LiveNIRVANA.com > Sessions History > Television Appearances & Related Rehearsals > December 6, 1991 - The Greenwood, London, UK

LIVE NIRVANA SESSIONS HISTORY:
December 6, 1991 - The Greenwood, London, UK

Artist

• NIRVANA
  • Cobain, Kurt (vocals, guitar)
  • Grohl, Dave (drums)
  • Novoselic, Krist (bass)

Crew

• Lewis, Steve (researcher)
• Orton, Peter (director)
• Ross, Jonathan (host)

Soundcheck

• [X] Lithium (Grohl and Novoselic only)
• [X] Lithium

Set

• [O] Territorial Pissings

Transmission

• 12/06/91, Channel 4, Tonight With Jonathan Ross

Best available sources

Source	Quality	Complete	Runtime	Lowest Gen	Tracks Featured	Notes
PRO #1a	9.0	Yes	0:03:19	TV>VHS(2)>DVDR	• Territorial Pissings
PRO #1b	10.0	No	0:02:30	Official LaserDisc (Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!)	• Territorial Pissings	Omits Krist Novoselic's Get Together intro. Footage from 11/25/91 concert is edited into the video.

Notes

Ominously, Cobain failed to show up for NIRVANA's first soundcheck for Tonight With Jonathan Ross. Show researcher, Steve Lewis, explained how this posed a challenge for the production crew: [It] is essential for the camera crew to work out a shooting script from the lyrics, so that [they] can point the camera at the drummer or guitarist at suitable points in the song. (1) When Cobain did eventually arrive on set, with just an hour to go until the live transmission, a second soundcheck/camera blocking rehearsal was hastily put together for Lithium.

All efforts to manage the production proved futile, however, as the band broke out into an impromptu and furiously intense version of Territorial Pissings. Initially, the show's production crew didn't realize that the band were playing a different song: The people in the production gallery didn't realize. They couldn't make out the words so they stuck to the shooting script for Lithium. (1) By the time Lewis was able to flag down the production crew, the band were already trashing their equipment.

When it was over, Dave Grohl walked past me and said, sorry man. And Phil Smith, their record company man, came up and said they'd pay for the damage, which unbelievably they did. (1)

References

1. Unknown Author, 2002. The 25 Greatest NIRVANA Moments, Q. ↑

© Alex Roberts. August 28, 2011