|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
|
NIRVANA IN AUSTRALIA NIRVANA was on a tour of Australia when the band broke big in the states. The year was 1992, Nevermind was number one, the Big Day Out was in it's infancy and Alternative music was about to change forever. When NIRVANA landed in Sydney on January 21, 1992, they were hoping for respite. They weren't about to find it. The band was fleeing from an America that had turned on them, deciding to transform them from negative creeps into rock stars. NEVERMIND had topped the american charts the previous week and they were already being talked about as a commodity. Kurt Cobain was not happy. He remodelled the Do Not Disturb sign on his hotel door. It subsequently read, please burn down my room. America pursued them. The famous ROLLING STONE cover featuring Cobain in his handmade "Corporate Magazines Still Suck" T-shirt was shot outside of Melbourne, during a break in the tour. The Australian tour had been agreed upon before NEVRMIND had even been recorded. But many people had doubted the band would ever actually arrive. The tour was set up in the wake of the band's first album, BLEACH, selling several thousand copies in blue vinyl through the Australian distributor, Waterfront Records. The Seattle group were underground sweethearts, abrasive and contemptuous of nearly everything and everyone they saw around them. But after "Smells like Teen Spirit" those same qualities were celebrated. Music inductry logic dictated that a band with a number one album in America should be embarking on a money making arena tour. But NIRVANA had made a commitment which they intended to keep, despite the financial inducements to stay in America. Their Australian Tour was promoted by Steven Pavlovic, a band booker and manager in Sydney and a fan of the band. He'd previously met Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Seattle, where they'd been introduced by Dan Peters of Mudhoney, the first group Pavlovic had brought to Australia. In the lead up to the tour, as NEVERMIND broke in Australia, the larger mainstream concert promoters tried to buy the tour of Pavlovic. No dice (the band and pavlovic would also refuse Jimmy Barnes's offer of a support slot)LOL... I don't think ill ever stop laughing after reading that - Ed By staying within the indie community NIRVANA helped vindicate that scene's breakthrough in Australia. On January 25, having begun the tour at the Phonecian Club the previous night. Sadly the phonecian was closed down after Anna Wood died due to Ecstacy. NIRVANA played the inaugural Big Day Out, a one off gig at the sydney showgrounds. The hordern pavillion to be exact. NIRVANA had agreed to play beacause they were fans of the co-headliners, the Violent Femmes, and the 10,000 tickets for the show quickly sold out. The success of the day would prove that alternative music had pulling power. The profile of the Australian bands who played at the gig lifted, and the process of turning the independant underground into the vast alternative nation began for real that day. The Big Day Out would be annoited, spreading interstate the following year, going national in 1994 and ultimately becoming the biggest rock & roll show in the southern hemisphere. Almost every one of the 10,000 ticketholders tried to cram into the hordern pavillion for NIRVANA's set, even though the official capacity was 6,500. The moshpit was immense, intense and scary even. The heat was blistering as NIRVANA blazed away, playing one of their best shows of the tour. But not everything ran so smoothly. Cobain was on medictaion for stomache pain and he remained ill throughout the tour. He kept little food down, vomiting repeatedly. AFter the Queensland shows the Perth leg of the tour was cancelled, giving Kurt a few days to recouperate. A rumour quickly spread to the US and Uk that Cobain had OD'd whilst in Perth. Later, in Canberra, desperate fans kicked in doors and windows at the ANU bar in an attempt to crash the sold out show. There were three shows in Melbourne, including one all ages gig. By then Kurt Cobain wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't, say anything. All I remember is a "thank you, goodnight" as they left the stage after an encore, the audience having surrendered as one to the punding backbeat of drummer Dave Grohl, Novoselic's fierce bass and the tourtured, touching voice and pounding Guitar of Cobain. On that night, as with most on NIRVANA's one and only Australian tour, they left their audience both spent and liberated. Nothing sounded the same afterwards, not just the music, but film and politicians and the way everyday interactions took place. NIRVANA had defined a new voice for youth culture. Afterwards anyone could run with it. No one ever complied with Kurt's request to burn down his room, but NIRVANA themselves torched the status quo as they rose from beneath it. More than seven years later we are still feeling the affects. Craig Mathieson Australian Rolling Stone Magazine, August 1999 |