Nirvana

Nirvana came into being in the year 1989 in the USA, Seattle. The group used to play style of music called grunge. If you can’t imagine, what does “grunge” mean, let me explain it to you: it is something like hardcore with instrumental aggressive and in the lyrics you can feel apprehension. That’s what NIRVANA used to be. But they weren’t first, who played this style- also groups like Alice in chains, Pearl jam or Led Zeppelin played grunge. And how did this guys meet?

Kurt Cobain met Krist Novoselic in the year 1985. Both of them were listening groups like Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, so there were no doubt about their new group. In the same year they founded together FECAL MATTER, the predecessor to Nirvana. But this group didn’t exist a long time- in the year 1986 Kurt Donald Cobain (vocals), Krist Anthony Novoselic (bass guitar) and Chad Channing (drums) founded Nirvana, the multiplatinum grunge band that redefined the sound of the nineties. By 1988 Nirvana were playing shows and had demo tapes going around. An important person in Nirvana’s history was Bruce Pavitt- he founded Sub-Pop (recording studio) where Nirvana recorded their first album BLEACH- this was in the year 1989. They recorded it in three days and they got 600 dollars. Their song DOWNER was characteristic for the whole album.

In the year 1990 Channing decided to leave Nirvana and on 25th September 1990 David Eric Grohl joined the group as a new drummer. They signed a contract by DGC, but they were still recording in Sub-Pop- it was here, where their most famous album NEVERMIND in the year 1991 was recorded. Nevermind went on to sell ten million copies and make a reported million (US) leaving Nirvana overnight millionaires. Cobain was shocked at the reception of his highly personal and passionate music repeatedly telling reporters that none of the band ever, ever expected anything like this. On 17th April they first played their most famous song SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT that is named after a man’s perfume.Cobain fell into heroin in the early 90’s; he said he used it as a shield against the rigorous demands of touring and to stop the pain of stomach ulcers or an irritated bowel.

On 24th February 1992 he fly to Hawaii to marry the already pregnant Courtney Love (she was also singing in a group- HOLE). Later in the same year Nirvana’s third album INCESTICIDE was recorded. Later after that Kurt had hospital treatment for heroin abuse. On 18th August 1992 their daughter Frances Bean Cobain was born. In early 1993 was recorded their album IN UTERO and it took only two weeks, but this album was very open- f.e. Song All Apologies and Heart Shaped Box detailed aspects of Cobain's sometimes-shaky marriage. In the end of the year 1993 they recorded another album called MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK, where you can listen another great hit “Where did you sleep last night?”. Some people though that this would be their last CD, because the group was going to split up..

On March the 4th Cobain was rushed to hospital in a coma. He woke up after one day, but on the 5th of April Kurt Cobain went into the small room above his garage in his Seattle home and ended it all. Cobain's body was found when an electrician visiting the house to install a security system was walking around outside when no one answered the front door and peered through windows. He thought he saw a mannequin sprawled on the floor until he noticed a splotch of blood by Cobain's ear. When police arrived on the scene they found Cobain with a shotgun still pointed at his chin and on a nearby counter a suicide note written in red ink addressed to Love and the couples then 19 month old daughter Frances Bean.
DAVID ERIC GROHL
Dave Grohl was born on 14th January 1969 and grew up in a Washington D.C. suburb called Springfield, Virginia. He learned to play drums on pillows in his room. Dave played in many groups in high school. Some were: Freak Baby, Mission Impossible and Dain Bramage. He later got the chance to join the group Scream, one of his most favorite bands. Dave dropped out of school at the age of 17 to tour full time. He stayed with Scream until they broke up in 1990. While in L.A., the bassist from Scream bailed on the band, leaving Dave stranded. He called Buzz Osborne of the Melvins. Buzz paid for Dave's move to Seattle in September of 1990 where he joined a band called Nirvana. He had been writing songs but soon realized that there wasn't much room for his songs in this new band. Dave had replaced drummer Chad Channing in the band. Dave remained with Nirvana until the suicide of front man Kurt Cobain. Sad and depressed, Dave Grohl didn't think he could go on in music. After a phone call from another Seattle band that was the victim of the same occurance, Dave decided to record all his songs. In a space of six days, he recorded all the instruments, except one guitar solo by friend Greg Dulli, starting from the drums up. After he recorded these songs, he released the album and called his new creation the FOO FIGHTERS (their big hit was for example “Learn to fly”). Recently, Dave and his wife, Jennifer Youngblood, have split and a divorce is pending.

KRIST ANTHONY NOVOSELIC
Krist Anthony Novoselic (the name means "new settler" in Croatian) was born on May 16th, 1965, in Compton, California. His parents, Krist and Maria, were Croatian immigrants. In the 1979 he and his family moved to Aberdeen, where also Kurt was living. Chris was into bands like Led Zeppelin, Devo, Black Sabbath and Aerosmith. He had some people to hang out with, but he was hard pressed to call them friends. He finally got a job at the local Taco Bell and threw himself into work. By senior year of high school, he had bought a car, some stereo speakers, and a guitar. Around this time Chris's brother Robert brought his friend Kurt Cobain over to the Novoselic house. When Kurt asked about the racket emanating from the upstairs stereo, Robert replied, "Oh, that’s my brother Chris, he listens to punk rock." One day during his senior year in high school, he had been walking behind two junior girls in the hall who were raving about the album Never Mind the Bollocks from the Sex Pistols. "Yeah, they're really great!" he piped up. Shellie remembered him as a "class clown-type guy, always joking." They talked a little and made friends. She got his phone number and started calling him up. By March 1985, they had started hanging out as friends at Shellie’s apartment, listening to punk rock records and going to shows. Soon they started going out. Today is Krist playing in groups SWEET 75 and GUS. Btw. it was he, who announced that they’d never find Kurt’s replacement and in ´94 they dissolved NIRVANA.