Nirvana‘s legendary Live At Reading album, was recorded August 1992. This album, however, was recorded the year before and is very much forgotten, not to mention overshadowed by the band’s performance the following year.
According to the Nirvana Live Guide this was the year that Kurt decided to dive in Dave’s drum kit and subsequently dislocated his shoulder in the process. There’s no official record for this LP and judging by my search online it was an unofficial release by Big Noise Records. The description on the Live Guide doesn’t completely match up to the recording and I have a feeling some of it was cobbled together. It may not have been professionally recorded, which would explain the terrible sound quality, however it is still a gem that I’m proud to have in my collection.
It begins with Dave Grohl introducing “Tony the interpretative dancer”, who I’m guessing is Anthony Hodgkinson, drummer for the indie rock band Bivouac. Apparently he is best known for dancing onstage during Nirvana‘s 1992 Reading set, so perhaps their 1991 set was a warm up rehearsal for him as well. Nevermind was released in September 1991 so this Reading set would have been showcasing songs off the upcoming album. I presume this is why their set in 1992 was such a success as by this stage the band had two albums to play around with and everyone knew the songs.
On a down side the whole album is very guitar and bass heavy. Kurt also sounds like he’s singing from the end of a long corridor, on the other side of the festival and sadly his vocals are barely audible in opening track: ‘School’. ‘Drain You’ has some horrible screeching feedback, which makes very unpleasant listening for a few minutes. Realistically it’s not the sound quality you go for with a record like this, it’s the memories, especially if you were lucky enough to be there. On a plus, it’s great hearing the screams in between the tracks of the fans who knew and loved the band before ‘Smells Like…’ came along.
I really like the interjections and commentary between songs such as Dave Grohl’s before ‘Smells Like…’: “Today we asked someone how much was admission? And they told us you had to bring a 40 pound squid.” Squid? Really? I have no idea…
Nirvana have ordered their set quite well, bunching together tracks from the forthcoming Nevermind album in the first half and splitting songs from Bleach at the beginning and near the end. The second half of their set opens with the 1990 single ‘Silver’, followed by the split single, with American rock band The Fluid, ‘Molly’s Lips’.
Closing track ‘Burn Out’ was the only track I didn’t recognise by name. Turns out it’s actually ‘Territorial Pissings’ and doesn’t have anything to do with their Reading set. On closer listen ‘Endless, Nameless’ is tagged onto the end of ‘Blew’ and that is where their Reading 1991 set finished. The final track is noticeably different in sound quality and is actually taken from the band’s performance on Tonight with Jonathan Ross on 6th December 1991.
This video is exactly how the album ends:
However, this is how the album should have finished, with ‘Endless, Nameless’:
Whoever put the LP together obviously had a spare few minutes to fill at the end of the album and thought no one would notice. It’s slightly disappointing to have an extra track tagged on the end when it has nothing to do with Reading or Nirvana‘s original set. Although, I have to say, it does give the album a better conclusion with Ross’ final comment: “Nirvana there doing the tune that we didn’t actually expect, but they wanted me to tell you they’re available for children’s birthday parties and bar mitzvahs…”
The quality is absolutely awful, but hearing Nirvana play live with all the mistakes, the feedback, the improvisation and the screeching, there’s something special about it. I would have loved to have been in that audience, but sadly this set was played a month before I was born.
Released in 1991 on Big Noise Records
Side One – ‘School’, ‘Floyd The Barber’, ‘Drain You’, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, ‘Come As You Are’, ‘Breed’
Side Two – ‘Silver’, ‘Molly’s Lips’, ‘Love Buzz’, ‘Negative Creep’, ‘Blew’, ‘Burn Out’
Forgotten Vinyls 
Hi I have this record also, and wondered is it quite rare or valuable I can’t find another one same anywhere thank you x
Hi Tracy! To be honest I have no idea if it is, but that’s interesting that you can’t find another one anywhere. I would suggest taking it into a record store to ask an expert or perhaps a record fair (in the UK these happen in major cities a few times a year) where there will be lots of vinyl experts who may be able to let you know if it is. Nirvana’s 1991 performance has always been overshadowed by their 1992 performance where they headlined and it was recorded for DVD and, in my opinion, I don’t think this album is an official Nirvana album, purely based on it not being listed in the band’s discography. However, this is purely my speculation, I don’t know for certain. It would be great to perhaps ask a Nirvana specialist who would know for definite.
Thanks for your comment and let me know if you find out if it’s a rare one!