When Leeds rockers Mother Vulpine took indefinite hiatus in 2007, bassist Tom Hudson went off and formed Pulled Apart By Horses, who you should know by now to be terrifically noisy and wonderful (or crap, depending on your point of view) of song title, having given us ‘Meat Balloon’ and ‘I Punched A Lion In The Throat’. What’s indisputable is that they’re really really fun. Singer Matt Bigland embarked on solo project Dinosaur Pile-Up, which unfortunately isn’t. Bigland’s a self-confessed Dave Grohl obsessive, and while he employs a full band to play live, he does all the writing and studio playing himself, meaning there’s nobody to tell him that when you take the constituent parts of a Foo Fighters record – primal drumming, over-metallicised twang on the bass, drawly vocals – and don’t add any inspiration of your own, you end up with a Foo Fighters record. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club did much the same thing with the Jesus & Mary Chain – but crucially, today’s teenagers won’t remember the MaryChain, and that way they sell some records. A bit like the Vince Vaughn remake of ‘Psycho’, where the entire film was shot verbatim to the original, just starring different actors – there’s nothing inherently wrong with the plan, but what’s the bloody point?
Oh my, how the jealousy intensifies of the thought of missing Nirvana’s headline slot on the Friday night at Reading ‘92. But, as a mere spotty adolescent at the time, the chances were derisorily slim that the immeasurable impact they had that night would have had a significant premise in my think tank at that tender age. However, due to the release of this climatic DVD/CD combo, a joyous wa hey, yes indeed, wa hey is bellowed out! We get to relive Cobain at his most spasmodically enchanting, fronting the primal instigators of grunge music of the early 90s. The campsite that year was rife with rumours that year that Cobain was AWOL, rumours citing anything from an overdose, to marriage difficulties or that he was compelled to shun the show due to his displeasure of the limelight. That aside, the set was filled with mind-blowing grunge and sloppy indie-rock that came accustomed to Nirvana’s shows. Filled with most of ‘Nevermind’ and ‘Bleach’ their set was that of a greatest hits ensemble. The inclusion of bootleg gems ‘D7’ and ‘Spank Thru’ whetted the appetite further. But, nothing resonates as profoundly as their classic cuts, such as ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit, ‘Lithium’, ‘School’ and set closer ‘Territorial Pissings’. This showing came a year after ‘Nevermind’ an album that reset the aesthetics and expectations of modern pop music. And delivered Reading a Nirvana arguably at their artistic peak. Nirvana you live on in our hearts!
