Guitar played by John Lennon on Help!, lost for 50 years, going up for auction
TV review
Kurt Cobain: Moments That Shook Music review – even 30 years on, his death seems utterly tragic
March 2024
The angst, the sensitivity… and the songs: how gen Z got hooked on Nirvana
For a new generation of musicians, the grunge band and their frontman Kurt Cobain have provided a blueprint for a more inclusive style of stardom
October 2023
Thurston Moore on hanging out with Kurt and Courtney – and a wild night at Chateau Marmont
In this extract from his autobiography, the Sonic Youth singer and guitarist recalls the last days of Nirvana and the evening that cost him his Hollywood soundtrack career
June 2023
Alexis Petridis's album of the week
Foo Fighters: But Here We Are review – a raw, unapologetic act of mourning
On the veteran band’s first album since drummer – and Dave Grohl’s best friend – Taylor Hawkins’ death, every anguished, searching and sometimes triumphant song is about death
October 2022
‘Kurt was not in a good way’: backstage on Nirvana’s first – and only - Australian tour
Promoter Stephen ‘Pav’ Pavlovic spent weeks on tour with bands like Nirvana and Hole in the 1990s. ‘I hoarded everything,’ he says – and a new exhibition reveals all
Last Days review – Leith’s opera is bleak and beautiful
Oliver Leith’s new work, based on Gus Van Sant’s fictionalised account of the final days of Kurt Cobain, keeps its audience at arm’s length, allowing its dense score to articulate and drive the drama
‘Kurt Cobain was a walking paradox’: inside the opera about the star’s final days
It has little plot, the dialogue is mumbled, cereal bowls are a big theme, and a fast-talking cattle auctioneer plays his manager. We meet the team behind the Royal Opera House’s daring new show
September 2022
Nirvana win lawsuit over Nevermind baby album cover
A US judge has dismissed Spencer Elden’s claim that an image of him as a naked baby on the 1991 album constituted child sexual abuse
August 2022
Cassie Workman: Aberdeen review – a voyage around Kurt Cobain
Exploring the late Nirvana star’s life and death, Workman delivers a darkly beautiful hour of spoken word
May 2022
Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit electric guitar to be auctioned
The 1969 Fender Mustang, on display in Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, is expected to have a starting price of over $600,000
April 2022
Kurt Cobain’s final days to be dramatised by Royal Opera House
Last Days, adapted from acclaimed 2005 film, ‘plunges into the torment’ of Nirvana singer before death in 1994
September 2021
Dave Grohl: The Storyteller review – rock’n’roll raconteur riffs with profanity and positivity
Nirvana and Foo Fighters man’s memoir inspires a sparkling monologue on success, suicide and scrambled-egg sarnies
May 2021
‘It’s cooler to hang Lennon’s guitar than a Picasso’: pop culture wins out at auctions
Sales of items from celebrities such as Janet Jackson and K-poppers BTS are trending – and reframing what goes under the hammer
January 2021
The fandom that made me
Guns N' Roses: how they soundtracked my last gasp of pre-teen freedom
In the first of a new series on the artists who had a formative influence on our writers, Rebecca Nicholson celebrates the hysterical melodrama of Axl Rose and co
September 2020
From the Observer archive
From the archive: with Nirvana in New York, August 1993
A poignant interview with Kurt Cobain, less than a year before his death. By Chris Hall
August 2020
20 iconic festival sets
Hole, Reading festival 1994: grieving widow expels the pain
The band’s appearance, months after the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Kristen Pfaff, was freighted with expectation. Courtney Love didn’t disappoint
June 2020
Kurt Cobain ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’ guitar sells for $6m
My best shot
Kurt Cobain with dolls' heads: Mark Seliger’s best photograph
May 2020
Sing Backwards and Weep by Mark Lanegan review – touring, recording, drugs
Friendship with Kurt Cobain, spats with Liam Gallagher and a brutal chronicle of addiction … the Screaming Trees singer’s candid memoir
