For those of you that may not know, VoxBox Andy has been with the shop for about 6 years and regular customers will know he has hardly had a day off. Folk reading this from further afield may not know that my longest serving employee is also a talented musician (guitar, moothie and keys) and when not recording his own Kosmic tunes, he crops up as a side man in bands from time to time. Playing guitar in the award winning Janis Joplin Full Tilt show during the last couple of festivals springs to mind but he’s always busy and busier still having had a baby boy last month. Congratulations Andy!
He is now performing in the Pat Smear role (the 2nd guitarist) in a band performing the entire MTV Nirvana: Unplugged in New York from 1993. MTV? Remember that? Wow, we are getting old… I was in 4th year at school when that album came out and turned 41 a few weeks ago. I remember that I could not afford to buy it at the time despite (or maybe because I was) stacking shelves in Presto for £1.82 per hour but I listened to someone’s CD I had copied onto cassette tape.
Anyway, a friend of Andy’s discovered he has Kurt Cobain’s singing voice and they gathered a group of friendly musicians together and the result is a near note perfect rendition of one of the greatest albums of all time. You know the bum note Kurt Cobain plays during the solo of The Man Who Sold The World? Yup, he plays that. I went to see the sold out first show at St Luke’s in Glasgow earlier this year and it was simply stunning. The singer doesn’t pretend to be Kurt and there is none of the “a guy tried to sell me Lead Belly’s guitar” type chat that is on the CD/DVD although I would definitely have been happier if he wore a baggier jumper. It had great reviews and I think it was only a matter of time, so I am very pleased to let everyone know that the band are touring and playing various Scottish dates next month as The Nirvana Unplugged Experience.
I had suggested to Andy the name Nirvanus as a tongue in (bum)cheek reference to the awful scatological names of some bands from that period. Butthole Surfers, Puddle of Mud, Fecal Matter and so on. I concede to being immature and that the name The Nirvana Experience will probably sell more tickets -the capitalist bastards. I was surprised to see that no Nirvana cover band has yet taken the name Smells Like Nirvana which, as it happens was the title of a parody song.
Other bands have done the MTV album and this band never even set out to be a “tribute” act as such, just to perform an album they love but they have hit on something and it works. As long as Andy gets a decent night’s sleep (new baby), I swear that this is the best you will ever hear. Coincidentally, the first National Album Day is October 13th and I hope they get a bit of publicity in the runup as I’m sure MTV will be featured as one of the best albums out there.
Here is a snippet of the St Luke’s performance:
https://www.facebook.com/nirvanaunpluggedexperience/videos/470060233492331/
See them at these places:
14th Oct: Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling
19th Oct: Church Dundee, Dundee
20th Oct: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
26th Oct: The Assembly Aberdeen, Aberdeen
17th Nov: Saint Luke’s & The Winged Ox, Glasgow
In case you are interested in a wee bit of Edinburgh music history. In late 1991 when Nirvana were in Edinburgh on tour, a local group – The Joyriders – discreetly invited Nirvana to do a benefit gig for The Sick Kids (children’s hospital) at The Southern bar, which back in ‘91, still put the odd band on. “A friend of a friend knew Nirvana’s tour manager and told me about the Southern gig… But it was treated as this kind of urban myth. Nobody knew if it was serious.”
It was serious…
Read more and see a couple of photos at: https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/lost-photos-emerge-of-nirvana-at-edinburgh-s-southern-bar-1-4765144
https://www.facebook.com/nirvanaunpluggedexperience/
https://tickets-scotland.com/