30 years since burning out, Kurt still shines so bright.

It’s quite impossible to fathom that three decades have passed since Kurt Cobain took his own life in the most violent way imaginable at his home in Seattle. 

Joining the band of musical geniuses that left this realm at the age of 27 — Robert Johnson, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse among a haunting number of others.

I remember that time very well. It seemed, overwhelmingly, that Kurt’s impending death was kind of inevitable.

Even from a distance, it seemed that his life was a struggle in spite of his obvious talent and stellar success. His very public drug dependency, his much publicised and turbulent relationship with Courtney Love, increasingly sporadic, erratic live performances and not least his uncomfortableness with that success.

I wanted to recall the time I first discovered Kurt and Nirvana. I’ll never forget it.

Back in 1991, I couldn’t have cared less about guitar music and was immersed in hip-hop culture. My musical diet consisted of rap staples such as Public Enemy; Big Daddy Kane; EPMD; Ultramagnetic MCs; Kool G Rap and Polo; 3rd Bass; Stereo MCs …and so it goes on.

I actually felt the guitar might die out as a meaningful instrument in the making of modern popular music. Kids, eh?

It was a Friday and I’d had a day off work. I’d been skateboarding at Birmingham Wheels skate park with a few friends. Not very well but anyone will tell you I’m a trier. When I got home, I switched on the TV.

Around this time, there was a show on Channel 4 on Friday evenings called The Last Resort. It was the show that launched Jonathan Ross into the public consciousness, if you are old enough to remember. It was sort of a prototype ‘TFI Friday’.

Anyway, Nirvana were appearing on the show plugging the single ‘Lithium’ from ‘Nevermind’ which they were due to play. Ross duly introduced the band and, instead of the planned performance, they launched into a visceral rendition of ‘Territorial Pissings’, which is hardly a ‘radio-friendly unit shifter’ to coin a later Kurt-ism. The energy that came out of the screen and the sheer power of the performance was startling. Kurt, Krist and Dave then duly attacked their equipment in time-honoured rock fashion.

It’s all been done before but, at the time, the band made it seem completely brand new.

I love discovering a new band, but I’ve never been so shocked and excited by the first sighting of a group of musicians from that day to this. That performance awakened me to the genre and led me to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, back to Jimi and the Stones and a long, long list of bands and artists I now couldn’t do without.

The scene dubbed ‘Grunge’ by the media spawned lots of bands around that time. Some I thought were brilliant while I was in the moment but many have long since lost their sheen. The songwriting craft of Kurt and Nirvana though has stood the test of time and far transcends the foibles of music fashion.

The noise and the drugs and the hype and the outrage are all secondary to the melodies and the lyrics and the power of a truly great band.

On the suicide note Kurt left for his family, he said that it was ‘better to burn out than to fade away’. It’s a crying shame he felt that way but, for me, no musician has ever burned so brightly.