(Flopped in the Gigant, flipped in the Doelen, pop history in Paradiso)

Despite the early death of KC, it will not be the end of a flow of posthumously releases. For next year a live album is scheduled for release and recently we have seen the release of MTV UNPLUGGED and the concert video LIVE TONIGHT SOLD OUT. The last one contains images of the renowned performance the group did in Paradiso, at the end of 1991, also the last ever show of Nirvana on Dutch soil. Before all that, there were two previous visits: a club tour right after the release of BLEACH, and later on a chaotic performance at the prestigious Ein Abend In Wien-festival. What went on at these occasions? Who did the group meet? What impression did Cobain and his fellows leave behind? A reconstruction.

The first time the group hits Dutch soil is on the 31st October when they arrive in Hoek van Holland, by boat, from England. Nirvana, consisting of singer/guitarist KC (calling himself Kurdt Kobain), bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing, is expected to do five shows to promote their debut release BLEACH. They arrive with fellow Seattle group TAD, a four-headed company lead by round singer Tad Doyle, with whom Nirvana is doing a seven-week tour through Europe. According to Ruud Berends from booking agency Paperclip it was a ‘introduction tour’ to become a bit known. They earn a guaranteed 1500 guilders for both bands, plus hotel, drinks and food. It was a break-even tour, as well for the group as the agency.

Edwin Heath, tourmanager for the whole seven weeks, tells: ‘we were nine men in a Mercedes van; both bands and soundman Graig Montgomery, for almost two months. You can say a van becomes very small. Besides, there was not a lot of money so we had to share hotel rooms, so we would get on eachother's nerves. Real big fights never broke out though.’

Short after their first arrival in Holland, on the way to the hotel in Amsterdam, the first incident occurs; ‘Krist bought a bottle of whiskey on the boat and finished it alone. Drunk as a donkey, completely wasted. A certain moment we are waiting for a traffic light in Den Haag, next to a police car without lights. All of a sudden Krist opens the side door and shout ‘Turn on the lights, motherfuckers!’. Well, the cops stayed behind us for another 15 minutes.’

Paperclip chose the Quentin Hotel in Amsterdam, as always for small bands. Heath; ‘Krist, still completely drunk, went to lie down in the hallway of the hotel. The hotel is run by two cool guys, one of which, Philip, looks like Freddy Mercury. He goes to Krist to put him on a chair and when Krist sees him coming he immediately shouts ‘Fuck you, Freddie Mercury fag!’ and we were told to leave. Later on Krist got on top of the van to curse to the whole world.’ The whole group finds accommodation in Acro Hotel, Jan Luykenstraat. All but Krist, who hits the sack, eat in the Leidsedwarsstraat after which they all go back to the hotel.

The next day a radio session is planned for VPRO’s Nozems A Gogo program. The group plays Love Buzz, About A Girl and an unidentified 3rd song. DJ Fons Dellen found Nirvana’s presentation unimpressive. ‘We had received the whole US underground already and this was average.’ Colleague Lotto IJzerman cannot remember a lot about KC: ‘He did not look very involved while Krist was jumping around with his tall body, happy that the people in Holland dug their music. Later on I heard that the group was very pleased to be on nation-wide radio, which is not as easy in the US of course.’ The first question asked is about their involuntarily departure from the Quentin Hotel. Heath: ‘Krist apologized for the incident on the air. According to him it was his Croatian blood in combination with alcohol. But he was a sweet guy, and the incident was an exception that shamed him clearly. From then on he behaved very well.’

After the session they rush to Rotterdam, where Nirvana and TAD play Nighttown for 66 visitors. According to Heath, Nirvana wasn’t very experienced; especially Krist who was all the time looking for something to climb into. Very funny, but not good for the groups performance. Chad was a quiet bloke who had polio as a child and therefor did not grow a lot. Live on stage he had troubles keeping up while the other 2 were blazing away.’

Next day they head for guitar temple Vera in Groningen. Over there, high expectations as can be read in a Vera newspaper preview; ‘Kurt, Krist, Chad and Jason on vocals, bass, drums and guitar bring us heavy psichodeliaz with the volume on 10. The group combine several styles and when asked for their influences they name Leadbelly to Slayer. This will be the show where every hardcore hippie has to attend!’ This piece shows that Vera was not yet aware that Everman left the group months ago.

Programmer Peter Weening writes a review for the Vera newspaper; ‘plenty of expectations and only 95 people show up,’ he complains. ‘Damm shame. Nirvana has the songs. Crunchy pop with perfect vocals, surprises and passion. But I feel the loss of the 2nd guitarist was not a good move. There is too much weight on the shoulders of singer/guitarist Kirk Koblain.’

Edwin Heath did the sound that night because Craig wants to rest his ears. After the show Edwin and Krist play some table-football, while Kurt heads quickly to Hotel Friesland.

Next day, 3rd November, both bands play in Tivoli, Utrecht. Despite some promotion only 125 people paid 7.50 guilders to see both groups. Gutter Heijting who is following TAD and Nirvana for Opscene magazine, cannot get in touch with Cobain. ‘He was sleeping in a corner, curled up against the heater, and was completely gone. I though him to be stoned out of his brains but I later read he had a sleeping disease. It was a hell of a lot of noise for 90 minutes but Cobain did not wake up once.’ Ine Arets, Tivoli’s programmer, had a different impression; ‘I found KC an annoying little person. Starting a song, cutting of halfway and then blaming some of the others. Someone who thinks he is the star in the group, which allows him to do anything he likes.’

In Apeldoorn they play the Gigant with not more success. Programmer Jaap de Ridder; ‘It was a bunch of young dogs, but live they missed something. Cobain’s act was the defunct-effect-pedal-joke, blaming it and then smashing everything up. A pose, but well done.’ After the show the dressing room gets terrorized; TAD and Kurt jump one after the other on the piano, breaking glasses. José de Ridder, responsible for the evening; ‘They were destroying the dressing room. They took the flowers from the bar out of the vases and Kurt stashed them into his trousers, coming out through his fly. When I got in the room, I picked the smallest boy, turned out to be Kurt, and asked him to stop. He was very nice and offered me a beer and a flower out of his fly. As soon as I left the dressing room, they continued like nothing happened.

Henk Waninge, journalist for the local newspaper, did not enjoy the show; ‘It sure was heavy: Cobain moving around and smashing his guitar like Pete Townsend, but the act was not together yet.’ The piece Waninge wrote for the paper states that; ‘Saturday night both groups display the need for destruction. Nirvana and especially Cobain, was the most extreme. At one moment the sound of his guitar was pissing him off so much that he wanted to toss it in the soundbox. Wanted, since the guitar took down the box in it’s fall and the show ended in a thundering roar of noise. Buddy Novoselic wanted to share the fun, took Cobain on his neck, broke strings of his bass and threw away parts of his a bass. Pity though that Chad was not in the mood, the drum kit stayed untouched.’

After the Gigant show, Edwin Heath decided to talk to both bands. ‘They were messing it up for themselves, the Gigant concert was really bad. There were only 35 people, but they had paid, so you have to play for them.’ Heath says that maybe they were tour-tired. ‘The 1st week you are very enthusiastic, but in the 3rd week there is usually a dip. Azzerad writes in Come As You Are that Cobain was using lots of alcohol to escape from it all or would simply sleep on every occasion. Edwin Heath swears that Kurt did not use alcohol or drugs on that 1989 tour. ‘He had stomach troubles all the time but he had medication that seems to really flourish him up; for the first time in a while he could enjoy eating. But alcohol and drugs he did not touch, maybe simply because he did not have the money.’

‘Performing was Kurt his outlet. Off stage he was a completely different person. He could sit in the van telling jokes no one would get. An hour later you would get it and almost drive the van off the road laughing.’ The two groups got along very well according to Heath; ‘They loved foodfights. As long as it became a huge mess; one of the things Kurt adored. They also enjoyed making filthy sandwiches, on which they emptied full ashtrays. Tad and Kurt were by far the most creative in this game.’

On Sunday the 5th of November they play Melkweg in Amsterdam. Programmer John van Luyn; ‘we had already had a lot of Paperclip bands, like Sub Pop and other hip labels from that era. I was told to be very careful though with booking these American noise groups, since the attendance was continuous low. But after hearing BLEACH I had so much confidence in the group that I booked them anyway. Well, no one showed up, a lousy 200 people. That whole tour was badly attended; later on I learned that Holland had the best attendance of the whole tour.’

Mike de Veer, bassist of the Amsterdam based hardcore group Loveslug, saw that combination TAD and Nirvana 3 times throughout that tour. ‘We just finished touring with The Fluid, another Sub Pop band, and they let us listen to BLEACH, since they were very thrilled about it. I dug the record, so I went to the Tivoli show. I talked my way into the dressing room and had a chat with them. At this time they were small bands with few equipment, and they had to borrow each other effect pedals to have a nice sound. After the Melkweg show I hung around a bit and the group wanted to go out so we went for pizza, bought some beers in a night shop and went to their hotel. We talked a bit about what they were doing and how the tour was progressing. They told me for example that one of them used to work for a dentist and regularly used to suck on the laughing gas. Cobain was very quiet though. Even at the pizzeria at the Rijksmuseum I found him to be a strange person, he did not open his mouth. I explained him what was on the pizzas and he ordered one, took off the salami and some other stuff, dabbed the whole pizza with a few napkins and started eating it. He did not say anything sensible, I got along better with the guys from TAD and Krist. That was a nice bloke, he talked all the time.’

Gutter Heijting had an interview meeting in Amsterdam with Nirvana that afternoon; ‘I only talked with Krist and Chad in their hotel. After 15 minutes Kurt –looking very clear- came down the stairs, phantom wise, to the lounge. He whispered a bit with the other two and left directly. It was a very pleasant interview by the way, Krist looked deadbeat, presumably from smoking weed constantly for several days. He told me he actually wanted to go to his father in Yugoslavia. Chad was in good shape, cute little boy.’ In her review in Opscene Heijting describes Chad as ‘the perfect extra in a hippie film’. About bassist Novoselic she writes; ‘his little beard makes him look a bit like a goat. He has the tanned skin of an outside person.

According to the Paperclip schedule, the group spent another day in Amsterdam after the Melkweg show. What happened on that specific day is no longer traceable, maybe they headed for Germany already. No one could have imagined, judging on their first Dutch shows, to what height their career would go. It would take almost two years, till 31st of August 1991, before Nirvana hits Dutch soil again.

In the weekend of the 31st of August and the 1st of September 1991 takes place the heavily promoted Ein Abend In Wien. On the bill we find among others Nirvana, who are touring to support Sonic Youth, awaiting the release of their 2nd album NEVERMIND. The band has traded Sub Pop for major Geffen by now, that has given the group an intense and extensive tour schedule. According to Coos Zuijdwijk, press promoter for BMG/Ariola, the Dutch interest in Nirvana is almost nil at that moment. ‘In August I had some tapes from the album and no one wanted them.’ Willem Vennema from organizer Mojo Concerts confirms this; ‘At that moment no one was interested in the group, no matter what all the Dutch magazines said later on. We put them on the Ein Abend In Wien bill, under protest, because Sonic Youth insisted.’

The only one really interested in the group at that moment was Gutter Heijting from Opscene, who tried already a phone interview with Cobain beginning of August. ‘Because of the bad connection it did not last long and became unusable. A big pity, but after shouting for 10 minutes we called it quits. I have left only one now-remarkable quote about when he started playing guitar. He told me his father left his mother and she ditched all his guns in the river. Kurt fished them out and sold them to make money to buy guitars.'

Sunday the 1st of September the group is strolling through the city with new drummer Dave Grohl when they bump into an acquaintance. Lotto IJzermans; ‘They remembered exactly who I was, while I had troubles remembering who they were.’ Scheduled for that afternoon are interviews and photo sessions in the Hilton hotel. Sietse Mijers talks to them on behalf of OOR; ‘When I applied for the interview I was warned the group could be annoying, they were known for being difficult to deal with. With seemed pretty right, they were very restless. During the interview the other two were neatly at my table, but Kurt was hanging out of the window or leaving the room.’ After that it is the turn of Klaas-Jan Burema for the Brabant Pers. ‘I mainly spoke with Cobain, the other two went to the Doelen to check it out. On their return they were moaning about the small hall they would have to play., while a band like the Smashing Pumpkins was on the main stage. This arose a wayward atmosphere. Kurt was pretty clear and took all the time in the world, about half an hour. He told me for example that he thought NEVERMIND was produced too clean, and that the follow up would have to be more rough. The other two were pretty uninterested.’

After that photographer Niels van Iperen takes the band outside for a photo shoot; ‘They were pretty difficult kids, fooling around, especially Kurt didn’t feel like doing anything. Once outside Dave suggested as a joke to go into the fountain in front of the hotel. It seemed like a good idea to me, I praised it, but Kurt didn’t want. The other two did like they said after which Kurt had to join too. He sat down on the fountain and it turned out to be a nice session. Strange guy: not really unpleasant, but distant in some way. First moaning, then cooperating and finally enjoying it all.’

Roy Tee tried to shoot Nirvana after that. ‘I knew little about the group, looking at the name I expected spacey seventies music. It was one of many photo assignments I had for that weekend. I wanted to shoot them inside and had laid my eye on an empty dining room on the first floor. This room was full of tables, with clean white tablecloths. First thins Kurt did was walk on all those tables with his dirty shoes. When he finally finished freaking, I got him together with the other two for 10 minutes of posing. He was quickly bored and started making funny faces so I stopped there.’

That night at 23:30 Nirvana takes the stage of the Trabanthalle for what would to become a memorable performance. Encouraged by Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth, who will watch the show from the balcony behind the stage, the group gives an immense energetic and intense show. According to Sietse Meijer, the hall was loaded ‘with dancing people while there was hardly no space for that.’ Also present Volkskrant-journalist Henrico Prins claims though that the hall ‘was not as full as is remembered now, people could simply not get in cause there was a big crowd in front of the only 2 entrance doors. The rest of the hall was semi-full.’ Willem Vennema confirms that, he states around 200-300 people.

The show ends in chaos. In COME AS YOU ARE Michael Azzerad described the situation as following: ‘For the last show of the tour, in Rotterdam, the group got drunk. Near the end of the show Krist climbed on the PA tower with his trouser on his ankles and a bottle in his hand. Security runs on stage and pulls him down, while Kurt was smashing up everything around him. One of the security guys lashes out to Krist, which started a dispute. Krist got removed from the hall, but came back and started fighting the promoter.’

Willem Vennema, that same promoter, tells another story. ‘I was warned before the show by my stagemanager that they would start throwing with their amps and drum kit. They did that every night, part of the show. I decided to keep an eye open and I told their tour manager that I would intervene when they would take our stuff, PA and microphones, for the simple reason that there was another band after them. At the end of the show Krist gets up the PA and made a start throwing the speakers down the stage. Life threatening as there was people down there. I walked up to him and pulled him off the PA by his belt. On which Kurt started to interfere , telling me not to touch his buddy. They acted like they were very drunk.’

‘Ooch, I dealt with bigger rats then Nirvana… I have seen so many groups that decide to close a show by tearing everything down,’ Vennema continues. ‘When you assume your record company will pay for the damages, you are just another spoiled American rich kid… That I fought with Krist is bullshit. The security that night was dressed as nurses so when they came to help me get Krist out of the PA, the whole stage was full of hospital personnel. You cannot call that a fight, cause when 4 security guys grabs you, you cannot move anymore. Neither were they evicted from the venue, they simply went back to their hotel. They also threw with fruits, on which Thurston Moore lectured them, kind of like: now piss off boys.’

So Nirvana did leave an impression and later on those who were there, in the Trabanthalle, would realize that they had witnessed something special. NEVERMIND was released in the third week of September, starts selling, gets stunning reviews all around and ends up in de Moordlijst. Not long after the VARA starts playing SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT and names it their "Parkeerschijf". (Joris: disc of the week) On the 30th of November the single is highest new entry in the Top 40, but a week before this joyful happening Nirvana is still in Holland (and it would be their last time).

Originally the group is scheduled to play 1st of November at the Effenaar in Eindhoven en the 24th of November at the Melkweg. The first show is quickly canceled, and the Melkweg show was moved to the next day at the Paradiso. John van Luyn tells: ‘I thought about having them do 2 shows at the Melkweg, but this was not possible. At a certain moment –dumb of course, in retrospect- I offered Ruud Berends to have Nirvana perform one day in the Melkweg and the next day at the Paradiso. On which the management decided to continue with Paradiso and cancel Melkweg all together.’ Jan-Willem Sligting from Paradiso: ‘It’s very simple; we can offer 600 more people to see the band then the Melkweg can.’ The concert sold out in 30 minutes.

It’s on the 24th of November that Nirvana arrives in Amsterdam. The night before the group, together with Hole, have given a tumultuous performance at the Vooruit in Gent. It is here that Cobain renews his relationship with Hole singer Courtney Love, which whom he has had an on/off relationship for the past months now. OOR-journalist Willem Jongeneelen was in Gent; ‘I do not know exactly when that child from Kurt and Courtney was born but it would not surprise me if it had been conceived on stage that night. After the show Kurt and Courtney were horsing around and playing tag like little children. Krist was playing bass completely naked and Hole was constantly provoking from the side of the stage. Even during the show Love was romping around with Kurt. Twenty minutes after the show, fans were still fighting, for their lives, for pieces of guitar and bass that were smashed.’

In Amsterdam Nirvana stays at the Museum Hotel while Courtney is playing with Hole at Doornroosje in Nijmegen. On stage the blond singer states several times that she has fallen heavy for Cobain. She wants to be reunited with him that same night and asks if someone in the audience, for payment, is not willing to drive her to Amsterdam. Nathalie Delisse, bassist from Bambix at the time, takes the offer. ‘It was like an auction: she offered 150 guilders, I raised my hand: deal. Complete madness. When the show was over there were some calls made to the hotel, to announce her arrival. She had to perform in Lyon the next day, so I had my doubts, I found it all strange business. With Courtney, a friend of mine in my Citroen 2CV, we went to Amsterdam through the fog. She was still wearing her stage dress and started talking about babe bands like Babes In Toyland, about the Chili Peppers, she knew them, and about her love for Kurt. She had a real crush on him. After the Belgium show the day before, they have really seemed to hit it off. She told that together with Kurt they smashed guitars and she found it to be a very sensational, liberating experience. According to me she did not have herself in control: she was tired, busy and chaotic, all at the same time. At the hotel she invited us in but I did not feel like it. The rest of Hole was not so happy with the departure of Courtney , the manager was very pissed. When I later found out they were married, I found it amusing that I had brought them together.’

What happened that night? Michael Azzerad writes in his biography that Kurt and Courtney used heroin for two days in Amsterdam, during Thanksgiving. A quote; ‘They encountered someone in the streets who brought them to the infamous red light district, where they scored some.’ Azzerad’s story is confirmed in Nevermind, The Kurt Cobain story by Dave Thompson; ‘End of November 1991, just a few weeks into the relationship, Kurt introduced Courtney to his hobby (=heroin). Not the other way around as many have tried to state so furiously later on.’ When both writers are correct, this all should have taken place between 4am and noon, when Cobain appears in the hotel at breakfast. Courtney is already on the train to France.

At 13:00 Nirvana leaves, accompanied by some record company reps and Rolling Stone-journalist Chris Mundy, to Hilversum where an acoustic session is scheduled at 14:30, a co-production of VARA and VPRO. All those involved agree that the session was not a big success. Lotto IJzermans; ‘They were fiddling around for ages and sort of played three numbers.’ The group starts with WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT by Leadbelly, a number they will also do later on for MTV Unplugged, then attempts HERE SHE COMES NOW by the Velvet Underground and they close off with a 3rd song that Lotto describes as ‘quiet a lot of misery. It sounded like nothing, and we could not recognize it at all.’

VARA DJ Jan Douwe Kroeske doesn't hold fond memories of that afternoon neither. ‘It was kind of chaotic. We had already heard stories that Nirvana always play their own way, and we were kind of laughing at the sight of things. I remember there were 4 persons in the room, Flip Van Der Ende and me for the VARA and Lotto and Gerard J. Walhof for the VPRO. I had earlier prepared a list of songs I would have liked them to play , like POLLY and TEEN SPIRIT. Krist gave me a firm handshake when I came in, he looked interested but was laughing at the same time. The drummer was too busy tuning and shook y hand quickly later on. After that I sat down on my knees next to Kurt with a crate of beers and so I offered them one. Dave and Krist took one, but Kurt absolutely didn’t want to drink anything. He was just staring at his guitar and would sometime look at me with a terrifying look over his right shoulder – empty eyes staring straight through me – because I disturbed him during his tuning. I tried to explain him what I would like and what my preferences were. He did not feel like it;’ We play what we want.’ After about 45 minutes it was over and Kurt left first without saying goodbye to anyone. Dave ran after him and only Krist approached us. ‘We know when we fuck up’ he said.

According to Lotto IJzermans, Cobain was only physically there, mentally he was broken. Related to the intense and heavy touring schedule? Or simply because Cobain did not or almost not sleep that night? Flip Van Der Ende; ‘The story at that time was already that Kurt was addicted, so that could have been an influence. No matter what, he was restless and did not feel like doing anything,.’

After all, Nirvana arrives at Paradiso at 16:00 for the soundcheck. The roadies do most of the work though and Nirvana plays just 2 songs, one of which was COME AS YOU ARE. One hour later there is a TV interview for VPRO’s Onrust, who is making a documentary about the Nirvana-phenomenon. They only get to speak to Grohl and Novoselic, since Kurt is sleeping with his head on an old sweater in the dressing room. After that, it is the turn of the writing press. Volkskrant-journalist Henrico Prins gets Novoselic while Music Maker’s Jan Van Der Plas deals with Grohl. Prins; ‘Krist was heavily smoking grass and did not have lot more to tell then the obligatory stories that all rising bands have. A rise that pretty much surprised them by the way. We discussed the right spelling of Kurt Cobain, since there were 5 different versions going round. Krist even offered to go the dressing room to lift Kurt’s license out of the pocket of his jacket, but that seemed a bit too much for me. Also the spelling of his own name, Chris at that time, we discussed.’ A quote from the story Prins would later write about his meeting with Novoselic, is too prophetically not to mention; ‘When you’re dead later on, it is only your music that will subsist’. Van Der Plas does not exchange more then 2 words with a clearly exhausted Kurt, and provides Grohl with a tape of Big Star, a group the drummer just discovered.

Around seven it is dinnertime. Ruud Berends recalls; ‘We went to eat Thai on the Leidseplein; all shrimps, and with that we drank a Beaujolais Primeur.’ Cobain passes on for the dinner, returns to the hotel to sleep some more. At that time in the Paradiso a certain Bryan Wilson starts his reading of "Sectarianism And Fragmentation Of Religious Experience". Therefor the Nirvana show can only start late: the venue opens around 23:00. One quarter of an hour later the band arrives in the Paradiso. Before the group can get on the stage however, there are more urgent things to attend to. A bailiff has impounded the equipment, in name of a Belgian fan that lost a few front teeth 2 days earlier at the show in Gent. Ruud Berends; ‘Kurt had smashed his guitar over there and a few splinters went through the boy’s lip. Four minutes before the band went on stage a settlement was reached. Money was not an issue: I do not know if I am allowed to say how much, but it was about thousands of guilders.’

A bit later starts in front of the VPRO camera’s one of the most famous performances in Dutch history. Cobain shows his most ferocious side to the exuberant crowd, which is perfectly illustrated when he and Grohl demolish the drum kit at the end of the show. Sligting; ‘What I noticed was the enormous hopelessness of the band, but it was damm good. All right, messy and out of tune, but that’s not what it is about, it’s about the statement. You have a good song, performing it beautiful is then no longer an issue.’

Cameraman Sander Snoep is posted on the side of the stage that night. At the end of the show Cobain gets annoyed by the close presence of Snoep and kind of molests him and almost throws him off the stage. Snoep; ‘According to me it was seriously intended, but I never felt really threatened. I did see it coming when I had him in close-up. At least I managed to break a few strings of his guitar.’ From inside the programming van Bram Van Splunteren is directing the Onrust-recordings that night. ‘Cobain had been ignoring Sander all the time, but right before the attack he looks into the camera with a very nasty look: a great shot. According to me it was kind of a game. Cobain did attack him, but I do not think it was badly intended. The end is beautiful too, when the drum kit goes down and all those fans and security guys get on the stage.’ Edwin Heath; ‘Kurt simply did these kind of things. That is also what I found scary about him, back in 89 already. He could jump straight through the drum kit, not minding the pain. He often had bruises everywhere.’

At the end of the show, OOR journalist Annemieke Van Grondel finally gets around to her interview with Dave Grohl, after earlier meetings had been changed 2 times before. ‘There was a party going on in the dressing room and I got to talk with Dave for hardly 30 minutes. At first he looked like he did not now anything about an interview, but he seemed very talkative. Kurt sat next to Krist and looked completely deadbeat. That shocked me pretty much, although after that show and their tour heavy tour schedule it was not that strange.’ According to Mike De Veer from Loveslug, who was DJ that night, Cobain leaves for the hotel early. The rest of the band stays, according to the Music Maker report from Jan Van Der Plas, till early morning hours in the dressing room. The next day Nirvana flies to Scandinavia where an equally hectic tour schedule awaits them.

To Holland Nirvana will not return anymore. The group tours intensive, Cobain marries in ’92 with Courtney Love and the couple have a daughter in August, Frances Bean. The singer gets hooked up on heroin in that period and tries for the following 1.5 years a few fierce attempts to kick it. At the beginning of September 1993, after long waiting, the third Nirvana studio album entitled IN UTERO is released. A Dutch show is scheduled for 24th of March at the AHOY in Rotterdam, with opening act the British formation The Auteurs. Cobain’s notorious suicide attempt in Rome messes the plans up. The show even gets moved to the 7th of May (already purchased tickets remain valid), but that day would never come. On the 8th of April Kurt Cobain dies 27 years old, in his Seattle house. ‘I don’t have the passion anymore and so remember, it’s better to burn out then to fade away.’
 

(from Dutch pop magazine OOR Nr.23 – 19 Nov. 1994 by Wim Niehaus & Pieter van Adrichem)
(translation: Joris Baas)