Here We Are Now. Entertain Us

I suppose I can thank my older sister Therese for tuning my ear towards Nirvana & their Nevermind album released in 1991.    I was lucky in that respect, being the youngest I would benefit from the varied music tastes from the rest of my family.

After my sister received a CD player as birthday gift in 1990, my musical influences could only be extended.  Since starting high school my personal cassette player had always been playing songs from albums by Guns & Roses or Metallica & my hair was starting the show the mark of these influences.

From the opening song on the Nevermind album, you knew you were listening to something different.  Smells like teen spirit blasted out the speakers & you couldn’t help but feel every crash of the drums & strum of the guitar strings.   Here were a band ready to entertain us.

Slowly Nevermind started to play more on my cassette player.  In Bloom, Breed & Lithium all brought an energy that made the journey to school a lot easier.   Polly & Come as you are gave you breathing space & time to reflect before blasting out the rest of the album.

Surrounded by other disgruntled youth in my friends in & out of school, the Nevermind album became the poet’s choice & lyrical influence for many of us. 

As we waited for a new album, I found the 1989 Bleach release & the Incesticide album from 1992 neither hit the heights of Nivermind, but Been a Son, Aneurysm, Love Buzz, Negative Creep & About a Girl could always grab my attention.

Other bands started to speak to me too Rage Against the Machine, Pearl Jam & Soundgarden helped fill the void between Nevermind & the In Utero release in September 1993.  

The In Utero album grew on me, for me it was lot darker & moodier than Nevermind, but with tracks like Serve the Servants, Heart Shaped Box, Dumb, All Apologies & Radio Friendly Unit Shifter it soon became a staple on my stereo.  With the new album released, obviously there had to be a tour too, I hoped.

A world tour was announced & Nirvana would be visiting Glasgow on 28th March 1994. Thankfully, I knew somebody that knew somebody who could guarantee me tickets for this once in a life time event.   No need to queue all night outside the record shop in Union Street Glasgow.  

With tickets in hand for my friends & I, we just had to tick off the days to the show.

Nirvana played an MTV unplugged set in New York, which my brother in law recorded for me.  This gave a very different picture of Nirvana, not the crashing drums or distorted guitar, but slow sincere delivery a band at the very top of their powers.

As we moved towards the European dates of the World tour rumours started to spread about Kurt Cobain & his reliance on drugs & painkillers to see him through each day.  

After a short break in the tour in early March, Cobain flew to Italy for treatment for bronchitis.   One morning his wife found him on his hotel room floor after an overdoes of drink & drugs.   The tour was put on hold & the band went home to sort out the problems they were now facing.    

The date for the re-arranged Glasgow show was pushed out to 15th April.

Patience was now the game for the fans in Glasgow & at the other venues across the globe.

On 8th April I remember my dad shouting me to come to the phone. My brother George had called the house & wanted to ask me something.   The conversation went something like this

George “What’s that guys name, you know from the band your going to see, the one from Nirvana?”

Me “Kurt Cobain - Why?”

George “ I just heard on the radio that he’s been found dead”

Me “ eh, what....................let me check the news”

I hung up the phone, checked teletext, phoned my friend to see if he had heard anything.  I waited to see the TV news before the story was confirmed.    Kurt Cobain was dead.

Over the next few days more stories came out about his drug addiction.  Nirvana fans held vigils in cities across the globe.   All concerts were cancelled & refunds were offered for the un-used tickets.   Most of my friends returned theirs, I kept mine, not really sure why – a wee memory of what might have been.

Even after all these years have passed, I still class that concert as the one that got away.

So much of what Nirvana released in their short career was timeless.

My daughter played a selection of songs in the car the other day & Aneurysm came on.   It sounded as good in the car as it did when I first heard it back in the early 90s.

My teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored & old!