Now, 30 years after that momentous Nirvana tour, the vibrant era of live music in the ’90s is being celebrated in Unpopular, an exhibition at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. Pavlovic went on to bring ground-breaking acts such as Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth and Pavement to Australia, set up the Summersault festival, and later launched the Modular Recordings label, exposing Australian artists such as The Avalanches, Wolfmother and Tame Impala to a global audience. Mudhoney at the Barwon Club, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, February 26, 1990. “I could then go to another agent anywhere in the world and say, ‘I just did Nirvana.’” “But doing that legitimised what I was doing,” he says. Until then, he had just been pursuing his passion. It was to be the making of Pavlovic as a promoter. “And watching it in real time, because it happened so quick … It was going nuts, I was shitting myself.” “It was definitely like, ‘Is this really happening?’” Pavlovic recalls. The record they had been working on, Nevermind, was released in September, and by the time the band touched down in Sydney in January 1992, it had just reached No.1 on the US billboard charts, ousting Michael Jackson from the top spot, and was selling 300,000 copies a week. And that record we’ve been working on is coming out in a few months, but we definitely want to stick with you.’”Ī deal was struck, and by July 1991, Pavlovic had booked the relatively unknown Seattle trio for their first Australian tour. “They’re like, ‘Oh, we’ve got a manager now. Neil WallaceĪ year later, Pavlovic called again. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Big Day Out, Hordern Pavilion, 1992. “‘Yeah, we’d love to, we’re busy making this record. “So I just call them up – ‘You wanna come to Australia?’” recounts Pavlovic. Having brought pioneering US grunge misfits Mudhoney to Australia’s shores for a run of small gigs in inner-city pubs, they gave him the phone numbers of their friends Chris and Kurt, who were also in a band. Last month, McCartney’s handwritten ‘Hey Jude’ lyrics sold for nearly $1 million, also at Julien’s Auctions.In 1990, then 24-year-old punk rock promoter Steve Pavlovic had a serendipitous encounter. Other items in the sale include Prince’s 1984 custom-made blue cloud guitar, which featured in his 1984 film Purple Rain (selling with an estimate of $100,000-200,000) and Paul McCartney’s handwritten working lyrics for ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ (estimate of $200,000-300,000). See also: Frank Sinatra's Piano Sells for Over £80,000 Prince’s 1984 custom-made blue cloud guitar is for sale in Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons auction on 19-20 June. The storage compartment contains Cobain’s half-used pack of guitar strings, picks and a suede ‘stash bag’. Three baggage claim ticket stubs are attached to the handle, and an Alaska Airlines sticker is affixed to the case. The guitar comes with the original hard-shell case, which is decorated by Cobain with a flyer from the punk rock band Poison Idea’s 1990 album Feel the Darkness. Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E, played during Nirvana’s historic ‘MTV Unplugged Performance’, is going under the hammer next month. Last year, the cardigan Cobain wore during this performance sold for $334,000, also at Julien’s Auctions. It is the headline for the Music Icons auction, to be hosted by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills across 19 and 20 June. Now, this very guitar is going under the hammer, with a starting estimate of US$1 million (£815,000). He played it in what Rolling Stone called “his last self portrait”: “Surrounded by lilies, the flowers of death, Kurt Cobain sat on a soundstage almost five months before his suicide and made his last self-portrait.” 1 on the US Billboard charts, earn a multi-platinum certification, win the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996 and, still today, is consistently ranked among the top ten live albums of all time.ĭuring Nirvana’s flawless performance that night was Kurt Cobain’s mastery of the guitar, a 1959 Martin D-18E. On 18 November 1993, Nirvana produced one of the greatest live albums of all time: MTV Unplugged in New York.
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