Good afternoon folk of Hickory Nines. When I was first asked to be a guest editor for a week, I was really surprised if I’m honest and then stoked to take this on. Having never done anything like this before, it’s turned out to be one of the most engaging and fun tasks i’ve set out to do in a very long time so thank you! I hope you you enjoy the week.
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Like many people born of my generation, 1991/2 changed my life. Bored of school, ready to leave and seeking something to fill a gap, the music scene subsequently changed overnight when Nirvana appeared and I was hooked immediately. I’ll always remember Smells like Teen Spirit being heavily rotated on MTV, but mostly from that track I remember Dave Grohl’s hard as hell drumming and Kurt’s snarling. When you’re a teenage boy this is a revelation.
I then spent the following years eating, sleeping and breathing the music, obsessive over Nirvana but also enjoying the music of Pearl Jam, L7, Dinosaur Junior, Alice in Chains, Butt Hole Surfers etc, in reality they were all part of the unique Seattle movement but Nirvana had the edge, few bands matched Kurt Cobain’s aesthetic and emotional tableau.
Throughout my time with Nirvana I collected every single piece of media, vinyl, books, radio recordings, Cd’s etc that i could find. In fact I was lucky enough to have a friend whose father worked for Sony, he was able to get me the first press of Nirvana’s debut track on SubPop, which was of course Sliver/Dive. Everything I have collected has been kept in a sleeved book and stored wherever I might be, so getting it together for this first post on H9 was the first time I have seen it in 20 years.
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. I remember my events that day so unbelievably clear, I was working in-between studying at a design studio when the news filtered through on the radio. Yes he was a heroin addict, a self-loathing junkie but it absolutely felt like someone I knew had been taken away.
This brings me roundly to the title of this post and the two photographers, Charles Peterson and Steve Double who were with Nirvana from the beginning in 1989, back in the Bleach days and to the untimely end. Interestingly they captured the first photos with Chad Channing and subsequently went on to capture the introduction of Dave Grohl as well. They are presenting the Experiencing Nirvana exhibition at Proud Camden, a collection of photographs of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain that runs from 27 March 2014 – 11 May 2014.
Visit the Proud Camden website here to find out more -www.proudonline.co.uk/exhibitions