Interesting news from the music business; "LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Shipments of full-length compact discs in the United States reached an all-time high in the first half of 2000, up 6 percent from the year-ago period to 420 million units, said the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). CDs comprise 86 percent of the total music purchasing market and the dollar value grew 9.9 percent to nearly $5.7 billion, the RIAA said. The strong data come amid a raging legal battle between the RIAA and Internet sites such as song-swap company Napster Inc., which are accused of facilitating copyright piracy and undermining sales for music companies and copyright holders." - "Shipments of cassettes, which make up 8 percent of all product shipped to manufacturers in the first two quarters, fell 31.5 percent while both CD and cassette singles also fell. Shipments of vinyl albums and singles also declined." So while the RIAA are busy suing everyone with an MP3 file on their computer, the record sales are higher than ever. Interesting twist of irony. Story courtesy of Yahoo! and Reuters. View the full story.

Note that the chatroom is currently not working due to a problem with the IRC host, AfterNet. We are working on a solution. Also, most of the links in the movie gallery are still not working as Geffen's Nirvana site is gone for some reason.

Jack Endino recently put up his "online Garage sale" again, offering a lot of rare items from the time Nirvana's career began. This includes issues of the magazine "Backlash", the first magazine to ever interview Nirvana. You will also find a lot of stuff related to Jack's old band Skin Yard. Get a glimpse of the past at Endino's garage sale. Link courtesy of Jack Endino.

"In the August Issue of 'Uncut' magazine, there is a picture of Kurt on the cover, and the headline of the magazine is, 'Lost boys and fallen angels Kurt Cobain and the rock stars who had it all...and blew it'. There's a one page article about Kurt and his death, and then several smaller articles about other passed-on rockers. This is not really important but I'll tell you that this was by far the most offensive piece I think I've ever read about Kurt. The author does nothing but throw insults at Kurt, calling him a 'Whiney, self-pittying little asshole' among other things. If you haven't already, check it out (if you want to, it's a depressing yet very angering article; and I think the author of that article should be beaten with a large peice of frozen meat). That's it." Thanks to Bowen and a couple of others for this story. It was also briefly mentioned in the news section last month.

My e-mail software has compiled a little list of e-mail addresses sending junk and other unwanted spam. You may view it here. Some e-mail software will allow you to import a list such as this one, and block all incoming mail from the addresses on the list.

Here is a little review of the VH-1 special that aired last night, including a segment on Cobain; "It was only one segment (the first segment), and it just featured some commentary from the authors of [the book] 'Who killed Kurt Cobain'. It was hardly very original, and it featured some pretty lame rationale 'Kurt Cobain had everything to live for. He told Rolling Stone he had never been happier, he had dramatically cut back on his drug use (hello?), etc' . The show tidily forgot to mention Kurt's suicide attempt in Rome. Anyway, the show left me feeling really sad, maybe because it was done in such a clinical way (one of the responding medical examiners was on the show). The saddest part was when they highlighted the part of the suicide note, which they showed a couple of times in close-ups, where Kurt said that Frances would have a much happier life without him. If his death isn't a concrete example of depression as a physical disease just like cancer, I can't imagine one exists." Thanks to Stephen for this review. If you caught the special and want to add a comment, please feel free to e-mail it. In case you missed the special it will be repeated on THU 8/24 at 6pm/5c, SAT 8/26 at 12pm/11c, SAT 8/26 at 6pm/5c and SUN 8/27 at 10pm/9c. Thanks to Stephen for the dates.

The British Channel 4 will be airing a rare Kurt Cobain interview soon; "Rock Babylon features Shaun Ryder and his manager dad; Supergroupie Pamela Des Barres; Marilyn Manson; an exclusive interview with Kurt Cobain conducted a short time before his death and Cynthia Plastercaster, the notorious groupie who spent 30 years lovingly taking plaster casts of rock stars' penises. Rock Babylon is a compendium and celebration of the moments when the high and mighty get caught acting low down and dirty, a mixture of celebrity interviews, never- before-seen archive footage and testimonies from the backroom boys and girls who make all the excess possible." The show 'Rock Babylon with Graham Norton' airs August 26 at 11:20 PM, local time. Thanks to Rich and Channel Four for the story.

"This is from a Foo Fighters interview from some magazine. I found it on the Foofighters.com postboard: 'Any advances on the Nirvana box set?' - 'Krist and I are slowly getting there. You gotta remember, I was their 6th drummer, so there's a lot of stuff there from Flipper and Scratch acid that even I hadn't heard of before. There's also the final track we recorded, as a demo, before Kurt's death. It's definitely stuff that should come out. But we want to round up as much material as we can, to make it more interesting. Earlier this year I had thought maybe it'd be out by Christmas, I'm not sure now.' Another question: 'Are you still ambivalent about working on the Nirvana legacy when you're trying to set up an identity with the Foo Fighters?' - 'I'm sure it's there in the back of my mind. On the one hand, it was a great band and I'm extremely proud of what we achieved. On the other, there's not one day when people don't bring Kurt up in conversation. They either tell me he's an asshole for killing himself - which I think is rude - or they ask if he was murdered. Like, I'd know. I dream about him and think about him often. But it'd be really nice if I could just move on.' 'Are there any aspects of modern day rock that you blame Nirvana for?' 'Huh! If it is brought to my attention, I blame it on the Pixies, because Nirvana stole much of our stuff from them anyway, hahaha!' " Thanks to Sebastiaan for this one.

Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, turned eight years old today. Happy birthday, Frances!

Speaking of Courtney, she is apparently being sued by a film production company; "COURTNEY LOVE is being sued by a film production company for non-payment of work they did on 'BEAT', a film about the life of the late author WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS. The company, Background Productions, filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday (August 16) alleging that Love and associates behind the film were in breach of contract, committed fraud, defamation and inflicted emotional stress. According to US website Wall of Sound, the company is claiming the $740,000 it was to receive for looking after 'Beat's' day-to-day production was $100,000 shy of the figure contractually agreed. Background production supervisor Alexandra Cardenas is also suing the Hole frontwoman for defamation, claiming the stress that Love caused her on-set has led to a hernia and prevented her from returning to work. She claims Love accused her of 'being a spoiled rich girl, of stealing money, of exploiting and treating her crew badly, of being a 'puta' — a whore'. " Story courtesy of NME online. It is worth to mention that Kurt Cobain worked with Burroughs on a 'song' entitled "The Priest They Called Him".

Some interesting news about a show coming up on the US Music Channel VH-1; "NEW YORK, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Rock 'n' roll is good times, great sounds and unforgettable performers. It's also chilling circumstances, bizarre coincidences and untimely deaths. The new series 'VH1 Confidential' delves deep into our culture's hidden files to probe the mysteries, myths and urban legends of rock 'n' roll when it premieres Tuesday, August 22 at 10:00-11:00 p.m. (ET/PT), followed by new one-hour episodes debuting every Tuesday at the same time. Investigating and illuminating topics like rock records' hidden messages, shock rock deaths, missing-in-action musicians and more, each episode of 'VH1 Confidential' explores several tales from the turbulent history of popular music, featuring historic film and video footage and photographs, plus new interviews. In the series premiere episode, 'VH1 Confidential' examines: Kurt Cobain, Suicide or Murder?: The leader of Nirvana, a hugely influential artist who changed the conventions of rock music, was pronounced dead at his home of suicide-by-shotgun on April 8, 1994. 'It's a classic textbook example of suicide,' says Dr. Nikolas Hortshorne, medical examiner of King County, Washington. But Ian Halperin, co-author with Max Wallace of the book 'Who Killed Kurt Cobain?' claims 'there is a lot of compelling evidence that points to a possible murder.' " The premiere episode also includes segments on Charles Manson and The Beatles. This show is actually somewhat revolutionary as it represents the rare event of a major respected media talking about the murder theories, something MTV for example have never done. So, make sure to keep your TV tuned to VH-1 on August 22 at 10 PM ET. If you are able to tape this, please let me know as I am unable to watch it myself. Thanks a lot. Check the full press release about the show here.

"In this months edition of Circus Magazine, with Head from Korn on the cover, there is a nice little thing about Nirvana in it. It has Nirvana's C.A.T. (Circus Aptitude Test) in it. It gives some Nirvana information then tells favorite songs, videos, concerts, albums and member voted in by fans on their website. Its a nice little piece, considering they haven't been a band in 6 years". Thanks to Tom for this story.

The CGI script handling the quiz was re-written to make it process a little faster. Basically the script was written in June 1998 and as my programming skills back then were rather poor, the script consisted of 424 lines. The new version is just 192 lines, and could probably get even shorter. The questions in the quiz are the same, though. A new quiz with some new questions will be put up soon.

The latest section of NFC, "The Vault", is coming along nicely but we still desperately need YOU to submit some interesting material. For a list of what exactly we are looking for, please read this. For an example of what the vault is (probably) going to look like, you can check out a few screenshots; #1 - #2. If you would like to submit something to this section, please e-mail: vault@nirvanaclub.com. Thanks a lot.

I recently decided to host a website made by a friend of mine, Khris 'Boddah' Jensen. The site is very nice, offering touching as well as entertaining segments. There is even a little Nirvana stuff too :) You can check Boddah's site here.

A website called "Throttlebox" are soon going to offer what they claim to be one of the final interviews done with Kurt Cobain. "He was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century -- the voice of a generation, the soul of a subculture. But by March '94 -- just three years after the release of 'Nevermind' -- Kurt Cobain's struggle to survive fame and fortune had begun to take its toll. In one of his last American interviews, Cobain talked with rock writer Jim DeRogatis about recording 'In Utero,' the media's treatment of Nirvana, and life as a husband and father. Soon after, Cobain's struggle was over, his voice silent. Download this historic interview in 12 free segments, complete with audio, text and images." The interview should be available at Throttlebox.com sometime in September. Thanks to Chris for the news

Here is a rather amusing story about an exorcised Lap-top computer; "An Essex woman has had her lap-top exorcised after dead rock idol Kurt Cobain appeared on her screen and pleaded: 'Give us a kiss love.' Bar manager Gemma Franks, 24, from Colchester, thought the apparition of the former Nirvana singer was a computer virus when he first appeared on her Compaq Presario lap top. But a week later Kurt's apparition appeared again crying, 'Help me' and 'Give us a kiss love'" - "'I was sat at the screen and it blanked out then Kurt's face appeared filling the screen.' 'There was a distorted strange noise, Kurt was in pain screaming Help me, Help me. Then he stopped and he just said, Kiss me, so I put my lips to the screen and kissed him. Kurt said Mmm, you're a good kisser, then the screen went blank.' Gemma had the hard drive checked by a computer expert - but there was no virus. She then brought in paranormal investigator Jim Chisholm. He burned candles and sprinkled holy water during the exorcism ceremony - but the computer now refuses to boot-up." Well there you have it. Thanks to Ananova for the story and Tommy for sending it.

"Kurt Cobain was in the 'Heroes' column of the October issue of Guitar Player magazine. The small article detailed his equipment and his reluctance to be a spokesperson for a generation, leading to his 'self destruction' " Thanks to Tom for this one.

"Eyewitness Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Chronicle" is a brand new book, written by the journalist Carrie Borzillo. The book literally covers almost every day of Nirvana's career, beginning with Krist's birth in 1965 to April 1994, the month of Kurt Cobain's death. Of course the major emphasis is on the years 1987 to 1994 when the band was active. The book provides facts and funny stories about a ton of Nirvana concerts, and chronicles every important date of Nirvana's career; "With a day-by-day account of Nirvana's incredible career, Eyewitness Nirvana is the most complete telling of their story, not only tracking all of the band's tour dates, recording sessions, and release dates, but looking behind the scenes at after- show parties, the workings of their record label and management team and what life was like in those final months of Cobain's life."

The book also includes a small but very nice gallery of Nirvana photographs taken from various sessions and concerts. Carrie told me that two versions of the book have been published; a US version called "Nirvana: A Day-By-Day Eyewitness Chronicle" and the UK version mentioned earlier called "Eyewitness Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Chronicle". Only the UK version comes in a hardcover but the content of both books is the same. I have not had a chance to read the entire book yet, but my initial impression is very good, and I would strongly recommend picking up a copy of it. It is also worth to mention that this website is mentioned as one of the first in the book's credits :) To finish off here is a small random example from the book: November 3, 1991; "Nirvana-mania is setting in and Kurt Cobain is a bit uneasy with it. In a story in the Chicago Tribute on this day, Kurt says, 'All this attention is getting to be a bit unrealistic. I hardly have any time for my life anymore. I don't have a life. It's Nirvana, Nirvana, Nirvana. It's a bit exaggerated. We just want to play music.' " (quote: "Eyewitness Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Chronicle. © 2000 Carrie Borzillo and Carlton Books Ltd.)

The book should be available online from the British Amazon. The UK version's ISBN is: 1-84222-024-1. For the record, the correct spelling of the author's last name is Borzillo :)

"What do Frank Sinatra, Nirvana and Leonard Cohen have in common? They made some of the most morose albums of all time, the British music magazine NME says. The Top 10 list of misery and tortured souls runs from Big Star's 'Sister Lovers' and Billie Holiday's 'Lady In Satin' to two offerings from Joy Division." The Top 10 also includes Nirvana's 'In Utero' on spot #4. I'm not sure how songs like "tourette's" and "Rape me" can be the 4th "best [pieces of] music to accompany a bout of the blues", but I'm sure those nice journalists do :) Thanks to Yahoo! and NME for this story.

From Jeremy; "This does not really pertain to Nirvana, but I was watching Rock Show on VH-1, the 'Bad Girls' episode. And, of course, Courtney Love was chosen along with Janis Joplin, Patty Smith and many other bad girls. It told a little bit about her career before it started talking about her marriage with Kurt. They stated that her fame "sky-rocketed" when she married him. I just thought that was kind of funny that VH-1 would say that when a lot of people want to deny it." Thanks to Jeremy and VH-1 for this one.

From Beans; "The Meat Puppets recently got signed to Breaking/Atlantic Label, which means we can expect a new album and a tour. I just thought it would be nice if you could mention it in other news. There is a brief and obvious NIRVANA mention on their page too." The Meat Puppets are featured on Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" album.

Scheduled to open around October 1st, 2000, is a new section of this website called "The Vault". The intention is to get as many Nirvana fans as possible to submit something original, such as an article they have written about the band, a picture they have taken of them, a poem or something like that. Depending on how many people submit material the section should be quite interesting. If you want to learn more about this project please go here. The section will mostly consist of material submitted by all of you out there, so any contribution is greatly appreciated, and you will obviously receive full credit if you send something to The Vault at: vault@nirvanaclub.com. Again, find more details here.

"A series of Platinum Series albums were launched and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in NY was one of them. It's basically just a silver box with the CD inside and the tracks are exactly the same. Other than Nirvana, there was also The Cure, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and many more." Thanks to 'uh' for this story :)

In the July issue of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine there is a hilarious article about Napster that you ought to check out. The same issue also features an interesting article about internet addiction.

Unfortunately, most of the movie gallery is reporting dead links at the moment as Geffen's Nirvana site hosting the clips is not available at the moment. It will probably return soon. All files in the sound gallery, apart from most of the MP3's, are now back online as well. MP3's will be up soon.

Not so long ago, a song called "Rocked by Rape" turned up on Napster - labeled as a Nirvana track while it was obviously not. Even so, a few gullible Nirvana fans thought it was Kurt playing on it (god knows why). Here is some more info; " The song you mention in your Nirvana Song List, Rocked By Rape, is by The Evolution Control Committe. I went to their website and I didn't really take a good look around, but it is mentioned there a few times and that CBS threatened them" The Evolution Control can be visited here. Someone else submitted some more detailed info a few weeks ago; "It is actually by a group of 'Electronic musicians' called Evolution Control Commitee (ECC for Short). They released it on Napster as what they call a Napster bomb. Basically they mislabel it and hope people download it thinking it is Nirvana. The reason they did this was [that] it is in the process of being banned by CBS news. Oh and the weird music in the background is AC/DC as far as I recall, I cannot remember what track. They have also released this under different band names but Nirvana seems to be the only one that appears regularly on napster." I would put up the "song" here but I don't want to give it more attention than it has already received. Thanks to Stephen Paulger for the last bit of information. So just to make it clear: "Rocked by Rape" is NOT a Nirvana song and has nothing to do with the band. Fortunately, a list of fakes like these will be available on a Nirvana website opening soon.

In case you cannot access the website Digital Nirvana at the usual address, you may find it at this URL for now. Note that the sub-domains are located in folders instead. So the bootography, for example, is at: http://digitalnirvana.finesthost.com/bootography

From Bertan; "Turkish monthly music magazine 'Blue Jean' gave away this month a Nirvana Best-of CD containing Nirvana videos. The cd included SLTS, Come as you are, In Bloom, Heart-Shaped Box, Sliver, Man who sold the world, All apologies (unplugged) and About a girl (Unplugged). It also included Lithium and About a girl from the 'Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!' video."

The popular NFC Discussion Board is also back now. It should be noted that the forums were completely reset when the board moved to the new server, and this time around the messages posted prior to the site moving have not been saved. But I am sure the board will be filled with posts again after a few days. Also notice that if you registered a username on July 22 or later, you must register it again. At the same time, all updates made to your existing profile after July 22 must be made again. Otherwise the board should be back to normal. I cannot guarantee at this time that the host will allow enough bandwidth and CPU for the board to continue undisturbed, but let's hope so. On a final note, most of the archive should be available again in a few days. By complete accident I linked to a temporary UBB at novogate.com, from the main page, instead of to the real board at this server. I have no idea how this could happen but sorry for the mistake. Please do not use the forum at novogate.com and instead use the real board which, of course, is located here. Sorry for the confusion.

After a little more than a week of downtime, The Internet Nirvana Fan Club is finally back online. We are terribly sorry about the site being unavailable but the problem was out of our hands. Unfortunately, the host which we'd only used for two months turned out to be a bunch of amateurs. Now the site has switched to a more professional host and we now have a semi-dedicated server at our disposal. This should hopefully mean that the site won't be down for a while. But after transferring host about seven times now, who knows what happens. As it turns out, another very popular Nirvana site - Digital Nirvana - was also disabled by the very same host I used. Fortunately this great site is also back now, courtesy of a different host. Though it should be noted that the sub-domains no longer exist. Instead the bootography for example is located in a /folder. Essentially the only one to blame for shutting down the two most visited Nirvana sites on the net is the company Communitech and their subsidiary Canaca. If you ever find yourself looking for a virtual webhosting provider, make sure to stay as far away from these as possible. Note that certain sections of this site are not back yet, such as the sound gallery. Please have patience as the whole site is being re-established. Thanks for your patience, and again sorry for the long downtime. By the way, all @nirvanaclub.com e-mail addresses should also be working once again.