Maps of Music

Live at Reading (2009)

Where the lyrics of Live at Reading take you, and where it was really made.

This Reading show was Nirvana's last concert in the United Kingdom, and it circulated as a bootleg for years before this official release.

Key places

Headlining set at the Reading Festival (1992)

Live show Reading Festival — Nirvana headlined the Reading Festival on 30 August 1992. It was the band's final concert in the United Kingdom, and the performance was later released as this album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Live at Reading is a live CD/DVD by American rock band Nirvana
• It captures the band's headlining performance at the Reading Festival in Reading, England, on 30 August 1992
• Released 2 November 2009
• Bootlegged for years; the new issue presents the performance mastered and color corrected for the first time
• First Nirvana release to credit Chet Powers as songwriter, for lyrics from Get Together used as the intro to Territorial Pissings

Background

• Second Nirvana appearance at the annual Reading Festival, and first since Nevermind made them the biggest rock band in the world
• First Reading appearance on 23 August 1991: a roughly 40-minute afternoon set during a two-week European tour with Sonic Youth
• The 1992 show came shortly after the birth of Frances Bean Cobain
• Press reports of a possible split, with rumours of Kurt Cobain's heroin addiction and tension within the band
• It was Nirvana's final concert in the United Kingdom
• Cobain programmed the bill for the third and final night and deliberately left out what he called lame-ass limey bands

Recording

• The set included most of Nevermind, except Something in the Way and Endless, Nameless
• It also included songs from Bleach, the Sub Pop 200 track Spank Thru, Aneurysm, Been a Son, Sliver, a cover of the Wipers' D-7, and Fang's The Money Will Roll Right In
• The unreleased songs tourette's, All Apologies and Dumb were performed; all three appeared on In Utero in September 1993
• Cobain was pushed onstage in a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown and wig, mocking the health rumours
• After a brief collapse he stood up, the band started at once, and the set ended with the instruments destroyed on stage
• Cobain played three different guitars during the show

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Nirvana is an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987.
• Founded by Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar) and Krist Novoselic (bass).
• Went through several drummers, including Chad Channing, before Dave Grohl joined in 1990.

Members

• Kurt Cobain: lead vocals and guitar, principal songwriter.
• Krist Novoselic: bass.
• Dave Grohl: drums, joined in 1990.

Career

• Part of the Seattle grunge scene; debut album Bleach released on Sub Pop in 1989.
• Signed to DGC Records in 1990; Nevermind (1991) became a cultural phenomenon, credited with ending hair metal's popularity.
• In Utero (1993) topped the US and UK album charts.
• Cobain died in April 1994; the band disbanded that year.
• MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Performance at the 1996 Grammys.
• One of the best-selling music artists of all time; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Pitchfork's Stuart Berman called the album an indispensable document of a legendary band at their most invincible
• Spin's Joe Gross called the set a mindblower and described it as sloppy indie rock as stadium-filling psychedelic punk
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised it as Nirvana's purest blast of rock & roll and one of the greatest live rock & roll albums ever
• Metacritic gives it 93 out of 100, indicating universal acclaim; it ranks 18th on the site's best-reviewed list and first among alternative albums

Reappraisal

• Cobain himself rated the performance eight out of ten, according to Come As You Are
• Dave Grohl, looking back in 2018, called the set a really reassuring, genuinely magical moment despite the band's lack of practice

Records

• The CD debuted at number 37 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S.
• The DVD debuted at number 1 in the top 40 of Billboard's Top Music Video Chart and stayed in the top 40 for 25 weeks
• Nielsen SoundScan reported 148,000 copies sold in the United States alone as of 2016

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Antony Hodgkinson, the band's friend nicknamed Dancing Tony, danced onstage for 12 of the 25 songs; it was the final of an estimated nine shows he danced for the band
• Cobain's third guitar, a black Stratocaster, was heavily out of tune by the opening of Love Buzz; he tried to retune it, then threw it on the ground
• Before All Apologies, Cobain dedicated the song to his 12-day-old daughter and his wife, and encouraged the crowd to chant for Courtney
• Grohl later said he had not realised there was any question the band would play, despite the rumours that they had cancelled
• Pavement guitarist Scott Kannberg was impressed by the new In Utero material, saying the new songs sounded great

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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