What did Nirvana play at their classic Reading Festival set in 1992?

27 August 2022, 17:00

Nirvana - Live at Reading (1992) Intro

The band's headline appearance at the festival would be the final time Nirvana played in the UK...

Although they didn't know it at the time, when Nirvana took to the stage at Reading Festival on Sunday 30th August 1992, they were making their final live appearance in the UK.

The weekend had seen The Wonder Stuff (then riding high on the success of their hit Size Of A Cow) and Public Enemy headline and the Seattle trio top the bill ahead of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Mudhoney, Teenage Fanclub and L7.

At the time Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was at the centre of much tabloid speculation. His relationship and marriage to Courtney Love was the source of much gossip, as was the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean, on 18 August - just over a week before Reading. There were rumours that the couple were drug addicts and that the band were about to split up.

Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic performing with Nirvana at Reading, 30th August 1992. Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty

The band had recently been through some disagreements over royalties, so as Grohl told The Scotsman years later, “communication in the band was beginning to be strained”.

He went on: “We rehearsed once, the night before, and it wasn’t good…I really thought, ‘This will be a disaster, this will be the end of our career for sure’.”

Sunday was “Grunge Day” at Reading: alongside Mudhoney and L7, there were performances from Screaming Trees and Cobain’s favourites The Melvins.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Live at Reading 1992)

Kurt decided to kick off Nirvana’s headline set with a little joke. Journalist and friend of the band Everett True was backstage and noticed there was a wheelchair waiting in the wings. What did it mean?

True told Clash magazine that Kurt explained: “Oh, it’s meant to be a joke on the stuff journalists have been writing about me. The idea is I’m going to pretend to be ill, straight from hospital. Look, I’ve got some overalls somewhere and some hair extensions so I look more like Courtney…”

So True started the show by pushing Kurt - dressed in a Courtney Love blonde wig and dress - onto the stage in a wheelchair. Who was this? What the hell was this?

The confused audience were relieved to hear the band kick into the Nevermind track Breed. And then the show began to kick ass.

Kurt Cobain headlines Reading Festival, 30th August 1992. Picture: Mick Hutson/Redferns/Getty

As Dave Grohl remembers: “It turned out to be a wonderful show, and it healed us for a little while.”

So what did Nirvana play at Reading Festival in 1992?

The set saw tracks from the band's debut album Bleach, as well as a huge chunk of the peerless Nevermind, which has been released the year before. Also performed that night was Love Buzz, a track written by the Dutch band Shocking Blue in 1968 and issued as Nirvana's debut single some 20 years later. The encore also featured covers of The Money Will Roll Right In by US hardcore act Fang and The Wipers' D-7, first recorded in 1980 for their debut album Is This Real?