As has been witnessed so often in the past, it takes a tragedy to propel some bands into legend. This is certainly the case with NIRVANA. Despite the huge success of their 'Nevermind' album and the global hit single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', it took the suicide of band leader Kurt Cobain before the world truly paid attention, delivering 'supergroup' status to NIRVANA and thrusting Cobain's widow COURTNEY LOVE of HOLE to greater stardom as a by-product.

It is widely acknowledged that NIRVANA completely revolutionised Rock Music, spearheading the Grunge movement and prompting a radical media purge of the antecedent 'Hair' band culture. However, with NIRVANA's swift rise to stardom came attention which would plague band leader Cobain.

Kurt Donald Cobain was born on 20th February 1967. In 1979 Kurt's family moved to Aberdeen, Washington and lived in a trailer park with his mother (who split from Kurt's father in 1975 and re-married in 1984) in the area for a number of years. NIRVANA formed in Aberdeen in 1987 after Cobain had met bassist Krist Novoselic (born 16th May 1965) and drummer Chad Channing (born 31st January 1967). The band's first single came in November 1988, a cover of SHOCKING BLUE's 'Love Buzz' on the Sub Pop label. Shortly after recording NIRVANA were boosted to a quartet with the enrolment of second guitarist Jason Everman.

After recording their 'Bleach' debut album, reportedly for a mere $600 and with MELVINS drummer Dale Crover appearing on the tracks 'Paper Cuts' and 'Floyd The Barber', NIRVANA headed off on a brief tour of the US West Coast before its release in June. A more substantial road trek opened in San Francisco on 22nd June. However, the group was forced to re-schedule some shows due to the departure of Jason Everman, later to join MINDFUNK. After recording second EP, 'Blew', the group debuted in Britain with a show in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In August of 1989 Cobain and Novoselic returned to Seattle's Reciprocal Studios, plotting an enterprise set to be titled JURY OR LITHIUM. Three tracks were recorded, all covers of LEADBELLY's, with a band unit rounded out by the SCREAMING TREES duo of MARK LANEGAN and drummer Dave Pickerel. The project never got any further.

April 1990 saw the departure of Chad Channing from the NIRVANA ranks and BUNDLES OF HISS and MUDHONEY drummer Dan Peters filling the gap. This line-up cut a cover of Scottish Punk act THE VASELINES' 'Molly's Lips' as an American only green vinyl single in February 1991. Peters would later journey through FASTBACKS, LOVE BATTERY and VALIS.

In April 1991 former THE SCREAM drummer Dave Grohl (born January 14, 1969) supplanted Peters. THE SCREAM's vocalist Pete Stahl would later join WOOL and GOATSNAKE. NIRVANA signed to Geffen at the end of the same month and begin work on the first album, working with Butch Vig at at Sound City, Van Nuys and Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood, for the label just over a year later.

'Nevermind', released in September 1991, was to prove one of the Rock world's greatest achievements. Not only did it propel NIRVANA to superstar status but its influence would turn the Hard Rock world on its head and shape the way loud music was to be crafted for the next decade. It's success not only culled the previously dominant generation of "hair Metal" bands but instigated a whole new movement in Grunge. The primary vehicle for this rocket ride would be the track 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', a song which saturated the airwaves during late 1991.

'Nevermind's iconic cover art depicted the then three month old Spencer Elden swimming underwater toward a fish hook with an attached dollar bill. Geffen Records at first baulked at the idea of product with a naked child and even suggested digitally removing the baby's penis. The band insisted the member stay intact. Strangely, some copies of 'Nevermind' featured a close out hidden jam track entitled 'Endless, Nameless', coming in a full ten minutes after the main body of music.

'Smells Like Teen Spirit' peaked at no. 6 on the US Billboard charts but attained no. 1 status in Ireland, Belgium, Spain, France and New Zealand. Follow up singles 'Come As You Are', 'Lithium' and 'In Bloom' also charted internationally. US album sales would exceed ten million copies to gain Diamond status. An outtake from the 'Nevermind' sessions, 'Old Age', subsequently surfaced, re-worked by HOLE on their EP 'The Beautiful Son'.

However, the band landed in hot water with the uncharacteristically optomistic track 'Come As You Are'. The song, which like many on 'Nevermind' disturbingly made reference to guns, was soooon to be compared to the song 'Eighties' penned by cult British act KILLING JOKE. Indeed, the songs are so similar it seemed certain that coincidence had played no part. Although the story was picked up by the media, KILLING JOKE, whilst stating the likenesses were "obvious", declined to pursue the matter legally, citing "personal and financial reasons".

The 'Nevermind' tour began in Toronto, Canada on September 20, 1991 and the group return to Britain in November opening with a gig in Bristol

In December NIRVANA play a string of shows with PEARL JAM and the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS in America as 'Nevermind' begins to move swiftly up the American charts, eventually hitting the top spot in January 1992 mainly thanks to the success of the single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. The track, inspired by a line given to Cobain by BIKINI KILL's singer Kathleen Hanna, would strike a chord with the world's youth and eventually become so popular NIRVANA dropped it from their set. When forced to play it for TV promotion the band would deliberately slow it down into a primeval sludge.

In February 1992 Cobain married HOLE's Courtney Love in Waikiki, Hawaii. The pair had first met in 1989 and had briefly lived together before Kurt broke off the romance prior to the recording of 'Nevermind'. Undeterred, despite a liaison with SMASHING PUMPKINS Billy Corgan in the interim, Love eventually got Cobain back and by the time they were married Courtney was pregnant with the couple's daughter Francis Bean. The child was born on August 18, 1992. However, Cobain's health failed midway through a British summer 1992 tour when after a show at Belfast he was given emergency treatment for a weeping stomach ulcer.

Unbeknownst fans, the NIRVANA sound was being influenced from the unlikely source of premier Swedish Death Metal band UNLEASHED, and in particular the album track 'Onward Into Countless Battles' from the 1992 'Shadows In The Deep' album. Many years later, drummer Dave Grohl admitted NIRVANA had re-worked the song to their own ends but felt it too close to the UNLEASHED original to pass off.

NIRVANA, in keeping with their Sub Pop roots, issued a February 1993 single as a split effort with THE JESUS LIZARD, an act much championed by Cobain. 'Oh Guilt' entered the British charts at number 12 before falling straight out again. Bolstering their live sound, the band pulled in former EXPLOITED and GOODBYE MR. McKENZIE guitarist Big John, but his tenure was relatively brief and Pat Smear was added to the group for the remaining dates on the 'In Utero' tour in late 1993, Cobain having first met ex THE GERMS man in Los Angeles.

On 29th February 1994 NIRVANA played what would become their last ever show in Munich, Germany, for in March 1994 Cobain overdosed whilst on holiday in Italy, going into a coma. Growing concerns over his health and mental state were realised a matter of weeks later when, on 8th April firing a pistol into his mouth, he committed suicide. He was 27.

The posthumous acoustic live album featured cover versions of Blues legend LEADBELLY's 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' and DAVID BOWIE's 'The Man Who Sold The World' and THE VASELINES 'Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam'. Chris and Curt Kirkwood of THE MEAT PUPPETS guest on a number of their tracks 'Plateau', 'Oh Me' and 'Lake Of Fire'.

Post NIRVANA Novoselic jammed at the Garlic festival along with NIRVANA associate guitarist Earnie Bailey and, much to the surprise of the audience, PEARL JAM's Eddie Vedder. The duo got together again along with Grohl to feature on the track 'Against The 70's' on ex-MINUTEMEN vocalist MIKE WATT's solo album 'Ballhog Ot Tugboat'.

Grohl debuted his new FOO FIGHTERS with a show at The Satyricon in Portland, Oregon on March 3, 1995 and played at the Velvet Elvis in Seattle the following evening. The FOO FIGHTERS ascendency to that of major status act would be swift, the former drummer proving himself an originator of classy Pop-Rock tunes and matching this with a newly found personae as band leader and frontman. Before long Grohl's outfit was scoring global hit singles and reaping Platinum status albums.

Novoselic though would struggle. The bassist created SWEET 75 with ex-MINISTRY man Bill Rieflin and Yva Las Vegas but this venture failed to lift itself out of underground status. By 2000 Novoselic and SWEET 75 cohort drummer Gina Mainwal founded project band NO WTO COMBO with Punk legend JELLO BIAFRA of THE DEAD KENNEDYS and SOUNDGARDEN's guitarist Kim Thayil. This union resulted in the 'Live From The Battle In Seattle' album.

Both Novoselic and Thayil, alongside ALICE IN CHAINS drummer Sean Kinney and Country legend JOHNNY CASH, cut their version of 'Time Of The Preacher' for the WILLIE NELSON tribute album 'Twisted Willie'. Novoselic emerged with new band project EYES ADRIFT in early 2002, a union with MEAT PUPPETS guitarist Curt Kirkwood and SUBLIME drummer Bud Gaugh. The Autumn of 2002 had news of yet another in the ongoing series of post NIRVANA band projects as Novoselic hooked up ex-KYUSS drummer Alfredo Hernandez and former SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil in a new band venture. Subsequent reports had Novoselic bowing out early on to concentrate on his own EYES ADRIFT act.

NIRVANA fans would be intrigued to learn of a previously unreleased Kurt Cobain track that surfaced in February of 2002. Cobain had cut the track 'Divine And Bright' with avant-garde Seattle Rockers EARTH in 1990.The song was finally made available as a bonus cut on a re-issue of EARTH's 1995 EP 'Sunn Amps And Smashed Guitars'.

Yet more as yet unheard NIRVANA material was promised later the same year when a long running legal between Cobain's widow Courtney Love, Universal Music and the surviving NIRVANA personnel Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic was finally laid to rest. Once an agreement was finalised a series of NIRVANA releasers was forecast including compilations, box sets and rarities collections. Fans would be in anticipation that a projected November 2002 'Greatest Hits' package was set to include a previously unreleased song 'You Know You're Right', recorded on 30th January 1994 just two months before Kurt Cobain's death. The album shifted over 230'000 copies in its first week of sale, debuting at no. 3 on the US album charts.

In 2003 Dave Grohl seemingly repaid his debt of honour to KILLING JOKE in regard to the 'Come As You Are' controversy by not only recording KILLING JOKE's 'Requiem' with his band the FOO FIGHTERS but also sessioning on KILLING JOKE's eponymous album of that year. KILLING JOKE frontman Jaz Coleman also guested onstage with the FOO FIGHTERS in New Zealand.

A guitar owned by Kurt Cobain during 1990-'92, a rare solid body Mark IV-style Mosrite Gospel. was purchased for $117,500 in the 'Icons of 20th Century Music Auction' conducted in April of 2004 by Heritage Galleries of Dallas. That August a further crop of Cobain related items went under the hammer at an auction through Julien Entertainment in Monterey, California. A Christmas card made when he was six years old went for $16,200, a drawing of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan raised another $14,400, whilst an MTV music award won by Cobain for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' fetched $9,600.

A wealth of previously unheard NIRVANA material emerged in late November 2004 with the 4 CD box set 'With the Lights Out'. Of the 81 tracks, comprising demos, live sessions, outtakes and acoustic takes, no less than 68 were being put out to the public officially for the first time. Selling 105,760 copies in its first week of sale in North America the collection landed at no. 19 on the Billboard album charts and grabbed the title of fastest selling box set.

A further NIRVANA compilation, 'Sliver: The Best Of The Box', was announced for September 2005. The collection would prove noteworthy for the involvement of Kurt Cobain's daughter, Francis Bean, and the inclusion of three previously unavailable tracks, 'Spank Thru' from the 1985 'Fecal Matter' demo tape, a 1990 studio outtake 'Sappy' and a pre-'Nevermind' rehearsal recording of 'Come As You Are'.

That same month 'Bleach' era drummer Chad Channing, Dave Grohl's predecessor, launched a new band project entitled BEFORE CARS, which saw him supplying lead vocals and rhythm guitar, as well as drums. Channing, backed by guitarist Paul Burback and bassist Andy Miller, recorded an album of material with 'Bleach' producer Jack Endino.