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When Nirvana Came to Britain..BBC2

Cheers for posting the link.Just watched the first 5 mins and it looked superb.
Yeah great memories for me to.They where just so fresh and exciting.
 
Miss Ariel said:
Cheers for posting the link.Just watched the first 5 mins and it looked superb.
Yeah great memories for me to.They where just so fresh and exciting.
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Completely. There had been so much conformity in music throughout the 80's, and then for three poor kids who came from what was then pretty much nowhere and write anthems that would inspire a generation with passion, spirit, understanding - it was pretty epic, and possibly hasn't really been repeated since?

I loved Dave Grohls comments about their Top of the Pops performance, but I won't spoil it for you :)
 
Watched this last night. It was great.

There was also an excellent programme directly afterwards with Dave Grohl.

An excellent couple of hours of TV.
 
flutteringwow said:
Completely. There had been so much conformity in music throughout the 80's, and then for three poor kids who came from what was then pretty much nowhere and write anthems that would inspire a generation with passion, spirit, understanding - it was pretty epic, and possibly hasn't really been repeated since?

I loved Dave Grohls comments about their Top of the Pops performance, but I won't spoil it for you :)
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With regarding the comments changed music - no.
Over hyped ? What other bands at the time where as exciting and explosive live and had an album in Nevermind which every track was great and the follow up In Utero was very very good.
They certainly injected energy and blew out the cobwebs and it was so fresh.The Pixies where the same.
Dave Grohl always comes across as one of the nicest down to earth guys you could meet all the times I have seen him interviewed.
 
flutteringwow said:
Completely. There had been so much conformity in music throughout the 80's, and then for three poor kids who came from what was then pretty much nowhere and write anthems that would inspire a generation with passion, spirit, understanding - it was pretty epic, and possibly hasn't really been repeated since?
Click to expand...

I look at it from the other angle. For me Nirvana (at least Nevermind) were the diluted mainstream pop production version of a scene I’d been following for many, many years with bands like Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney etc etc. For me Nirvana represented the end of something, not the start. FWIW I rate Bleach way higher than Nevermind. That had an edge to it. I’m not saying I don’t rate Nevermind, it just felt very pop and very late, and I’d largey disappeared into the techno scene by then anyway. It certainly wasn’t an isolated thing that came from nowhere, IIRC Cobain himself stated Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt at writing a Pixies song! This scene had existed since the very early ‘80s and was more than a decade old by the time Nirvana broke into the mainstream. There are also obvious trajectories into both shoegaze and Brit Pop too. None of this stuff comes from nowhere.
 
Miss Ariel said:
With regarding the comments changed music - no.
They certainly injected energy and blew out the cobwebs and it was so fresh.The Pixies where the same.
Dave Grohl always comes across as one of the nicest down to earth guys you could meet all the times I have seen him interviewed.
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Tony L said:
I look at it from the other angle. For me Nirvana (at least Nevermind) were the diluted mainstream pop production version of a scene I’d been following for many, many years with bands like Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney etc etc. For me Nirvana represented the end of something, not the start. FWIW I rate Bleach way higher than Nevermind. That had an edge to it. I’m not saying I don’t rate Nevermind, it just felt very pop and very late, and I’d largey disappeared into the techno scene by then anyway. It certainly wasn’t an isolated thing that came from nowhere, IIRC Cobain himself stated Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt at writing a Pixies song! This scene had existed since the very early ‘80s and was more than a decade old by the time Nirvana broke into the mainstream. There are also obvious trajectories into both shoegaze and Brit Pop too. None of this stuff comes from nowhere.
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I feel they did change music myself. They developed or maybe 'extenuated' a great sound, fresh and exciting as you say, along with other bands in the PNW area, inspired people, gave people escapism and understanding, that for me is what changing music means. Everything is influenced by something else, a guitar from the 18th century played by folk musicians will have influenced other musicians, and it gets passed down throughout the ages, one can't discount them because they had influence from elsewhere, it's about what they do with that influence and sound that counts.

If we look at the Grunge movement that broke the mainstream more than the likes of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr did- Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots etc, they became the face of a genre during a major shift in society, especially for the youth, who to this point, other than Goth music in the 80's and some early 70's leftover punk, were surrounded by conformist pop music controlled by the likes of the BBC and Top of the Pops. It wasn't just the 'sound' that made Nirvana, it was the song writing that gave meaning to a generation who were beginning to see the world change at at much fast rate than ever before. The 90's were tough for young teenagers, and Nirvana, and Grunge gave us something to believe in, something to lose ourselves in. It often takes something to find a slight element of the 'mainstream' for it to become a movement and change lives. Nirvana made that happen, where others hadn't. There's a reason for that.

Bleach is my favourite Nirvana record, with In Utero coming second.

Alice In Chains Unplugged changed my life.
 
Tony L said:
I look at it from the other angle. For me Nirvana (at least Nevermind) were the diluted mainstream pop production version of a scene I’d been following for many, many years with bands like Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney etc etc. For me Nirvana represented the end of something, not the start.
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Well said, and exactly correct. Nirvana is simply the follow-on to the bands Tony mentioned; Husker Du and the Minutemen in particular.
 
I was fairly unique at the time enjoying both Nirvana and Pearljam ( early stuff at least) Considered a no no at the time!

Did Nirvana change music? well lets put it this way my other half is NOT a fan but amazing how many songs she knows and just look at the number of cover versions, some female lone vpice or vi and acoustic guitar are sublime. For me this say a lot when the songs are recognised and reworked.

will watch it tonight, hands up I was also a foo fighter fan!
 
Tony L said:
IIRC Cobain himself stated Smells Like Teen Spirit was his attempt at writing a Pixies song!
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I bought teen spirit on the day of release and when I played it I was convinced for the first few seconds it was a Pixies song (until the vocals kicked in).

As previously mentioned, I feel that Nevermind was the beginning of the end for the whole grunge / US alt rock thing. It helped with wider exposure for bands like Pixies, Dinosaur, Tad, Mudhoney etc but it also opened the doors to crud like Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains...

Bleach was ace (and is still my favourite Nirvana LP), but the release of Nevermind at the time felt like a real moment (for a short while). The hints of what was to come had been there with the Sliver single and at the Reading Festival. When they toured later that year, the idea they'd become as huge as they did just wasn't something I'd have thought.

Still, 1991 was a bloody great year (especially for me in my early 20s). I've not seen the BBC programme yet, however the Sonic Youth documentary '1991 - The Year Punk Broke' is definitely worth a watch for anyone who hasn't seen it.
 
I liked them at the time but I was a mad Pixies fan so didn’t feel Nirvana were all that original. I never bought into the Grunge scene all seemed rather mannered to me.

Nirvana were prettier than the others though. Very sad end.
 
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