time being in Britain
was at the Dalmacia house.

I'm a Dalmatian!

Not the dog with spots,
but from Croatia!

My parents are both from there.

And so I felt right at home.

Wooo!

We would walk around
and just get lost.

Let's get some tea at the Dome Cafe.
Want some tea? Yeah.

We were broke,
but it just felt homey.

I can't get used to
the traffic situation.

Well, fuck it, man. Fuck it, man.

Start driving normally!

I have such fond
memories of that time.

I mean, we were kids, you know.
I was 21, Kurt was maybe 23,

Krist was maybe 24.

We went down to Kensington Market
and just, like, bought as many

records and cool leather jackets
as we could find.

And there was a kebab place
which was opened, luckily for us,

until three o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, it was an extension
of their kitchen.

Well, here we are.

It doesn't look that much
different to when I was last here.

This is where the Dalmacia Hotel
used to be,

and down there, I think,

that's the bus stop where we did
some of the photos, the day

I interviewed Nirvana here.

So I interviewed Nirvana in...

..I think it was late 1990.

I was working at the NME
at the time.

We turned up in this
slightly anonymous hotel

and I think Kurt opened the door.

Krist Novoselic did the entire
interview laying on his bed.

Well, with the covers over
him, actually, moaning

about the English cold
which he'd picked up.

Dave pootled around, picking up
dirty laundry, I think.

I mean, we didn't know then we were
sitting in the room with a band

who were going to go on and be
the biggest band in the world.

We talked about, sort of, where
they wanted to go musically,

and then we had quite
a long, daft conversation

about, what would be
the perfect pet?

Kurt Cobain, I think it was, said,
"I think a turtle.

"That would share my
character quite well."

We came outside and Martin Goodacre,
the photographer, did some

shots, I think, on the steps

with the Dalmacia Hotel sign behind.

CAMERA CLICKS

There's the famous Kurt Cobain shot
where he's sort of doing this kind

of...just looking up at you.

I remember Martin having his camera
ready, and Kurt wouldn't look up.

So Martin is persisting and saying,
"Come on, Kurt, look up."

And he didn't look up.

And eventually I think Martin said
something like, "If I promise

"this is the last photo
that we're going to do today

"and you can go after that,
will you look up?" And Kurt looked

up and just did that.

And that's the famous photo.

MUSIC: About A Girl by Nirvana

The first tour that I did
with Nirvana, in 1990,

that, to me, was my rock and roll
fantasy come true.

# I need an easy friend

# I do, with an ear to lend... #

All we had to do was play the music.
That was all that was expected

of us, right?

No saviours of a generation
or spokespeople for a generation.

It was about the music.

We were free. We were happy.
We were young.

We were playing music.

People were fucking bouncing
around while we played it,

and it was...it was great.

# I'm standing in your line... #

And you could tell at that point,
like, something was happening.

# I'll take advantage while... #

The UK definitely responded to
Nirvana much more before America.

It just seemed to me like you guys
were the first with everything.

Like, we cut our teeth there. After
that tour in the UK, I remember

going back to America, to the same
bars and clubs where we were playing

to 99 people, 150 people.

It was definitely not
like it was in the UK.

# I do. #

CHEERING

APPLAUSE

The late '80s, I was quite
a bit lost, early 20s, not knowing

what direction I was going in,
not dealing with

adulthood very well.

Would have been on the dole,
travelling around.

Yeah, just a bit rough and ready.

Tony was my buddy when I first
moved up to Nottingham

and we became firm friends.

Somewhere down the line
is this thing, as I did,

I would rope in my friends,
you know, like,

"Can you help me pick up
this band from the airport?"

I ended up picking Nirvana
up from the airport, '89,

I think it was,
and it started from there.

Plan for tonight.

I'm not sure how he wound up
backstage with fucking make-up

and paint all over him,
but he became a dear friend.

Kurt loved him. We all loved him.

Woo! Wooo!

I was a bit of a damaged character,
not interacting well sometimes

in social scenes, and just being
a bit weird, and I guess Kurt

was accepting of the weirdness
and took me under his wing.

He just wound up coming up
on stage and dancing one night.

MUSIC: Blew by Nirvana

This guy just started
dancing on stage and, like,

"Well, there you go."

It was like... It was kind of fun.
HE CHUCKLES

Well, I was just feeding the energy
from what was going on onstage.

Maybe a bit of a Native American
dance or just pogoing

or just doing something odd.

You know, it was just do
anything, freestyle, you know?

People would go, "Well, you know,
that was crap, I could do that."

It's like, yeah, that's
the whole point of it, you know?

I was absolutely stunned.

I was like, "Wow, where did
that come from?" You know?

The Stone Roses had Cressa, The
Happy Mondays had Bez, we had Tony,

you know? And, yeah, he's
better than all of those.

That was Tony.

CHEERING

SOLO ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYS

One thing I want to ask you is
about your influences.

I would say the biggest influence
I've ever had would be the Beatles,

because I listened to the Beatles
since I was five years old,

up until I was in fourth grade,
and I wanted to see the Beatles,

and it was about 1973 and I heard on
the radio that they'd been broken

up for three years, you know,
and I was totally devastated.

# She gives my everything

# And tenderly

# The kiss my lover brings

# She brings to me

# And I love her... #

The Beatles were a huge influence
when I was young.

My mother gave me an electric guitar
and a Beatles song book

that I would sit down,
play the records and play

along with the chords, you know?

And I had no teacher.

Like, that was how I learned
how to play was from listening

to the Beatles.

# And I love her... #

Then I was introduced to hard
rock, such as Led Zeppelin.

I got into that and

it kind of meshed together, like,
when I started playing guitar,

it kind of intertwined
the Beatles' melodic-style hooks

with heavy, raunchy guitars.

And I would say that's
probably how our style started.

# It's been a long time
since I rock and rolled

# It's been a long time
since I did the stroll... #

I'd like to think that Britain
were kind of dear to Kurt

and to Nirvana, more so
than maybe some other places.

This was the place where a lot of

Kurt's favourite bands
had come from.

We had so much respect and so much
love for bands from the UK,

like The Vaselines, The Raincoats,

because we thought, like,
their music

was worth being heard
by the masses, you know.

"If you enjoy Nirvana,
you might enjoy this."

MUSIC: Fairytale In The Supermarket
by The Raincoats

The Raincoats formed in West London
in the late '70s postpunk era,

formed by Gina Birch and
a Portuguese musician called

Ana da Silva,
and Kurt was a big fan.

When he first came to London,

he went on an odyssey, trying
to find The Raincoats record,

because you couldn't get
it in the States.

Kurt said how much he respected
what we did, and so that was

a nice thing.

I was completely surprised.

Kurt wrote this thing
which got faxed to us.

"The Raincoats recorded some
music that has affected me so much

"that, whenever I hear it,

"I'm reminded of a particular time
in my life when I was extremely

"unhappy, lonely and bored.

"If it weren't for the luxury
of putting on that scratchy copy

"of The Raincoats' first album,
I would have had very few

"moments of peace."

It's very touching.

Um... Yeah.

MUSIC: Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
by The Vaselines

# Jesus don't
want me for a sunbeam... #

The Vaselines were a great band
from Glasgow, playing

really great melodic guitar,
indie rock.

I mean, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam
is an amazing song.

# Don't expect me to cry... #

Kurt was a huge Vaselines fan,

and he would talk about
The Vaselines in interviews,

and Nirvana covered
several Vaselines songs.

Nobody liked us and
nobody really knew us,

so we were just having a night out
in Edinburgh, playing a gig,

and got to meet Nirvana,
who were complete strangers.

And Kurt just said
he liked our music,

and had a moment, you know,
that I'll never forget.

# Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam

# Cos sunbeams are not made like me

# And don't expect me to lie

# For all the reasons you had to die

# Don't ever ask
your love of me... #

This is a copy of a letter
Kurt wrote to me in 1991.

Starts with, "Hi, Eugene.

"We recorded Molly's Lips and Son Of
A Gun, hopefully to be released

"in a few months.

"The Vaselines have been my
favourite band for a long while now

"and, geez, I can't wait to see
you all soon.

"I got evicted from my apartment
and am living in my car,

"so I have no address, but here's
Chris's phone number for messages.

"Your pal, Kurdt."

CHEERNG

When we played the Reading
Festival in 1991, I think

we were halfway up the bill,
playing in the afternoon.

MUSIC: Come As You Are by Nirvana

But just seeing, like, 30,000
kids dancing to Nirvana...

..it was fucking awesome.

# Come as you are

# As you were

# As I want you to be

# As a friend, as a friend

# As an old enemy... #

But in '91, I got there and
managed to blag it in as per usual.

I just remember being particularly
impressed with the new material.

# And I swear that
I don't have a gun

# No, I don't have a gun... #

Could feel it in the atmosphere
in the crowd, definitely.

Yeah, blown away.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

MUSIC: Molly's Lips by Nirvana

They asked me to sing
the Vaselines song, Molly's Lips.

# She said she'd take me anywhere
She'd take me anywhere

# As long as she stays with me... #

I'd never been on any festival stage
in my life, and it was an amazing

thrill to sing one of your songs,
played by this great band.

# Kiss, kiss Molly's lips
Kiss, kiss Molly's lips. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

At the end of the show, Krist just
came on and smashed his bass,

and we thought,
"Right, this is different."

I'd never seen somebody
walking to the lip of the stage

and then running at full pelt and
taking a dive onto the drum kit.

CHEERING

And I was standing next to people
in other bands, like Mudhoney,

Sonic Youth, and they all went,
"Ha-ha!" like it was funny, and I

went, "Ooh, what's he done?!"
And, yeah, I think Kurt

dislocated his shoulder and he had
a sling for the rest of the day.

After Reading, Kurt sent me
a copy of the Nevermind cassette.

And so I'd done loads of copies
of that, with literally hundreds

and hundreds of, like, cassettes,

and I'd be phoning up magazines
and papers in the UK - everybody

just wanted a copy,

and there was just this,
like, amazing buzz.

CHEERING

MUSIC: In Bloom by Nirvana

Those songs are so catchy, and you
could tell that it was a step

up in terms of the song craft
that Kurt was summoning up.

# Sell the kids for food... #

Within about six months, Nirvana
were at the top of the charts

in America - they kicked Michael
Jackson off the top of the charts!

# He's the one
who likes all our pretty songs... #

You could feel that the energy
was changing and that the pace

was really picking up.

# But he don't know
what it means... #

You know, the days of just laying
around a bed and breakfast

and then loading your equipment
into a club to play for some people

had passed. At this point, we were
now doing interviews and we were

going to radio stations.

I was working on The Word,
which was a TV programme,

and I was booking bands, and
I remember sitting in the office

and it was a record label
who contacted me and they said,

"We've got this band and
they're really exciting, we think

"they're going to blow up." And just
as soon as I listened to the song,

Smells Like Teen Spirit, I was like,
"OK, right, you know, we've got

"a space next Friday. Can they
do it? Are they available?

"I want them on the show."

The Word was,
like, the biggest show

if you were kind of between,
I suppose, 12, really, and 30.

And just about anyone big
in that era, from 1990 to '95,

we got them on before anybody else.

Meanwhile, here's Nirvana, kicking
it up good style. 600,000 copies

of their album in the USA,
and first time live on TV.

CHEERING

See you next week.

It was live and it was uncontrolled,
so when Nirvana came on,

we were overrunning a bit, and then
Kurt Cobain made his famous speech.

I'd like all of you people in this
room to know that Courtney Love,

the lead singer of the
sensational pop group Hole,

is the best fuck in the world.
CHEERING

This was their Sex Pistols moment,

because musically, culturally,

philosophically, they were
a dare to people's minds

and to their sensibilities.

# Load up on guns
Bring your friends

# It's fun to lose
and to pretend... #

To me, that was almost
like a statement of intent.

It was like this little band
from Seattle having the audacity

to break onto TV
and be so subversive.

It was punk rock.

# With the lights out
it's less dangerous

# Here we are now, entertain us... #

I just made sure that
I went right down the front,

so I was literally
looking up at Kurt.

I don't think my feet touched
the ground from there on.

Everyone was just bouncing up and
down. It was just sensational.

# Yeah

# Hey

# Hey... #

Smells Like Teen Spirit was probably

the first time I'd ever heard

someone genuinely scream their songs

and what they were singing.
His voice was just that raw.

It was pure honesty
and pure authenticity.

They were just dressed
like normal folk.

And for me, that was just
an absolute education,

and it really impacted my
outlook on music and on life.

# And I forget just why I taste... #

They made it all right to
be an outsider, they made it

all right to not fit in.

# I found it hard
Was hard to find

# Oh, well, whatever
never mind... #

From when I was 12 to when I was 15,
I just wanted to be Kurt Cobain.

You know, I had all his posters
on my wall. Literally every inch

of my wall was covered
with Kurt Cobain.

It just seemed so strange to
be on Top Of The Pops, right?

I mean, that was reserved
for, like, pop bands.

"We don't belong there!"

I think there was a conversation
about lip-synching,

which we had never done, and,

you know, felt uncomfortable
doing it, and they said,

"OK, we'll let the vocals
be live, but the music

"has to be pre-recorded."

I mean, you know, they were
just asking for it!

IN DEEP MONOTONE:
# Load up on drugs

# Kill your friends

# It's fun to lose... #

He sang in this ridiculous voice.

We're all, with our mouths wide
open, going,

"What the hell is this?!"

# Hello, hello, hello, hello

# Hello, hello, hello, hello... #

The audience, some of them
may have been fans and knew

what to do, and then there
was this other faction

that was just, like, trying to,
you know, dance to it.

Just a weird environment
where everyone's like,

"What the fuck
is going on right now?!"

Top Of The Pops back then was,
like, the biggest TV music show

you could possibly be on.

This was their big, big moment,

and he completely sabotaged it.

# With the lights out
it's less dangerous... #

Nirvana had a sense of humour.

They weren't miserable
bastards all the time.

It was very slapstick and very,
you know, like Monty Python.

# My libido
Yeah... #

If they're going to do something
like that, they were going to do

their own way, and it worked
for them because it created legend

and it created myth.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

In late '91, Nirvana played
a gig in Edinburgh,

at the Calton Studios,

and then afterwards they went
to a bar called The Southern.

And this night, Kurt and Dave
did an acoustic set in this

rough and ready boozer.

I wish to God I'd been there
because it must

have been unbelievable.

Well, it has changed a bit,
but it's the same building.

Aye, it's trying to place where
everything was,

cos there was the raised stage
over there and stuff like that.

Looks cleaner than it did.

It was primarily a biker bar,
so there was always a line of bikes

parked outside in the street there.

It would be rammed and
it'd be really noisy.

Dunsy and I were a band called
The Joyriders, and I knew Nirvana

from being in the previous band
that had supported them no tour,

their first UK tour.

We were doing a charity gig for
the Sick Kids Hospital in here.

My brother was their tour manager
and we knew they had a night off,

so we kind of asked if
they'd do it. They said yes.

It started getting
really busy in the middle

of the afternoon because,
obviously, word had got around.

I remember it filling up and
thinking, "This is kind of

"spiralling out of control."
The place was rammed.

There was, what, about
200, 300 people in here?

As we went on and played longer...
And longer. ..and longer and longer,

people started leaving.

There was shouts from the audience
of, "Where are they?" and...

I think people were really
gobsmacked when David and Kurt

showed up at the door.

I said to Murdo, "I think we'll
survive this, I think we'll

"survive this."

So, I mean, the vast majority
of people had been here

during the day, had left, so there
was maybe only 30 people left

when the band actually turned up.

But if you were to do a straw poll
in Edinburgh, you'd probably meet

about, like, 500, 600 people
who will tell you that they

were at the gig. Yeah. They weren't.

We just sat on these bar stools
and played some music.

# I'm not like them
but I can pretend

# The sun is gone
but I have a light... #

I felt completely comfortable doing
that, maybe more so than anything

else we were doing at the time,
like playing on Top Of The Pops,

you know. Like, that just seemed
a little more natural to me.

To see them with pints,
strumming acoustic guitars,

just being really relaxed

and having a bit of a blether
with people,

it felt really special.

They played and then they hung
around, we shut the curtains,

and then we just stayed for most
of the night.

And then I sat at the bar
and someone gave me a lesson

in whisky that went
on for a long time!

If you say to people now that, you
know, "Nirvana played in my pub,"

they go, "Aye, right!
Pull the other one!" You know?

But it happened!

What everyone does know
about Seattle now is its music,

which sounds like the illegitimate
offspring of punk and thrash metal,

and looks like the result of a nasty
accident in an Oxfam shop -

grunge.

I wasn't really plugged into
the mainstream world, so I never

thought that we would have anything
to do with that, because we were

kind of weird. And, yeah,
then the next thing we know,

we're just really, really popular.

Everybody's talking about grunge
at the moment.

What exactly is it? OK, it's against
the commercialisation of the '80s,

and it's very anti-fashion.

It's got to be dark and preferably
faded. Flannel shirt, like that,

perhaps, over there, which you
actually put around your waist

and you don't actually wear it
as a shirt,

just as something to cover
your bottom, really.

It doesn't matter if your
jumper's got holes in it,

you can recycle clothes
and you can wear just, like,

the scruffiest things.
Oh, my God! As a scruffy kid

throughout my life, that
completely appealed to me.

It really did.

The people who were close
to the music never really took

any of that stuff seriously at all.

Once you start having £5,000 checked
shirts being worn by models

in New York fashion shows,
you know, the shark has been well

and truly jumped.

You have to remember how bizarre
it was that Nirvana became

so omnipresent and so culturally
important, because they were

the first band in my mind to do
that, to actually be so visceral,

to be so cathartic and to actually
break through into a mainstream

crowd, and Nirvana almost
requalified what pop music

could be at that point.

MUSIC: Love In An Elevator
by Aerosmith

It's also, I think, very important
to remember that rock music,

especially at that point,
was so macho, it was kind of seen

as a boys club, and Kurt Cobain
had no interest

in furthering that mind-set.

Like, what was all this kind of
misogynistic take on playing

rock music?

# Workin' like a dog for
the boss man Whoa

# Workin' for the company
Whoa, yeah... #

You know, it was a time
when the music industry,

rock and roll just needed
to be shook up.

You know, there was Aerosmith
and this...kind of this hair metal

scene that was... That was
that archetype, right?

And then in Nirvana, we came, we
had facial hair and we had grubby

clothes, but we had a very
feminine sensibility, right?

And that's how things change.

# Come as you are

# As you were

# As I want you to be... #

Kurt was a pro-feminist person

and he was anti-homophobic.

He actually said, "If you're
homophobic or don't respect women,"

and so forth, so forth,
"don't come to our gigs,

"don't buy our records."

Saying something like that
has a really big impact,

and that's one of the legacies,
I think, that he's left.

# Memoria... #

Kurt was really intense,
so he could be incredibly sweet,

but he could also spit venom.

Kurt really cared
a lot about people,

and it was a gift, but maybe
that weighed on him some, right?

As they started to explode on a
global scale, it was like being in

the eye of the hurricane.
Normality in the centre,

everything else crazy.

I think we all sort of processed
it and dealt with it and did it

in our own ways, and, you know,
as the drummer of the band,

I really was, like,
practically anonymous.

I was kind of relieved of a lot
of that pressure of the success.

I really can't speak for Kurt's
experience but, I mean, it seems

pretty clear that his experience
was a bit more complicated

than Chris and I's.

By summer 1992, the tabloids
were feeding on every bit

of Nirvana gossip, rumour
that they could find.

So there was a rather fevered
atmosphere that was building

up in advance of Nirvana's
headlining appearance

at Reading in 1992.

There was loads of rumours
that the band were going to split

up and there was lots of talk
that they were going

to cancel Reading.

Everywhere you went, people
just said, "Are Nirvana playing?

"We've heard they're not playing.
Where's Kurt?"

And it was just nonstop.

This is Little John Farm in Reading,

the site of the Reading Festival
for aeons.

It's very strange trying to get
your bearings.

Yeah, I'm guessing that...

..the main stage was
roughly over here.

August bank holiday, 1992, Sunday...

..the energy was palpable.

A sea of people,
as far as you could see, really.

On the night, Kurt just masterfully
sent up all the scare stories.

He came on in a medical smock.

He was wheeled on stage by Everett
True, the Melody Maker journalist.

With the support of his friends
and family,

he's going to make it.

CHEERING

I remember standing side stage
giggling, just hysterically.

# Some say love

# It is a river. #

CHEERING

That was his kind of like fuck you
to everybody.

It was just...just wonderful
rock and roll theatre.

ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYS

I definitely felt like we had to
prove ourselves.

# I don't care, I don't care
I don't care, I don't care

# I don't care, care if it's old. #

And at the time, I didn't really
feel entirely confident

that we could do that.

We hadn't really been playing
very much at all

and I think we maybe
rehearsed once...

..twice maybe.

# Get away, away,
away from your home. #

I think every amount of frustration
and anger that they had felt

over the last few months
was channelled into that show.

# If you have, if you need

# I don't even care,
we could have all three

# She said, she said

# She said, she said. #

CHEERING

And everyone's singing
every word to Breed

and every word to Teen Spirit,
every word to Lithium.

# I'm so happy cos today
I found my friends

# They're in my head

# I'm so ugly
That's OK, cos so are you. #

It really was a triumphant return
in a time,

where I'm not sure even
we knew we could do it.

# Yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah. #

I just remember being
so fucking relieved

that we didn't train wreck
in front of everybody.

I was...I was very happy.

# Yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah. #

I remember it being a little bit
ramshackled but...

..but that's punk rock, innit?

# Yeah, yeah. #

At the end of the night,
they just overdid it.

Just too much head-banging and...

..I had to wear a neck collar for
a few days, gave myself whiplash.

# I'm not going to crack. #

CHEERING

Them giving me the opportunity
to do this

has got me through dark times of
feeling depressed and worthless

and I just think,

"Well, hold on a minute. You've
done this. You can die happy,

"having contributed
to this mythological show."

# What else should I be?

# All apologies. #

It's bittersweet, '92, you know.

It was the last time I saw Kurt.

Reading '92 had a huge significance
or relevance in...

..the timeline of the band,
emotionally.

It was huge.

# Buried

# Buried. #

And, unfortunately, it was the last
time we ever played the UK.

Nirvana were meant to tour the UK
in spring '94,

but by that point, things were
already looking very...

..grave indeed.

There had been an overdose in Rome,
the tour was cancelled.

Things were really, really serious
at this point.

Even though Kurt was really
talkative,

it just wasn't the same energy.

The crew and everything was flat.

It just wasn't the same.

It was kind of obvious he had
a bit of a drug problem back then.

It was just really uncomfortable.

A lot happened to Nirvana in
a very short period of time.

Those few years between headlining
Reading 1992...

..and cancelling that 1994 tour,

it was kind of like...

..being shaken from side to side
and just holding on,

trying to...to keep from...

..sinking.

And so, in a way,
that was us saying,

"No, this is not going to happen
right now.

"We need to take care of
some other shit."

Nowadays, depression is...

Everybody talks about it...more
openly.

Got to look after people.

That person's struggling a bit,
we'd better go and help them.

That didn't happen then, did it?

Society used to be all about
just coping and getting on with it

and you'll all be OK.

There was so much bravado and...

..it never felt like it
was the right thing to do,

to put your hand up and just kind
say, "God, I'm struggling here."

From 1991 to 1994...

..when I think about that period,

it feels like it was ten years.

It was really intense
just from the attention.

Those are the personal things that
I'm still trying to get a grip on.

And we just wanted to make music.

It wasn't till late Thursday night,
early Friday morning

that people in Britain
found out the news.

The lead singer of the rock band
Nirvana, Kurt Cobain,

has been found dead at his home
in the United States.

Police say it looks as if
he shot himself.

He was 27 years old.

I remember coming down to breakfast
and just everyone was talking about,

"Have you heard that
Kurt Cobain is dead?"

Whatever you thought about
his mind-set at the time,

it was still such a shock.
It was so sad.

I think one of the things

we always kind of had in the back
of our mind is like, what happened?

What went wrong?

Yeah, it was extremely upsetting.

Just crying for three or four days.

I remember running straight upstairs
to tell my mum and dad

that Kurt Cobain had died
because it was on the news.

I remember it was the first time
I cried...

..about losing something or someone.

It felt like it was someone
you knew.

I'm still processing the Kurt stuff,
you know?

Because...

..I have to explain it to my kids...

..who love Nirvana.

Because for the longest time,
you know, I would...

..I would try to process and talk
about it with friends and family

and things like that...

..and they would help me...

..but...

..now, like, I feel like I
have to help my kids go through it.

It's a lifetime of healing.

It must have been over ten years
before I listened to Nirvana again.

I'd hear tracks every so often,

but most times
if they ever come on...

..I try to listen to them
but I just find it difficult.

I think all of us flailed around
for a few years

and through sort of the rest of
the '90s.

It was a very, very tough time,
personally and emotionally

and there wasn't any real closure
on it.

MUSIC: Territorial Pissings
by Nirvana

It's been 30 years,
but coming back to the UK,

it really is like a second home.

Anton Brookes, Russell Warby -

I still work with
most of those people.

Whenever the Foo Fighters
come back for shows,

like, we get together
like it's a family reunion,

so there is a bond that is like
a forever thing between all of us.

To this day, I'll get fan letters

or I meet people, like,
in the public

and they'll say, "Nirvana got me
through a really bad time",

or, "Once I heard Nirvana,
I kind of...

"..felt better about things."

And I'm so grateful that people
are connecting that way

still with Nirvana, because
that's the way I feel about music.

# Got to find a way, find a way
When I'm there

# Got to find a way, a better way
I'd better wait

# Got to find a way, find a way
When I'm there

# Got to find a way, find a way
When I'm there

# Got to find a way, find a way
When I'm there

# Got to find a way, find a way. #

SCREAMING