NFC News 11/1999
- - - November 30, 1999 - - -

The Nirvana photo exhibition in London, as mentioned several times here, has apparently received some mixed reviews from the critics. Story follows; "Although the selection of photos is wide-ranging, with half of them being black and white pictures from concerts in the U.S. and Britain, it's the other half of the shots, which are posed and scream 'magazine feature,' that bring the exhibition down. Shots of Cobain standing on a street near Times Square in New York with a sign that says 'Men Don't Protect Anymore' in the background, taken by Sweet in July 1993, are particularly stiff. There's something too staged about the pictures, with Cobain hiding behind dark glasses and his stringy dyed hair that puts the viewer off. The photo tries too hard to convey that Kurt is a rock rebel and superhero. Close-ups of the band, taken by Goodacre in 1990, are also very contrived, as Cobain has put on some out-of-character, heavy eyeliner for the occasion -- which just happened to be a session for the cover of NME. This photo has actually been criticized a lot; for instance, in the forward to the book, The Nirvana Companion: Two Decades of Commentary by John Rocco, Everett True writes, 'It looks nothing like the Kurt Cobain I knew, presents such a one dimensional, distorted picture of him... I have nothing against Martyne Goodacre, it's the lack of context I can't handle.' Yet, there are also some more natural moments that have been luckily immortalized. Steve Gullick, who was a personal friend of the band, took many candid photographs of them in 1990 when they were staying at a hotel in Shepherd's Bush, West London. One hotel room shot especially captures the group's casual attitude towards stardom and their teenage mentality as all four sit on the floor and Cobain gives the cameraman the middle finger as he covers his head with a sleeping bag. Another bemused shot of Cobain, taken by Gullick in Seattle in 1993, wrapped in a long tinsel Christmas wreath demonstrates that deep down he was just an average guy who happened to play guitar and make millions from it. The commercial aspects of the show seem to be far reaching as it's sponsored by Levi's and prints are priced from £420 ($675) for the small ones up into the thousands for the larger ones. However, fans who kept up with the music scene during this time period will be asking themselves what's all the fuss about as they've probably seen most of the shots before. In fact, this exhibit is more a tribute to the band's ironic, snowballing success since Cobain killed himself in '94, than the group itself -- the scruffy looking boys who made 'grunge' a household word." Story courtesy of CDnow, Inc./All Star News.

Remember that the winners of the 4th NFC Competition will be found tomorrow so if you have not entered your name yet - this is your last chance. The 5th competition, offering some very special prizes, will be online soon. The winners of the current competition will be put here, and on the competition page, sometime tomorrow.


- - - November 29, 1999 - - -

As discussed in NFC Newsletter #26, it was proven a couple of months back that a song, previously known as 'In His Hands', was actually called 'Verse Chorus Verse'. A title that was previously believed to belong to a whole different song. To sort this out, Mike of 'The Happening' contacted Krist Novoselic to get his comment. He confirmed that the song we previously called 'In His Hands' (or 'In His Room') was actually called 'Verse Chorus Verse'. He also confirmed that the song on the No Alternative compilation is really called 'Sappy', as it was also believed to be. The only part that is still a bit up in the air is whether or not this song ('Sappy') has also been officially referred to as 'Verse Chorus Verse' -- for one, Chad Channing said it was renamed from 'Sappy' to 'Verse Chorus Verse'. This is obviously somewhat unlikely considering that this title was already used by the other song. So, for now we will just say - as Krist confirmed - that the song on the No Alternative compilation is called "Sappy". We'll also say that the song performed at the 4/17/91, 11/25/90 and 8/17/90 shows is called "Verse Chorus Verse" -- the song previously referred to as 'In His Hands'. The latter is believed to have been recorded during the Nevermind sessions. "Sappy" was recorded for No Alternative and on a couple of other occasions. It was also performed live several times. You may download a clip of Sappy or download a clip of Verse Chorus Verse. Don't worry about the 'ID3 tags' that are incorrect in both of these cases. Thanks to Mike Ziegler for this news. You may take a look at Krist's e-mail to Ziegler here.

The auction, of a Guitar owned by Kurt Cobain (mentioned a couple of days ago), has now finished. The winning bid was no less than $14,200.00. However this was below the reserve price which means that the seller doesn't have to let the item go for this price. The seller told me that; "I may run the Univox for another week if it doesn't do well" - thus it is likely that the guitar will be put up for auction again. We'll see!

Not much of an interesting story, but I figured I would put it here anyway; last night at exactly 2:00 AM (local time), a Nirvana video was played on MTV Germany. I don't remember the last time I've seen a Nirvana video on MTV so I thought this was pretty funny, especially considering the fact that the video they played was the 1990 version of In Bloom. That one could be considered the most 'rare' of the Nirvana music videos. The video was part of a 2hour show playing rock and heavy music, the only time you'll see such videos on MTV - a show airing between 1 AM and 3 AM ... that says a lot right there, I suppose. Speaking of this video, it is quite possible that it will be included with the 1999 NFC Christmas present - which will be put up sometime during December. More info about that will follow in a week or two.

Gear magazine recently had a poll of the 100 greatest albums of the 100 past years; "They asked musicians, producers and critics to pick their favorites. Not surprisingly, the Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' - one of the greatest flowerings of the Fab Four's experimental bent - was declared No. 1. Revolver settled in the No. 4 position. The only real surprise in a list dominated by familiar faces like the Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Sex Pistols and Nirvana was the No. 3 choice. Miles Davis' masterpiece 'Kind of Blue' wasn't just the only jazz album in the Top 10. It was also the only Top 10 album other than Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On?' recorded by an African-American. The choice of Lennon over artists like Elvis Presley and classical composers such as Wagner proved controversial. One professor declared the Beatles 'a Shakespeare for the 20th century.' Another commentator rejected the poll as meaningless and said the participants gave standard responses." Thanks to Matt Stewart for this story.

Here are Nirvana's placements in the various categories;
"Top 10 Greatest Albums of the Past 100 Years" -- 'Nevermind' #7.
"Music of the Millennium's Best Band" -- Nirvana #6.
"Music of the Millennium's Best Album" -- 'Nevermind' #5.
"Music of the Millennium's Best Songwriter" -- Kurt Cobain #10.
"Music of the Millennium's Best Song" -- 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' #5.
"Music of the Millennium's Best Male Singer" -- Kurt Cobain #10.

It is worth to mention that Kurt Cobain didn't make it to this Top 10: "Music of the Millennium's Most Influential Musician".

  • 1. John Lennon
  • 2. Elvis Presley
  • 3. Michael Jackson
  • 4. Jimi Hendrix
  • 5. Sir Paul McCartney
  • 6. Robbie Williams
  • 7. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  • 8. David Bowie
  • 9. Bob Dylan
  • 10. Johann Sebastian Bach

    Thus, the top 10 listings in that category. I pretty much agree with that perspective, though I don't see how the hell Robbie Williams ended at place #6. Whoever sees him as a bigger influence than Mozart and Bach needs a head examination. But then again, without knowing the answer, I'm willing to bet a million bux that this magazine is British which would explain place #6 ... pretty much down to the bare bone.

    - - - November 28, 1999 - - -

    At first I didn't get the idea behind Krist's new band, The WTO Band, but after listening to the news today I started to see what was going on. As it turns out there is a WHO summit in Seattle on Tuesday (November 30), the same day Krist's band will do a show in Seattle as I mentioned in the November 24 update. Here is a little background on that story; "Initially welcomed by boosters as a way to highlight Seattle's rising status in global commerce, the economic [WHO] summit may be remembered instead for thousands of protesters intent on shutting down an organization they see as a juggernaut of ruthless capitalism." - "For every campaigner lying down on a sidewalk this week to protest the WTO's efforts to reduce trade barriers, there is a happily employed Seattleite whose job depends on free commerce with the world" Read full story, courtesy of CNN. Here is a little more info on the event, courtesy of Reuters; "Trade ministers from 135 nations, meeting here this week, hope to narrow their differences over farm subsidies, labor standards and other thorny issues and launch a new round of global trade negotiations. Under pressure from farmers and other groups who see freer trade as a threat, World Trade Organization (WTO) members have been hard-pressed to agree on an agenda for the new round, which aims to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers in industries ranging from agriculture and construction to entertainment and telecommunications." Full story. More information here and here.

    So, as it seems, a lot of people will be protesting in Seattle against WTO and their efforts to harmonize the world trade. Among these people are Krist Novoselic who's way of protesting against WTO will be to perform with 'The WTO Band' on Tuesday. Most likely this will be the only performance by the band ... but only time will tell. Drop me a note if you're going to the show on Tuesday. Thanks.


    - - - November 27, 1999 - - -

    If you have a lot of money to burn, you might be interested in this; an original Univox guitar owned by Kurt Cobain is currently up for auction on eBay. While a lot of frauds operate there, this one should be for real. The guitar was used in Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" video. Here is the seller's description of the item; "White 1970's Univox Hi Flyer (#037472) owned by Kurt Cobain and used in Nirvana's 'Heart Shaped Box' video. Kurt bought the guitar from a pawnshop in the Chelsea District, while in NYC to play the Roseland Ballroom in July of 1993. Modified for his use, this guitar has hand painted dots on the underside of the neck, Gotoh Tuners, roller type string trees, straplocks, and a Badass bridge cut and intonated for left handed playing. Kurt had this guitar shipped to Los Angeles for the filming of the 'Heart Shaped Box' video when he couldn't find his favorite Mustang, which he later discovered under his bed. This guitar was smashed by Kurt at Memorial Hall, Kansas City, on the third date of the group's final U.S. tour (10-21-93). Included is the case, which has on the outside: A) shipping label from; Juke Box City (where the band rehearsed material for 'In Utero'), to; (tour manager) Alex MaCleod c/o L.A. International Airport (guitar was airline shipped from SEATAC to LAX for video shoot the next morning) B) Rock-It cargo sticker C) LAX destination label D) 2 airline FRAGILE labels E) Fed Ex tracking label dated 15SEPT93 (guitar was later shipped back to Seattle via Fed Ex) F) top corner of an early black Nirvana sticker G) white gaffer's tape labeled WHITE UNIVOX Also included is a setlist from the Portland Meadows show. This guitar is listed on several Nirvana sites including: here and here. A letter of provenance will accompany the sale of this instrument." - at the time of writing, the highest bid is more than $10.000 US dollars. The auction ends on November 28, 1999 at 5:30 PST. Several pictures to supplement the description above are also available. Thanks to Brian H. and Neno for the link. Check out the Univox Guitar auction here.

    My list of Nirvana songs was updated with some corrections and a little bit of new info. I went through almost every song and checked if there was something that needed to be changed. Remember to also check this list if you got some song title from a bootleg or something, and want to see if it is mislabeled or not. Thanks to Eric for some of the corrections. You may view the list of Nirvana songs here.


    - - - November 26, 1999 - - -

    Here is some very interesting news I received from Alex Proud, the owner of Proud Galleries in London, UK. As I have reported a couple of times before on this page this gallery is, at the time being, hosting an extensive exhibit of rare Nirvana photos. Full details; "[The Proud Galleries] have just opened the largest European exhibition of Nirvana pictures, in central London. As well as being the biggest photo Gallery in Europe (we expect about 20.000 people to visit this exhibition), this is one of our biggest ever shows, we have had TV crews from MTV, BBC, CNN to cover it, and it has featured in all the UK newspapers and magazines, 8 pages in Mojo [a British music magazine] etc. The three photographers are Stephen Sweet, Marty Goodacre and Stephen Gullick, and between them have a large chunk of the most famous images of Nirvana. We have also published a major new book to go with the exhibition, called 'Winterlong' ... 120 pages of pictures and text from the photographers, it is selling out here in the UK."

    Special thanks to Alex for this information. A press release for the event will be put here asap. Some more info; the exhibit is called "Nirvana 1988-1993: A Retrospective" and will end on January 21, 2000. The Proud Galleries is located at: Buckingham Street 5, Off the Strand, London UK. You can purchase photos, posters and the "Winterlong" book at: http://www.lastminute.com/proud/. If you have some christmas shopping to do, you might want to purchase the entire collection of Nirvana photographs at display, signed by the photographers, for approx. £540 British Pounds (about $875 USD). View some photos from the exhibit.

    If you live near London or otherwise have a chance to visit this exhibit - I strongly encourage you to do so. If you plan on visiting the exhibit, you may want to shoot some pictures there that I could use on this site. Any submissions will be appreciated. In other great news, I will shortly get an autographed copy of the brand new Nirvana book "Winterlong", mentioned above. I believe it is signed by all three photographers who are behind it. But that's not all ... you will have a chance to WIN A FREE COPY of this autographed Nirvana book! The competition offering the book will be up shortly. A huge thanks to Alex Proud for making this possible. Once I receive the books, I will put up some additional info so make sure to keep an eye on this section so you don't miss out on this outstanding opportunity. We plan on giving away more than one copy of the signed book, in this future competition.

    In the current issue of MOJO magazine, there is some info about the next Nirvana release; "Despite Dave Grohl's recent comments about the likelihood of Nirvana's last-ever demo turning up on the forthcoming box set, MOJO understands that the project is still some way off. 'I'm not even sure if it's a rarities-only set or a career retrospective yet; that's how far off it is,' says a well-placed source. That final song, tentatively titled 'You've got no right', was recorded in late January 1994, less than three months before Kurt Cobain's death, and is understood to be a completed master. While it's likely that 'Nevermind' out-takes, Old Age and Song In D, are being considered, Grohl insists that post-1990 offcuts are scarce. 'The real jewels...will be the really weird stuff that was recorded before I was in the band', he insists." ... YES! Finally a magazine who knows what the hell they are talking about. First of all, they correctly announce that the box is far from a release date; they call "You've Got No Right" by its correct name; they don't make all sorts of assumptions as to what the album will contain; and they name "Old Age" and "Song in D" which - usually - were titles discussed by the fans only. Kick ass, Mojo. Thanks to Karla Sopp for this news.

    In the December 16-23 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, there is a collage of images on the cover with one of them being a shot of Kurt Cobain, with his wife, holding Frances Bean. The picture was shot at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1992. The same picture is inside the magazine, supplemented by a little story about the photographer. Thanks to 'clowne517' for this news.

    As I mentioned a few days ago Krist Novoselic is selling some of his used guitars and other interesting items. Tim who is organizing the auctions has now put up some pictures of the items you can bid on, once the auctions begin (December 1st or 2nd). You may view them here. To view complete descriptions of these items, simply click here. Thanks to Tim for the URL!


    - - - November 24, 1999 - - -

    Following the demise of Sweet 75, Krist Novoselic has now joined another band. 'The WTO Band' features Krist Novoselic, Jello Biafra (of The Dead Kennedys), Kim Thayil (of Soundgarden) and Gina Mainwal (of Sweet 75, I believe). The band will do a show in Seattle, WA at the 'Showbox' on November 30 1999. The gig is headlined by Spearhead and presented by JAMPAC, the organization that Krist is president of. According to an ad, the show is "a benefit for the institute for consumer responsibility" and is thus a protest of the World Trade Organization [WTO]. This could indicate that the band is only temporary, though considering the terrific lineup ... let's hope not! Should you be so lucky to have a chance of attending the show on November 30, you should be able to get tickets at TicketMaster. The 'Showbox' is located at 1426 1st Avenue in Seattle, Washington. The show begins at 9:00 PM and admission is $12.00 USD. Have in mind that you must be at least 21 years of age to be admitted. The doors open at 8:00 PM. I think that's about all the info I can squeeze out of this one :) Thanks to Jeff, TicketMaster and Krist's website for this excellent info.

    More Krist: his online auction - mentioned in an October update - is almost ready to rock. The auction is set to begin on December 1st and features 13 stunning items that belong(ed) to Krist. This mostly includes guitars, a violin, a radio, drum sticks, and a camera. Of particular interest is an autographed "Gibson" Thunderbird Bass with broken head stock. It was used during Nirvana's 1993 In Utero tour. All items come with a signed note from Krist, verifying the authenticity. Once the auctions are up and running, I will be putting direct links to the items here. Again thanks to Jeff for this news. For a full description of all 13 items, go here. Thanks to Tim for the descriptions. Here is a little additional info about the auction, straight from the organizer; "The key is to raise money for 'Home Alive' a Seattle-based organization created to help teach violence prevention, and to groups helping women in Serbia and Kosovo. I'm planning on putting up the auctions Dec. 1st or 2nd (so the auctions can end on Sunday Dec. 12). Krist will have a preview of the images with descriptions on his site as well with links." Thanks a bunch to Tim G. for this information.

    I recently stumbled upon some pictures of the 1997 Nirvana "re-union" concert at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, WA. Actually, it was a Foo Fighters show where Krist joined the band to play the encore of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown" and the Prince classic "Purple Rain". Thus Dave Grohl, Pat Smear and Krist Novoselic were re- united. You may view the pictures here. Thanks to Dave B. for the link.

    Two interesting setlists, supposedly handwritten by Kurt Cobain, have turned up. One of them is a setlist of the 4/17/91 show. This setlist triggered the infamous VCV / In His Hands debate that was covered in NFC Newsletter 26. As mentioned in the newsletter this setlist should prove that the song commonly referred to as "In His Hands" is really called "Verse Chorus Verse". The setlists also mention the song "New Poopie" which is just an early title for "tourette's" as it was established a while ago in my complete list of Nirvana songs. You can view scans of the setlists and get more info at the Nirvana Live Guide. Thanks to Kris Sproul for this one.

    A DJ called 'Funkmaster' just finished remixing a full album of Bob Marley songs. Apparently if this album is successful, the DJ will possibly start remixing albums by Nirvana, the Beatles and others. Thanks to Australian Channel V and Daniel White for this news.


    - - - November 22, 1999 - - -

    In the winter 99 special collectors edition of "Entertainment Weekly" they listed the top 100 Greatest Performers from 1950 to 1999. Kurt was listed #72. The Beatles were #1 and Elvis Presley #2. Thanks to Ralph for this story.

    The latest Metallica album, "S&M", was released in most of the world today while it will be released in the US tomorrow. Unfortunately I have not yet picked up my copy (tip: never leave home without your VISA card!) but I have listened to a recording of the 4/22/99 show - one of the shows from where this album is based. The performance, backed up by Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony, was quite good in my opinion. Before you purchase the album you might want to get a taste of it online where it is still available in its entirety ... and it's even legal. Check the official Metallica website for more info.

    I was reading a recent Rolling Stone Magazine newsletter and this story caught my eye; "FOO FIGHTERS by Matt Hendrickson and Adam Falik -- In this exclusive video, head Foo Fighter Dave Grohl talks about whether he's a grunge goodfella, his band's label jump and how his couch figured into the Foos' new album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose. Read and Watch it here." In this interview Dave is also asked about the Nirvana boxed set. Here is what he said: "It [the box set] is being compiled as we speak. I'm not really involved in it, not for any reason other than I have so many other things to do. I'm in an interesting position, because I was the sixth drummer of the band. There's a lot of stuff that I've never heard. To me, it would be just as much about learning where the band came from as being in it. I think it's important that people see the history of the band from our perspective. It didn't start with "Smells Like Teen Spirit." When the box set comes out, you'll hear the early stuff is weird. It's Butthole Surfers, Flipper, Scratch Acid - and if people can be exposed to something as beautifully weird as that, then all the better." ... Pretty interesting, although be basically repeated what he's shared about the box to other media's.


    - - - November 20, 1999 - - -

    Today, exactly 10 years ago, Nirvana did a show at some obscure small club in Linz, Austria. To mark that anniversary I have added 50 video captures of the show to the site. The captures are not in such a good quality but most of them should be ok. The captures are taken of a low generation complete video that surfaced not so long ago. Before that the show was only available in a cut version, in quite poor quality. I have made a soundclip of the show as well which I might put up sooner or later. For now, check out the 50 video captures that are - as with the Unplugged shots - divided into two pages of 25 pictures each. Click here to view the video captures. Depending on your connection speed, it might take a while to load the page.


    - - - November 19, 1999 - - -

    In a recent edition of the VH-1 show "The List", Nirvana's "Nevermind" made it to place #2. The legendary Prince album "Purple Rain" made it to #1 and the Beatles were #3 with the "White Album".

    The auction I mentioned in the November 15 update was accompanied by a press conference on November 17, featuring Krist Novoselic. The conference also featured representatives of Home Alive and the Balkan Woman's Aid Foundation. Read the full press release here. Thanks to Jeff, Reidar and Ruth White for this one.

    UK's Radio One will be re-airing their 'Essential Albums' special, focusing on Nirvana's "Nevermind" album. It is set to air on the 22nd on November. Even if you don't live in the UK, you can still listen to the radio if you have access to the Astra satellite. I don't remember the frequency, but I can put it up if I find it. Thanks to Rich and Radio One for this news.


    - - - November 16, 1999 - - -

    Not exactly Nirvana-related news, but I thought this story was so amazing that I just had to put it here; "In what is shaping up to be one of the biggest artist-driven online events in history, the decade's biggest selling band, Metallica, will make available for the first time ever an entire album for audio streaming prior to its scheduled street date, Nov.23. Metallica and Elektra Records have aligned with more than 150 websites, radio stations and retailers to provide exclusive song-by-song access to their fans for their much-anticipated new album S&M, Metallica with The San Francisco Symphony Conducted By Michael Kamen. S&M, a double album, will be streamed in its entirety track-by-track around the clock, hosted by Elektra in conjunction with Entertaindom.com, the new entertainment site from Warner Bros. Online launching on November 19th. Online music listeners will not only be able to hear these songs first, but they will be made available on demand, which means Metallica fans - via streaming audio - will be able to listen to a track as many times as they want, whenever they want, for an incredible seven day run. This unprecedented promotion will be offered through a single Elektra- controlled host links to the promotion will be available from Metallica.com, Entertaindom.com, UBL.com (part of the Artistdirect Network), MTV.com, and an awesome array of radio station and online retail sites, all working in tandem to bring the new Metallica album to as many fans as possible. In total, S&M on Demand will be syndicated to more sites than any content to date."


    For years, Metallica has been a band that is 110% dedicated to their fans -- and this event just proves that fact once again, beyond any doubt whatsoever. As much as I love Nirvana, I do not know of a band caring as much about their fans - and doing as much for the fans as possible - as this one; Metallica. It's just amazing. For more info on this incredible event, check the official Metallica website. News courtesy of The Metallica Club.

    If one asked me to compile a list of all Nirvana books ever written, I'd need a couple of weeks to type up the list. More or less. Joining this list is the forthcoming Nirvana book 'Nirvana: Winterlong' (?) Full story; "The works of NME [New Musical Express] photographers Martyn Goodacre and Steve Gullick are to feature in a new book on Nirvana called Nirvana: Winterlong, published on November 23 by Vision On. The book coincides with an exhibition at London WC2 Proud Galleries which kicks of the same day. Goodacre took the classic image of Kurt Cobain that graced NME's cover the week after he died and has cropped up on bootleg t-shirts, posters and calendars all over the world. Steve Gullick photographed Nirvana in their pre-Nevermind days including a cover session for defunct rock weekly Sounds, the first of the UK music paper to put the band on the cover." The exhibition in London was mentioned in a previous news segment here. This story was courtesy of nme.com news, November 16 1999.

    Speaking of NME, they recently compiled a Top 100 chart of "How Rock Shook Up The World". On place #1 we find the death of Kurt Cobain; "The End Of Music. So Kurt Cobain named his publishing company. And so it was when Cobain took his own life with a single shotgun blast to the head. The day the music died." - "The Alternative Era was underway and nothing, not even the suicide of its unwitting (and unwilling) architect, could be allowed to halt its advance. But after Cobain, after Nirvana, things were irrevocably different. No-one could claim with any degree of conviction or credibility that music really mattered any more. Because to Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, music had been everything. Indeed, to them, music had mattered too much." One place #2 is "Bob dylan going electric" (!) and on place #3 they put the event "Belle and Sebastian Winning a Brit Award" ... which was ... erhm, quite important ;) Story courtesy of nme.com news.

    - - - November 15, 1999 - - -

    Later this month there will be an online auction, offering some limited edition Nirvana t-shirts; "Limited-Edition Nirvana T-shirts To Be Auctioned Online To Benefit Home Alive and Groups Working to End Violence Against Balkan Women. 136 limited edition Nirvana T-shirts featuring a reproduction of Pablo Picasso's Massacre en Corée (Massacre in Korea, 18 January/1951) will be auctioned online at http://www.speakeasy.net/homealive beginning November 17 at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The t-shirts to be auctioned online are the last remaining from a run of 2000, which were originally produced for a 1993-benefit concert [04/09/93 to be exact ... NFC] featuring Nirvana, L7, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and the Breeders at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The concert was organized by Nirvana to raise awareness about rape and other human rights violations that were being perpetrated against women and girls in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia at that time. The auction is being sponsored by Seattle-based Home Alive, an organization dedicated to providing free and sliding scale self-defense classes in Washington State. Proceeds from the auction will benefit Home Alive and organizations working to end violence against women in former Yugoslavia." - thanks to Ruth White for this news. In 1996 a double-CD was released by the Home Alive organization. The set featured a previously unreleased Nirvana clip -- "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" recorded in France, in 1994.

    A Toronto Radio Station [102.1 FM] recently did a 'Top 1002 songs of all time' countdown, where Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" finished at number one, followed by the Pearl Jam classic "Jeremy" on place #2. Thanks to Polly for this story.

    In a never-ending quest to promote "There is nothing left to lose", Dave Grohl recently appeared on the British show 'Later with Jools Holland'. There was a brief mention of the forthcoming Nirvana boxed set; "Jools: When you look back, are you happy with all the work Nirvana did? I mean, a big box set is about to come out. Dave: Yeah there is a box set coming out and it is going to have a lot of stuff that I haven't even heard. Because, I was like the sixth drummer man, I joined the band in 1990 and they had been a band for about three years before I joined and so there is a lot of stuff I have never heard that I am aching, dying to hear." Thanks to Koen for this story.

    In the latest issue of the Danish chick magazine "Vi Unge" there is a short article on dead rock stars where Kurt Cobain, among others, is mentioned. The article also briefly confirms the boxed set being in the works.

    Dave Grohl's attacking on Courtney Love continues to evolve in this article by New Music Express; "DAVE GROHL has spoken to NME about 'Stacked Actors', the track on the new Foo Fighters album that is reputed to be an attack on Courtney Love. He also dismissed similar efforts by Bush and Nine Inch Nails as 'ridiculous'. The song's lyrics are: 'Stacked dead actors / stacked to the rafters / line up you bastards all I want is the truth . . . They all dye blonde. . .' - 'I've been asked that question about every song I've written. I think that the most important thing about writing songs is to refuse the specifics because that takes away the opportunity for some listener to relate to the song. I wrote 'Stacked Actors' about everything that is fake and everything that is plastic and glamorous and unreal, so if that pertains to anyone that comes to mind then there you go." - "'She needn't be too vain, it's not all about her,' said a more forthcoming drummer Taylor Hawkins. 'She's fucked. For millions of reasons. And I don't even know her. Oh, I've met her a couple of times and she was rude. She wants to be a star and she is one. At least she got what she wanted. I hope it filled the hole for her. No pun intended. Oh, there's a sentence or two probably dedicated to her. Dave would never fully admit it to you, but I know." Story courtesy of nme.com.


    - - - November 13, 1999 - - -

    Another new Nirvana-related domain, breed99.com, opened recently. The domain primarily consists of a download link to a piece of software called "KurtWare - The Tom Grant Documents". As the title indicates, the program is about the murder theories. When you open it, you get to see a couple of Cobain images and a menu where you can click to read the various parts of Tom Grant's documents. The actual menu seemed to work fine, but when you click on a link, to a document, you just get an empty text window saying "Rich Text" Hmm, maybe it's just my computer. In any case I will not be mentioning this website or software again since it deals with the murder theories. Still, if you want to try out the software, get ready for a 10 MB download. Get it here. Thanks to Jay and a few others for the link.


    - - - November 12, 1999 - - -

    The Internet Nirvana Fan Club is mentioned on the official Britannica website; "Exhaustive and meticulously researched resource on this influential Seattle grunge band. Provides a biography, a discography, a gallery of photographs, audio and video clips, an archive of interviews and articles, lyrics, and guitar chords. Includes a complete listing of concerts, a bulletin board, and bootleg recording information. Visitors may also read Kurt Cobain's suicide note and Courtney Love's eulogy for him." - this site received a four-star rating. The highest possible rating is five stars, given to 'Best of the web' while four-star sites are described as 'Superior'; "The Britannica Internet Guide is a selective directory of websites. Britannica's editors strive to include only the best websites, as judged by the following criteria: a) accuracy, usefulness, depth, and breadth of information. b) credentials and authority of the author or publisher. c) quality of design, graphics, and multimedia. d) ease of navigation. e) timeliness of revision."

    In case you are wondering, Britannica is one of the oldest and largest encyclopedias in the world. If you do a search for Nirvana on this site, you'll also get links to some magazine articles about the band - related books, and some articles on the Foo Fighters. Though, the only fan site linked to - and reviewed - is this one :) A huge thanks to Jim Rough for sharing his observation.


    - - - November 11, 1999 - - -

    A couple of minutes ago, the 1999 Europe Music Awards from Dublin finished off. MTV's award shows usually feature today's biggest artists in the music industry and this show was no exception to that rule. The show took place at the Point Depot in Dublin, where Nirvana did a show on June 21, 1992. Though, apart from that there was not much Nirvana related with the show. Unfortunately the Foo Fighters weren't present as they weren't nominated for any awards, and weren't scheduled to play. There were still a couple of highlights, such as a live performance by Offspring (who won the award for 'Best Rock') and Alicia Silverstone presenting the award for 'Best Pop' to Miss Britney Spears. This year's "Free your mind" award went to Bono of U2, for his dedicated work to help third world countries, for helping Greenpeace and much more. The award was presented to Bono by Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. You should be able to find a full list of a winners over at MTV Europe's website.


    Once again the page with info on the Pennyroyal Tea single was updated. The update is mostly due to an interesting story I received from Dominik. I also added some keypoints, in the beginning of the file, to make it a little easier to determine which singles are authentic and which are not. Thanks to everyone who have contributed to this section.

    - - - November 10, 1999 - - -

    A few minor updates were done today. This includes some corrections of errors in the NFC FAQ and a little bit of new info. Four pictures of the Cobain residence were moved to the rare pictures section, and the new section for video captures was added. Also, the 'Misc files.' section was updated with a couple of new links. In a short while, a bunch of new video captures of a November 1989 show will be added, so look out for that.

    In the latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine there is a little bit of info on the boxed set from Dave Grohl; "Dave says that there will be alot of stuff on the box set from long before he was in the band. He said that he was interested in learning the history of the band and letting people know he was the sixth drummer not the first. He also said their might be some new stuff on there." There is basically nothing new in this, since it is just a brief recap of the interview he gave to the BBC - as noted in an earlier update. Thanks to 'Notdan' for the news.


    - - - November 09, 1999 - - -

    Today, ten years ago, Nirvana did a show in West Germany. Amazingly on this same day the Berlin Wall was torn down. Unfortunately a recording of this particular show has not surfaced - though most of their shows in Germany around this date has. My thoughts and prayers today goes out to those who lost their lives trying to beat the Berlin wall.

    I just added another story about the 'Pennyroyal Tea' single, courtesy of Niklas from Sweden. Since the info about this single has now become quite extensive, I decided to move it from the FAQ to it's own page. Apart from that a couple of extra details and theories were added too. Check the NFC Pennyroyal Tea information page here.


    - - - November 08, 1999 - - -

    I finally got my copy of "There is nothing left to lose" today. I thought most of the CD was pretty good. Right now I think their 2nd album is better, but perhaps after I've listened to the new one enough times, I will come to love it. My initial favorites were "Stacked Actors", "Breakout", "Learn to fly" and "Generator". Very cool songs. Though it was a little dissapointing that the album is only about 45min and only 11 songs. Perhaps they inherited that bad habit from Nirvana! One greatly positive thing about the album is that it comes with an Enhanced CD Part which you can play on your PC or Mac. This consists of album lyrics, great pictures and the 'Learn to Fly' video in Quicktime format. Very cool. If you're wondering whether or not to buy it ... I'd say go for it. Foo Fighters is a great band and this CD more or less proves that. I'd put up sound clips of it here, but for now you can probably find some at all the Foo Fighters websites out there. That of course includes the official site at foofighters.com which is maintained mostly by Ed Dame. Ed is the founder of 'Breed: The Nirvana Webring' that I offered Ed to host on this server, a year ago or so. It is now being maintained by Tyler. But that's another story!



    As I mentioned in an October update, the semi-official Nirvana site at Geffen Records is down. This means that none of the links I have to movie files, in the movie gallery, are working at the moment. Though, I recommend you check out the two links I have provided in the bottom of the movie gallery. That should put a halt to your urges for movie files. In addition, I plan on adding my own movie files soon. I just need to get my TV-tuner card to behave properly first :)

    In Britain, Channel Four has been running a 'Music of the millennium' poll in association with the popular record store chain HMV. Apparently more than 600.000 people voted. Here are some results:

    Best Band:

  • 1 The Beatles
  • 2 Queen
  • 3 The Rolling Stones
  • 4 U2
  • 5 Oasis (!)
  • 6 Nirvana

    Best Male Singer:

  • 1 Elvis Presley
  • 2 Robbie Williams
  • 3 Michael Jackson
  • 10 Kurt Cobain

    Best Songwriter:

  • 1 John Lennon
  • 2 Paul McCartney
  • 3 Bob Dylan
  • 10 Kurt Cobain

    Best Song:

  • 1 Bohemian Raphsody - Queen
  • 2 Imagine - John Lennon
  • 3 Angels - Robbie Williams
  • 4 American Trilogy - Elvis Presly
  • 5 Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
  • 6 Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin

    Best Album:

  • 1 Seargant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
  • 2 Thriller - Michael Jackson
  • 3 Revolver - The Beatles
  • 4 Aloha from Hawaii - Elvis Presley
  • 5 Nevermind - Nirvana

    Special thanks to Neil Manson for this chart. Neil added that the British Q Magazine named their choice for the best 90 albums of the 90's. They chose 10 for every year except 1999. For 1991, "Nevermind" made it to the Top 10. For 1993, "In Utero" was named the best album and for 1994, "Unplugged in New York" made it to the Top 10 as well.


    - - - November 07, 1999 - - -

    In about 10 days, it's been exactly six years since Nirvana performed their legendary performance on MTV Unplugged. To celebrate that I decided to add some video captures of the show, to this site. I decided to add not 10 ... not 20 ... but 100 (!) captures off the show. So there should be a good chance of finding an image you like. The quality on some of the captures is not that good, but most of them should be fine -- Nirvana's MTV Unplugged.

    A couple of new moderators were added to the NFC Forums. To the 'Junkyard' forum, the second moderator is now Khris Jensen (boddah) and a second moderator will probably be added to the 'Swap Meet' forum soon. I also cleaned up a bit on the board, by deleting old messages in all forums except for 'Nirvana'. Some of the most interesting posts from the 'Junkyard' forum were added to the archive.


    - - - November 06, 1999 - - -

    In the November issue of the magazine 'Maxim', there is an interesting review of the new Foo Fighters album: "Taking a cue from the big winners at this year's MTV Awards, the Foo Fighters' third album is nothing but rap/metal fusion, moody electronica, and latin dance pop. And if you believe that we've got a used Space Needle in Seattle we'd like to sell you - dirt cheap. Despite the bummerish title, frontman Dave Grohl is standing his ground and fighting the rock 'n' roll battle like he's got an avenging army marching behind him. The Foo hit the fan from the very first track, the searing, snotty 'Stacked Actors', and keep driving through 10 more songs - without even a whiff of mood-killing filler. Hanging some red meat on the band's always sharp hooks, "Breakout" and "Live-in Skin" meld a propulsive drum bedrock and frequently ferocious guitar attack with an appreciation for melodic vocals missing from most modern rock, evoking everyone from Pink Floyd to, yep, Grohl's old outfit, Nirvana." - "So while Rock 'n' Roll may not top the charts right now, this album hits the mother lode of Foo's gold. And if there's a God in heaven - platinum." The album received a rating of 5 out of 5. The magazine also features an outstandingly gorgeous image of Jennifer Love Hewitt on the front cover and a load of steamy pictures of her inside the mag as well :-)

    Without turning this into too much of a Foo Fighters news resource, I had to mention today's review of their 3rd album - in the Danish paper "B.T." The review was, as mentioned earlier, written by Steffen Jungersen. A few lines from the review includes: "The group's third album does not live up to its predecessor, 'The colour and the shape'. In 1999, Foo Fighters' lead singer and guitarist, former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, jumps out as a pop-singer and Beatles freak. The artistic value of the jump is actually quite high, as Dave Grohl is good at creating those catchy songs that we all want so much, but rarely get." In general the reviewer thinks more of 'The colour and the shape' than the new album. Thus it only received 3 stars out of 6.

    I just added some fresh pictures of Kurt Cobain's former house in Seattle, to the rare pictures gallery. The pictures are shown as thumbnails in the table on the right. Check them out in full size here. Special thanks to Bastien Andrieu for granting his pictures to this website.

    Another great update was done today; the 4th NFC Competition is online. The prizes in this competition include two different versions of the "Everlong" single by Foo Fighters. Try out the competition, by answering 3 simple questions, and you could be the lucky winner of one of these items. Try the competition here.

    I don't usually advertise for other sites here, except if there is a specific reason to. But I thought this one was pretty interesting. This Foo Fighters site features an auction, original content and video. Visit it here. Thanks to Chad for the link.

    Here is some news on the boxed set, and the supposed Bleach re-release, from Rolling Stone Magazine: "Grohl admitted that he hasn't been too hands-on with the project, with the majority of work being done by former Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic, and Seattle rock journalist Gillian G. Gaar. He felt fine leaving it in Novoselic's hands, since the bassist had also done the majority of the grunt work on 1996's From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, the second posthumous Nirvana album, which compiles sixteen live tracks that span the band's career. Critics insisted that Wishkah wasn't the great lost Nirvana album since there were no unheard gems to add to the catalog, leaving the door open for the box set. While there is no release date, no title, nor track listing, the good news is that work is progressing. When contacted, Gaar confirmed that the process is moving forward, albeit slowly and thoroughly. She has been combing through tapes for the past year and a half -- ever since Novoselic contacted her upon reading a Goldmine article she wrote about the band in 1997, where she catalogued all the extant Nirvana recordings. Speaking of slowly, in other Nirvana news, it looks like Sub Pop's tenth anniversary reissue of Bleach, the band's 1989 debut, won't even be ready for the album's eleventh anniversary. Apparently lawyers for Sub Pop and Novoselic are squabbling over exactly what bonus tracks will be included on the reissue. Novoselic is also overseeing that project, as well as penning the liner notes." - thanks to Koen for the story. The story is basically a summary of the news that has been put up by various other sources during the past couple of weeks, though it adds a new statement from Garr.

    In other 'box news', a Boston radio station (WBCN) claimed that the album would be put out early next year and a couple of other radio stations claimed that Dave had stated this same info. I think that is unlikely, however, judging from the statement from Gillian G. Garr above and the statement from a Geffen spokesperson that was aired by SonicNet in a recent news article.


    - - - November 05, 1999 - - -

    I just got hold of some prizes for the 4th NFC Competition that I've promised for a while now. The first prize is a limited edition Foo Fighters single of the track "Everlong". This is also the second prize, except the 2 bonus tracks on the other single are different. The third prize is still TBA. The competition will thus be online shortly.

    My interview with Kennedy Grey is finished and has been HTML'ized. The interview offers a host of interesting information and clears up the mystery behind the address for Nirvana, listed on the back of "Bleach". Kennedy Grey is currently working on a book, consisting of fan mail sent to this address. The proceeds of the book will be used to create 'Rock Against Suicide' which, as the name implies, is an organization with one objective: fighting suicide. I hope you'll enjoy the interview. A huge thanks to Mr. Grey for taking time to conduct this interview with me.
    An interview with Kennedy Grey.


    - - - November 04, 1999 - - -

    For a while there, everything was pretty mysterious as to what happened to The Foo Fighters Internet Archive [FFIA] and how an official site suddenly turned up. Now some of the loose ends seems to have cleared up. First of all, the official FF website at foofighters.com is apparently being run by former FFIA webmaster Ed Dame and someone called Jonathan Schuman. According to the site they are 'working to bring a lot of that material back in', referring to the files from FFIA. Most interestingly is the brand new design of the site, which looks a thousand times better than the old one. The "new" site also offers a lot of new material. Finally, the site is working on implementing the Ultimate Bulletin Board script which is the same as we use here at www.nirvanaclub.com. Good luck, guys.


    - - - November 03, 1999 - - -

    I just did an interview with Kennedy Grey of the Rock Against Suicide organization, who is working on a book about Nirvana. The book will primarily consist of fan mail sent to an official Nirvana Fan Club that Mr. Grey got involved with. The interview should be up very soon.

    In case you are interested, there will be a short review of "There is nothing left to lose" in this Saturday's edition of the nationwide Danish paper "B.T." The review was written by Steffen Jungersen who recently visited this website, as I reported in an earlier update. If I get a copy of the review, I'll put up some details about it.


    - - - November 02, 1999 - - -

    Due to a small internal error, my @nirvanaclub e-mail addresses were not working during most of yesterday and today (November 2). The problem should be fixed now. Still, if you tried to e-mail me yesterday or today, please re-send your e-mail to me. Sorry for the inconvenience. Obviously, if you sent an e-mail during the past couple of days that I replied to, you don't have to re-send it since I received it the first time.

    Today marked the release of the awaited "There is nothing left to lose" by the Foo Fighters. So here is the final result of the NFC Poll, "Are you buying the forthcoming Foo Fighters album?":

  • Yes (765 votes - 74%)
  • Nope (275 votes - 26%)

    A total of 1040 people voted, out of whom 74% planned to buy the album that was released today. This proves perfectly how many Foo fans are hidden among those who visit Nirvana websites.

    - - - November 01, 1999 - - -

    During the past couple of weeks there has been a significant increase in how many people click the sponsor banners situated around this website. This means that the monthly income is higher, which again means that I will have more funds to make this website even better. Thus, so far I have ordered another 50 MB of space for the website, bringing up the monthly hosting fee by five dollars. But if the number of banner clicks keeps staying this high, I will not have a problem paying the extra five dollars per month. So thank you very much for supporting the site by clicking the sponsor banners. In case you are unaware of it, the sponsor banners are situated on the top of the main page, the sound gallery, the movie gallery, the picture gallery, the contest pages and on the banner page.

    The new Foo Fighters album was apparently released in some parts of the world today, while most countries will get it tomorrow. Nick Spriggs reported that the enhanced multimedia part of the CD (only some editions of it, I believe) includes a funny video where Dave is drunk. Apparently he says something like: "... tell me how to write a record, I was in Nirvana, the greatest rock band of the nineties. We changed the way people look at Rock N' Roll music!" More info will be up when I get a copy of the album. Thanks to Nick for this story.




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