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Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989
Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989, is a photo journal and a grunge rock micro-history; an inside look into a crucial eight-day period in the touring life of Nirvana, and two other Seattle bands, as seen through the eyes of Bruce Pavitt, the founder of Sub Pop, the Seattle label that first signed Nirvana in 1988.
The dramatic eight days covered in this book, from November 27 through December 4, 1989, represented a turning point for Nirvana. In this brief period, the young band went from breaking up in Rome to winning over the influential British music press at Sub Pop’s LameFest UK showcase in London, setting the stage for their looming leap in popularity.
On November 27, 1989, when Bruce Pavitt and his Sub Pop partner Jonathan Poneman arrived to meet Nirvana in Rome, the band was almost finished with a grueling six week tour of Europe. Although determined to promote their grungy, riff-heavy debut album, Bleach, Nirvana’s travels with fellow Sub Pop act Tad had left them exhausted. Pavitt and Poneman did their best to revive the spirits of a frustrated and downcast Kurt Cobain. Despite a threatened leap from a 14-foot speaker tower, soon followed by the theft of his passport and wallet, Cobain managed to continue to London, where Nirvana played the biggest and most important show of its career to date.
Nirvana’s breakthrough night at the 2,000-capacity Astoria Theatre in London featured three Seattle Sub Pop acts: Nirvana, Tad, and popular headliners Mudhoney. Nirvana opened the show, and their heart-pounding performance won over the crowd and changed the band’s fate. The powerful London music press proclaimed that Nirvana was “Sub Pop’s answer to the Beatles.” After that night, the world’s attention began to focus on the band that would become the biggest rock act of their generation.
“Sub Pop didn’t have much to work with. We knew Seattle was developing a distinctive brand of heavy, soulful, grungy rock, but we weren’t sure who our next bands were going to be. Then, everything unfolded. This is a Nirvana story with a joyful ending”—Bruce Pavitt
The dramatic eight days covered in this book, from November 27 through December 4, 1989, represented a turning point for Nirvana. In this brief period, the young band went from breaking up in Rome to winning over the influential British music press at Sub Pop’s LameFest UK showcase in London, setting the stage for their looming leap in popularity.
On November 27, 1989, when Bruce Pavitt and his Sub Pop partner Jonathan Poneman arrived to meet Nirvana in Rome, the band was almost finished with a grueling six week tour of Europe. Although determined to promote their grungy, riff-heavy debut album, Bleach, Nirvana’s travels with fellow Sub Pop act Tad had left them exhausted. Pavitt and Poneman did their best to revive the spirits of a frustrated and downcast Kurt Cobain. Despite a threatened leap from a 14-foot speaker tower, soon followed by the theft of his passport and wallet, Cobain managed to continue to London, where Nirvana played the biggest and most important show of its career to date.
Nirvana’s breakthrough night at the 2,000-capacity Astoria Theatre in London featured three Seattle Sub Pop acts: Nirvana, Tad, and popular headliners Mudhoney. Nirvana opened the show, and their heart-pounding performance won over the crowd and changed the band’s fate. The powerful London music press proclaimed that Nirvana was “Sub Pop’s answer to the Beatles.” After that night, the world’s attention began to focus on the band that would become the biggest rock act of their generation.
“Sub Pop didn’t have much to work with. We knew Seattle was developing a distinctive brand of heavy, soulful, grungy rock, but we weren’t sure who our next bands were going to be. Then, everything unfolded. This is a Nirvana story with a joyful ending”—Bruce Pavitt
208 pages, Hardcover
First published November 16, 2012
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254 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Pavitt
5 books8 followersBruce Pavitt founded Sub Pop records in 1986. By the early '90s, Sub Pop had released recordings by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Mark Lanegan, Beat Happening, TAD, The Walkabouts, and Steven Jesse Bernstein, and had helped to initiate a global interest in Seattle area music. He lives in Seattle, WA.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
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April 25, 2024A must-read for a big Nirvana buff.
I read this in the lobby of The Max, a Seattle hotel. On my left side there was the bass of Krist Novoselic. On the right side there was a very good local beer which I got for free.
A very happy moment in my life.
Goes through an interesting time in Nirvana history, right before the explosion. Everything is right there, yet nothing is still in place. If only they'd knew. Maybe they did. I'm not sure.
But wonderful, real pictures and just the perfect amount of background. I just loved that somebody has Kurt Cobain's passport and wallet, by the way.
I read this in the lobby of The Max, a Seattle hotel. On my left side there was the bass of Krist Novoselic. On the right side there was a very good local beer which I got for free.
A very happy moment in my life.
Goes through an interesting time in Nirvana history, right before the explosion. Everything is right there, yet nothing is still in place. If only they'd knew. Maybe they did. I'm not sure.
But wonderful, real pictures and just the perfect amount of background. I just loved that somebody has Kurt Cobain's passport and wallet, by the way.
December 24, 2013
Definitely for-fans-only, but fun. It's a simple account of 7 days in November-December 1989 between Rome, Zurich, Paris, Portsmouth and London. The best part is the chronicle of the day off in Rome, among the beautiful people, monuments and cappuccinos, interspersed with discussions about music between the out-of-place SubPop guys. The photos capture the fury of the shows and leave me longing for that purity and dirty innocence that i rarely see nowadays.
June 13, 2013
(Thanks to Ian, I need to add: This review is on the self-released ebook, not the hardcover version, which still won't be released for almost six months!)
I have to admit it, I am NUTS about Nirvana, so I didn't have the heart to give this less than four stars. The author is not a writer by profession, and it shows, but I am so glad that he took the time to write this book. It was quite endearing to me to read about Kurt and Krist and their first European tour (along with other Sub-pop bands, TAD and Mudhoney.
I have to admit it, I am NUTS about Nirvana, so I didn't have the heart to give this less than four stars. The author is not a writer by profession, and it shows, but I am so glad that he took the time to write this book. It was quite endearing to me to read about Kurt and Krist and their first European tour (along with other Sub-pop bands, TAD and Mudhoney.
December 30, 2013
Thank you, Patrick.
May 13, 2018
This book chronicles a week-long European trip of Sub Pop co-founders Bruce Pavitt and Jon Poneman with three of their label's most promising acts: Mudhoney, Tad and Nirvana. Taking place in 1989, the trip represents a turning point for the label, the Seattle scene and with it, Nirvana. It all hinges on LameFest Europe, a showcase of the three bands organized for the purpose of getting greater notoriety among European tastemakers. But before they get there... Any of these things could have meant the end of Nirvana's participation in LameFest and, potentially, the end of their chances at becoming the global sensation that they did. (I may be inflating the importance of Nirvana's role as LameFest openers in my mind, but history works that way sometimes.)
Most of the photos aren't anything impressive, but paired with the words make for a highly worthwhile "microhistory" as the author calls it. It being 1989, Nirvana looks young and, per usual, they do not pose for any pictures all smiles and laughs.
Most of the photos aren't anything impressive, but paired with the words make for a highly worthwhile "microhistory" as the author calls it. It being 1989, Nirvana looks young and, per usual, they do not pose for any pictures all smiles and laughs.
January 10, 2021
In questo spontaneo diario di viaggio di Pavitt, membro fondatore della Sub Pop (per i cultori dell'underground anni 90 non serve dire altro) si percepisce tutta l'energia e le aspettative per quella che di lì a poco sarebbe stata etichettata come la rivoluzione grunge. Aspetti curiosi e piccoli episodi on the road di un manipolo di giovani e finora sconosciuti musicisti, che arrivano trionfali al LameFest UK. In appendice si può trovare una nutrita selezione di recensioni dell'evento, interessanti per comprendere come la critica giornalistica fosse o meno al corrente di quello che stava per succedere del sottosuolo musicale dei primi anni 90
September 24, 2018
A wonderful book that takes the reader through an astonishing experience in music history. With a lot of photos, a little story telling and some old magazine articles, Pavitt is able to paint a perfect emotional picture of one of the most important moments of modern music development for the reader to live. Thank you Mr. Pavitt: it is a rare gem for those of us who could not experience it first hand but strongly wanted to.
October 1, 2020
Un bel documento per chi ha vissuto quegli anni e a quei concerti c'era. Alcuni fatti narrati del ìdietro le quinte' sono davvero interessanti.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews