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Melody Maker, November 2 1991
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So the band went outside, the MCA woman came hack, saw the note assumed Nirvana had written it and threw a fit, threatening to drop them from the label. "By this time,' Kurt goes on. 'We'd been doing interviews in the van for about an hour and I lit the curtains on fire, and we opened the door and this bellow of smoke came into her face.She thought we'd set the van on fire. The rumours were a bit exaggerated when they finally got back to MCA to the extent that we'd assaulted the woman and destroyed the club and completely burned out our van." Rock'n'roll, eh kids? There ain't nothing like the real thing. The left-handed singer/guitarist then tells me about another time in Belgium where they swapped round all the name-tags in the chic cafeteria tent, so the party of 12 Ramones and friends ended up sitting at a table for four and Shane MacGowan was left on his own. "He was being spoon-fed Gerbers baby-food, because he couldn't chew," comments-Chris maliciously. "So we gave him a plate of apples!" Everyone giggles. "There were about 30 of us sitting in a party with Sonic Youth,' the singer adds. "Someone throws a carrot-stick and someone throws a grape. Then someone else throws back some dressing and it hums into a huge big food fight. We completely wrecked the food tent but it was a lot of fun and if there had been televisions there, we would have wrecked them too. "We snuck into Ride's trailer and stole their champagne," he continues. "This guy who was with us video-ing the tour, pee-ed in their champagne bucket. We stole all their flowers and candy too." ISN'T this all rather rock'n'roll? Isn't this all opposed to what Nirvana are about? I thought you were meant to "hate the average American macho male" (not my quotes). I thought you'd abhor such boorish behavior as the province of prats like Axl Rose and his ilk. "Well, no one actually does this stuff anymore," Kurt says. "They're too scared. But that isn't our point. We only do it cos we're bored and we want to have fun. And we do - real sincere fun!" "I think the alcohol has a lot to do with it, too " Dave adds. But doesn't this sort of behaviour just lead meek Limey journalists like myself to assume you're just a bunch of redneck no-good delinquents? "we're not boasting about it," Kurt retorts. "You asked us." I asked you? Me? "Yes, you did," he replies. `'You started the whole f***ing thing!" "But at the same time, who f***ing cares?" Dave asks. Dave woke up this morning on his mom's couch to the strains of 'Teen Spirit'. It was being used as background music for an advertisement for antique cars. He thought that was kinda cool. "It's all entertainment," he adds. "The people who'd call us stupid rednecks, whatever, are the people who give us that champagne to pee in, are the people who put on those shows." "Champ-agne " Chris says disgustedly. "like if there was a fifth of whiskey there, I'm going to drink champ-agne!" "Ride should have had that f***ing champagne, " Dave sneers. "Make them stop staring at their f**ing feet the whole time, goddamn it!" SO how much do Nirvana love rock'n'roll? Lets find out. "Rock'n'roll?" asks Dave perplexed. Yeah! "When they asked Jesus how much he loved the world, they nailed his hands to the cross - 'This much!'" Chris comments. C'mon guys. Lets talk about rock'n'roll, for f***'s sake - Sammy Hagar, Van Halen, Warrant or whatever their damn names are! "They're not even worth slagging," Kurt replies, aware that I'm trying to wind him up. "Lets just say I don't want to be associated with 99 per cent of rock' n' roll bands." "The Youth, the 'Honey, The Breeders, the Cross, the Knife, the Nails, Fugazi - the're the bands we like," explains Chris (the Knife are Shonen Knife, the three-headed pure punk pop goddess from Japan). |
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