Nirvana In Aus: The Untold Story Pt 2

In the final installment of a two-part series, MATT SHEA talks to The Meanies’ Wally Kempton, former triple j producer Jen Brennen and David Saunders from New Zealand’s 3Ds about Nirvana’s infamous Australasian tour in January-February 1992. Part one here.

Wally Kempton

The Meanies

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] At the time our Sydney booking agent was Steve Pavlovic, who was Magnet Promotions, and he brought Nirvana out. It just happened to be a time when Pav was bringing out lots of bands. And we were coming up in the world: we got shows as a result, and good tours.

We knew of the guys a while before they came out. Bleach came out on Waterfront Records and we were pretty good mates with Waterfront. So we knew about a lot of their releases and we all knew about Bleach for ages before Nevermind came out, so we were already fans.

The story from the Big Day Out is a great example of the anticipation surrounding the Nirvana tour. I was in Sydney and Ken West – the BDO promoter – was working out the schedule for the festival and he said to me, “You guys are playing with Nirvana at the Phoenician on the Friday night, right?” I was like, “Yeah.” Ken said, “OK, everybody else is freaking out about clashing times with Nirvana. Not because they’re worried about playing in front of no one – they couldn’t care less – they just want to see Nirvana. So, as a result, Wal, we have to put you guys on at the same time as Nirvana. Somebody has to and you would have already seen them at the Phoenician and you’ll see them in Melbourne the week after.” I was going, “I really have no comeback to that. What am I supposed to say?” Ken was like, “Thanks. I knew you’d understand.”

So that’s what happened. Our playing time clashed with theirs by about 15 minutes. We had a massive fucking crowd because we were enjoying the fruits of our labour in ’92 – we’d been around for three years and everything was going well. We were a band on the rise and people wanted to see us, so we had a big crowd watching us … for 15 minutes. And then we had a lot of people turn around and walk the other way. Some diehards stuck around, thankfully. We jokingly downed tools ourselves at one point.

By the time we got to Adelaide a week later it was just ridiculous. It was truly ridiculous. There were people everywhere. The Thebby [Thebarton Theatre] was just chockers. I’m standing on the balcony there after we’ve played, waiting for Nirvana to come on: the stage lights come up, and they’re standing there and the crowd were cheering so fucking loudly I couldn’t hear myself think. The people in the front section: it was just like seeing an ocean rocking backwards and forwards as one – the whole floor – and the music hadn’t even started. They’re just screaming their heads off and there were people crowd-surfing – there wasn’t even any music playing! It was fucking ridiculous. Then they just start and the whole place erupted. I’d never seen anything like that before.

They didn’t change what The Meanies did in any way other than it was now OK for a dirty, filthy punk band from Melbourne to put out a record that sounded good. Because previously the one thing reviewers would say about us was, “Great song. Catchy stuff. Love the packaging. Pity it sounds like shit.” I guess me, personally: I guess I wanted our stuff to sound a lot better from that point on.

I think Nirvana’s impact was more important in exposing the other bands at the time, rather than inspiring the bands that would come after. In terms of Australia: this might be an outlandish comment – they’re awesome – but maybe You Am I would have never had a number one album if it wasn’t for bands like Nirvana? It really did open up people’s minds a bit more. People realised there was more to life than whatever shit they were listening to in the first place.

Screaming Trees were my favourite band from that time and I’ve got a soft spot for Mudhoney. But I think as a result of Nirvana I got to discover a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise discovered.

Jen Brennen

Producer, triple j

I’d been one of the music programmers at triple j but at the time of Nevermind I was producing drive with Ian Rogerson. In the lead-up to the album coming out there was talk from those in the know that it was something special. I’d also gotten to know John Silva, Nirvana’s manager, through Sonic Youth and so forth, and so he was very aware of the role triple j played in launching bands’ careers.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Someone from triple j was actually in America just before the single was released there, and John wanted them to come in and he gave them a copy of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. They brought it back to the station and a couple of us went completely gaga and just thought it was the most incredible thing that had ever happened. At that point you felt you were in amongst something that was really, really exciting on any kind of level, socially or musically. It didn’t seem like Geffen and BMG had any clear plans on when they were going to release it, but we just started playing it, and most of the presenters – even the ones who were reluctant – sensed it was something special, because the reaction from the audience was pretty much instantaneous the first time we played it.

I’d been pigeon-holed as the indie person at the station. I was always pushing stuff that was considered a bit guitar heavy and left of centre, so to speak. The whole Nirvana episode: that was the culmination of years spent at triple j arguing about indie rock versus what we would have considered more mainstream versus whatever else. But there was something happening in the music community. I used to be out five out of seven nights a week, and people would be spending their lives at The Annandale and the Sandringham and places like that. It was just that there was so much great music around. It wasn’t like there were massive fights at the station or anything like that. There was the thought in some quarters that it would all blow over, but by the time the band had come to Australia it was a very different story.

I think I saw them seven times on that tour, including the Big Day Out, which is surely up there with one of greatest live shows. It was just amazing – hot, sweaty, packed, intense. Live, they always put in 110 per cent and really gave it their all. But there was always that question: how far would they push it? I think they wrecked all their instruments at the Hordern Pavilion. There was that great sense of, “Man, I’m here and I’m seeing something great and important.” It’s like I wish I’d seen Bruce Springsteen at the Bottom Line in 1972. There’s that intensity. When people talk about those great live performers they talk about the Springsteens of the world, and then you talk about Nirvana. It’s almost impossible to describe.

But every show was incredible. I guess the thing about the Phoenician was that it was the first and it was all about that anticipation. Again, that’s something you very rarely experience. That anticipation and that intensity and the room being so packed and hot and people just so wanting it to be incredible. And it was incredible.

On a good night, live music can take you somewhere, and that’s what Nirvana did. I think that was the genius of Kurt – the way the whole thing with him panned out was incredibly sad, but not entirely unexpected, in a way. That’s a terrible thing to say, but I’m sure most people would tell you that. I don’t profess to know him, but the others were much more open about the possibilities and excitement and more willing to engage, I guess. They saw trouble ahead, but I think they just wanted to play music – that’s what Dave Grohl has always said, hasn’t he?

I definitely don’t want to overstate it, but yes, there was a gold record [Brennen was presented with a gold record of Nevermind in recognition of helping promote the band in Australia]. There are photos – not particularly great photos – of me receiving it with Dave [Grohl] and Krist [Novoselic]. It was really given to the station, but I think Paul Krige – who was head of BMG Music at the time – I think he’d talked me up a little. Coincidentally, at the time we ran the second Hottest 100, or third, and it came in at number one. And they let us put it on the compilation record; that was because of the relationship with [former manager] John Silva. They were on very few compilations, and that was one of the only times they did go on one.

Nirvana were the zeitgeist, and there was a big change. That average person in the street may not have felt that shift in popular culture, but it was a shift – when was the last time you felt that? Like Public Enemy: you felt like something was changing and it’s endured until this day. Likewise Nirvana. It definitely shifted the plates, so to speak. Has there ever been any other shift like that? I don’t think so.

David Saunders

The 3Ds

We had a relationship with Doug Hood of Looney Tours already, so I guess that’s how we got the Nirvana slot. Stephen Pavlovic: I’m pretty sure he was also involved somehow, because we had a really good working relationship with him. At that stage our album had come out – our first album – and we’d played a few shows with people like The Butthole Surfers and The Buzzcocks. But I have no idea how it happened, really.

The Logan Campbell Centre in Auckland didn’t seem like the greatest place to have the gig. It’s just a big concrete space, and I was a bit ho-hum about it. But when we rocked up to soundcheck in the middle of the afternoon there seemed to already be about 3500 kids outside. It was crazy, and it didn’t change. There would have been as many people outside as inside, I would say. I don’t know why they didn’t get a bigger venue. Maybe at that time there wasn’t a bigger venue – there probably wasn’t.

We were already getting our own big crowds at that stage, but something just seemed to happen at that show. We probably played better than we’d ever played before. I remember the audience just being really open; I just couldn’t believe how into it they were. On the side of the stage Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were jumping up and down through our whole set. It was just mental. It was really good fun. Dave came running into our dressing room afterwards. He was quite young at that stage, but he was really lovely and they were admiring our guitars and all this sort of stuff, and we were just a bit dumbfounded by it all. The next thing we knew they’d invited us to go and play in Japan; there was some tour going on there. And being The 3Ds, we turned it down, of course! I think one of us had work commitments. Still, other bands just wouldn’t believe that that could even happen – but shit, that happened.

I’m aware of the story about us blowing Nirvana off the stage. After we played the show, we’d gone back having drinks somewhere and the late news came on. There were kids coming out from the show, and they interviewed three separate bunches of them: “What did you think of the show?” And these kids were like, “It was fucking awesome. Nirvana were incredible, but The 3Ds blew them off the fucken’ stage!” I couldn’t believe it. I thought they would have cut that out, but it was really funny.

I thought they played well. Sure, Kurt wasn’t well – I’m not sure you could say it was fair competition – but I really enjoyed their show. I went out and watched it from the crowd. I must admit that it wasn’t what I knew they could be. It was great, and I loved the songs, and I loved the throwing guitars up in the air and stuff like that, but I could tell that it was pretty hard work. I don’t think there’s much to the story about them being drunk onstage – not at all. For them, I wouldn’t have thought that was their worst show by a long shot – it just wasn’t their greatest show. I reckon they totally delivered.

"I can’t really think of any time since when it was like that, when there was that much excitement surrounding a band."

It must have been a crazy time, and it was affecting them in different ways, obviously. I know that Kurt was struggling with it, but I think the other guys were having the time of their lives. They really were. Poor Kurt: he’d suddenly become the spokesperson for every disaffected kid on the planet. He probably would’ve been dreading it horribly, and he looked really sick. I can remember seeing him crouched over by himself, no one talking to him. It was kind of weird, you know? I imagine he was just having a shitty time. He was really unwell that day, but he was still quite a trooper: he was sick and he went out and really played, you know. He delivered.

For sure, it helped – it helped in lots of ways – and I always remember it being an awesome time. Just the relationships we developed from that: looking back, now I see how it all happened and how we got to know Pav. But we already had our own identity, I think. I can’t really think of any time since when it was like that, when there was that much excitement surrounding a band. It was pretty cool. I hope it happens again – I really hope it does.

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PART ONE: Recollections of Nirvana’s only Australian tour featuring Mandy Barron from Magnet Promotions, Crow’s Peter Fenton and Wayne Connolly from The Welcome Mat.