LIVE NIRVANA Concert Chronology August 23, 1991 - Richfield Avenue (Reading Festival), Reading, UK
Artist
- NIRVANA
- Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar)
- Krist Novoselic (bass)
- Dave Grohl (drums, backing vocals)
- Eugene Kelly (backing vocals)
- Antony Hodgkinson (dancer)
Crew
- Alex MacLeod (tour manager)
- Craig Montgomery (sound engineer)
- Ian Beveridge (monitor engineer)
Buyer
- The Mean Fiddler
Schedule
- Load In
- …:…
- Soundcheck
- …:…
- Doors
- 14:00
- The Honeythieves Showtime
- 14:00
- Babes In Toyland Showtime
- 14:35
- Silverfish Showtime
- 15:25
- NIRVANA Showtime
- 16:15
- Chapterhouse Showtime
- 17:05
- Dinosaur Jr. Showtime
- 18:00
- Pop Will Eat Itself Showtime
- 19:10
- Sonic Youth Showtime
- 20:35
- Iggy Pop Showtime
- 22:00
Soundcheck
- No Info
Set
- School
- Floyd The Barber
- Drain You
- Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Come As You Are
- Breed
- Sliver
- Molly's Lips Kelly on vocals, Cobain and Grohl on backing vocals
- Love Buzz
- Negative Creep
- The End jam
- Blew
- Endless, Nameless
Set Range
Circulating Recordings
AUD #1a
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- ANA(2) > DAT(2) > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 40 min / 8.0
- Notes:
- • Circulated in March 2009.
- • More complete, but lower quality than AUD #1b.
- • "Floyd The Barber" is cut within, so that the recording is missing the second chorus.
AUD #1b incomplete
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- Unofficial LP [Live From The Reading Festival 23 August 1991]
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 09 min / 8.5
- Notes:
- • Less complete, but higher quality than AUD #1a.
- • Includes only "Negative Creep", "Blew" and "Endless, Nameless".
- • Everything before "Negative Creep" on the Live From The Reading Festival 23 August 1991 LP is AUD #4.
AUD #2
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- Unofficial CD [Smells Like Nirvana]
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 39 min / 8.0
- Notes:
- • No Info.
AUD #3
- Equipment:
- Sony PC-62 > Sony WM-D3
- Lowest Generation:
- ANA(1) > DAT(1) > CDR(1) > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 40 min / 8.0
- Notes:
- • Circulated in December 2011.
- • "Drain You" is cut within.
AUD #4 incomplete
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- Unofficial LP [Live From The Reading Festival 23 August 1991]
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 29 min / 8.5
- Notes:
- • Missing everything after "Love Buzz".
- • Everything after "Love Buzz" on the Live From The Reading Festival 23 August 1991 LP is AUD #1b.
AUD #5
- Equipment:
- Sony ECM-101 > Sony WM-D3
- Lowest Generation:
- ANA(M) > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 39 min / 7.5
- Notes:
- • Surfaced in May 2013.
- • The recording is distorted due to hot levels and "Drain You" is cut within.
AUD #6
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- ANA(2) > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 39 min / ??
- Notes:
- • Surfaced in July 29th 2018.
AUD #7
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- ANA(x) > YouTube
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 37:43 min / ??
- Notes:
- • Posted on YouTube on April 2021.
AMT #1
- Equipment:
- Built In > unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- VID8(M) > MKV
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 40 min / 7.5
- Notes:
- • Amateur video, shot from the back right (far-shot).
- • A master transfer was circulated December 18th 2017.
- • "Love Buzz" cuts in.
AMT #2
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- VHS(2) > DVDR/FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 39 min / 7.5
- Notes:
- • Circulated in May 2006.
- • Amateur video, shot from fairly close to the stage, towards the right (close-shot).
- • Has a cut in "Come As You Are".
AMT #3a incomplete
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- VHS(x) > FLV/MP3 > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 1 min / 8.0
- Notes:
- • Amateur video, shot from the stage on Krist's side.
- • Includes "The End" jam and one second of "Blew" only.
- • Circulating copies are sourced from an FLV video file posted on YouTube.
AMT #3b incomplete
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Generation:
- VHS(x) > MKV
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 06:28 min / 8.5
- Notes:
- • Upgrade was distributed on May 22nd, 2024.
- • Amateur video, shot from the stage on Krist's side.
- • Includes "Drain You" (cuts in) and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (cuts in) only.
PRO #1a incomplete
- Equipment:
- Soundboard > Unknown Betacam
- Lowest Generation:
- TV > VHS(1) > DVDR/FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 3 min / 8.5
- Notes:
- • Circulated in December 2008.
- • Includes only "School".
- • Shot by an MTV Europe crew from the back with a single camera PRO-shot video, with soundboard audio.
- • Includes only "School".
PRO #1b [soundboard audio from professional video] incomplete
- Equipment:
- Soundboard > Unknown Betacam
- Lowest Generation:
- BETA(M) > ANA(1) > FLAC
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 15:40 min / 8.5
- Notes:
- • Circulated in June 2006.
- • Audio-only version of all the video footage shot by MTV, the video itself is not circulating, only the (soundboard) audio portion from it.
- • More complete than PRO #1a, but includes only the audio from the video.
- • Includes only "School," "Floyd The Barber," "Drain You," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "Breed," "Love Buzz," and "Blew".
- • Has cuts in all songs except "School" and "Come As You Are".
PRO #1c incomplete
- Equipment:
- Soundboard > Unknown Betacam
- Lowest Generation:
- VHS(x) > MKV
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 5:20 min / ??
- Notes:
- • Circulated December 2020.
- • Includes "Come As You Are", "Love Buzz" (cuts in) and Kurt jumping at the drums during the end.
PRO #2 incomplete
- Equipment:
- Beaulieu Boom Microphone > Beaulieu 1028 XL60 (Super 8)
- Lowest Generation:
- Official DVD [1991: The Year Punk Broke]
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 05 min / 9.5
- Notes:
- • Includes "Endless, Nameless" and a clip of "Love Buzz" only.
- • Shot by Dave Markey with a single camera and open mic audio.
- • Clips appear on a rough edit of the official video release 1991: The Year Punk Broke that Dave Markey posted on YouTube.
- • Clips of "Love Buzz" also appear on the (This Is Known As) The Blues Scale bonus video included on the 1991: The Year Punk Broke DVD release.
AMT CLIP #3 incomplete
- Equipment:
- Unknown > Unknown
- Lowest Audio Generation:
- VHS(x) > YouTube > MKV
- Lowest Video Generation:
- VHS(x) > Unknown > MP4 > MKV
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 02:24 min / ???
- Notes:
- • Surfaced on September 18th, 2021 in the BBC documentary "When Nirvana Came To Britain".
- • Amateur video, shot from the stage on Krist's side.
- • Includes cut versions of "Come As You Are", "Molly's Lips", and "Endless, Nameless".
- • All clips have voice over the top of them, interspersed with clips of AMT #1 and interview footage.
PRO CLIP #1a incomplete
- Equipment:
- Soundboard > Unknown Betacam
- Lowest Generation:
- TV > VHS(1) > DVDR
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 40 sec / 9.0
- Notes:
- • Clip of "School" only (the last 30 seconds has various video footages over the audio) appear on MTV Tribute To Nirvana.
- • Clips of "Come As You Are" and "Love Buzz" appear on the special No Apologies: MTV's Nirvana History.
PRO CLIP #1b incomplete
- Equipment:
- Soundboard > Unknown Betacam
- Lowest Generation:
- Unknown > youtube > FLV
- Length / Sound Quality:
- 1 min / 9.0
- Notes:
- • Clip of "Come As You Are" only was posted by MTV on YouTube.
- • Clips of "Come As You Are" and "Love Buzz" appear on the special No Apologies: MTV's Nirvana History.
Uncirculated Recordings
PRO #3
In circulating videos, additional video cameras can be seen shooting from the pit area.
Notes
- Former Vaselines lead singer Eugene Kelly sang with Kurt on "Molly's Lips."
- Krist's bass strap broke during "Negative Creep", so part of the song was played without bass.
- The band jammed on "The End" by The Doors.
- The band played an abbreviated version of "Endless, Nameless" followed by Kurt diving into Dave's drum set, which resulted in Kurt dislocating his shoulder.
Press Reviews
- Review from a British magazine called "Raw!", published on September 18th, 1991.
- Review from a British magazine called "New Music Express", published on Septemer 7th, 1991.
- Review from a British magazine called "Melody Maker", published on Septemer 7th, 1991.
- Review from a Spanish magazine called "Ruta 66", published in November 1991.
- Review from a Italian magazine called "Rock Power", published in Septemer 1991.
Memorabilia
Images
