To ask for your 90s grunge music stories!?

[Chloedancer]

Please indulge me if you're of an age to have seen the 90s grunge bands back in the day! I'm early 30s and deep into a nostalgia-fest about this time I have no memory of (because I was still in nappies...) Have been watching YouTube bootlegs of some insane looking shows including Eddie Vedder jumping all over the place, Layne Staley's insane vocals, Chris Cornell's habitual shirtlessness... it was such a great time for rock music and now they're all in their 50s and I'm sad.
Pearl jam, Soundgarden, mudhoney, nirvana, Alice in chains, sonic youth (I know it's not really grunge), hole, smashing pumpkins, etc... anyone see any of these bands in their 1991-1993 ish heyday? How was it, any gig memories, did you meet them, etc etc....

@Clytemnestra2 it’s crazy that Eddie is in his mid 50s now! Still a good looking man though! I’ll let you have him if I can have their guitarist Stone, he was beautiful. Or Steve turner from mudhoney, the original geek chic

[quote everythingbackbutyou]@Yourownpersonaljesus, I would happily follow Mark Keds all over the place (then, not so much now...)[/quote]
I was more of a Morgan fan myself! Mark was very beautiful though - inside and out. Very talented too.

What a great thread and a fab subject!!
I was a late starter to grunge, as was busy at the time with babies so neglected my love of music. Later, my teens helped me to re-discover bands and find some new ones.
Big STP fan (hence username) Scott Weiland -what a brilliant front man and love love love Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder's face is a picture; when he watches his acrobatic gymnastics from when he was younger. Fan of FNM- Mike Patton is a very under-rated singer- one of the biggest vocal ranges.
I "found" Dave Grohl (oh you lovely man) through Nirvana and have seen the Foo Fighters- best show ever

I used to find gigs by scouring the gigs page in nme or melody maker and also by accepting flyers at other gigs. My room was covered in gig flyers.

My main influence came from Melody Maker - I preferred it to NME because it was a bit more humorous. Also, Mark and Lard in the evening on Radio One. And of course, the many mixed tapes that were compiled by my friendship group and boyfriends!

Yep Melody Maker, flyers at gigs, word of mouth, mix tapes made by prospective boyfriends, all of the above! And going because someone you knew knew someone in the support act, or you'd seen them supporting someone else - a lot of quite big bands did give support slots to local bands at that time I think.

I've just remembered Pavement giving out toast during their set at Reading 92 when it pissed down all weekend, so sweet! Not only was I wearing my granddad's jumper, I had several people complement me on it - picture that scenario these days!!

I definitely heard of these bands through the music press. Was always jealous of people who lived in England and had access to gigs galore.

I saw Mudhoney with Tad and Nirvana in support. I list my train ticket home and Mudhoney gave me and my mate a lift. Mark Arm signed my t-shirt with something so foul I had to hide it from my mum.

I also met L7 after a Bradford gig - they asked to see the stagediving girl - and we had a curry and they dropped me home afterwards.

I was hitching home to uni after a Fugazi gig in Nottingham and they stopped their bus and dropped me at the outskirts of the city. Their driver told me off, quite rightly, for hitching.

I worked at Reading in 90 when the Pixies played. I had to knock them.up off their tour bus and Black Francis told me to fuck off.

Happy memories!

Ahh this thread is making me reminisce some lovely memories.

I'm a grunge fan through and through.

Was lucky enough to work for a newspaper and cover music events (I'm not a journo)

Have seen in London/reading/download festival:
Audioslave x 2
Pearl Jam x 6
STP x 2
RATM x 3
Therapy? x 5
Mudhoney x 2
Smashing Pumpkins x 4 (my son was born to tonight tonight)
Hole x 2
Chris Cornell solo x 6
And many more.

Gosh I miss the grunge scene.

DH bought me the book 'Everybody loves our town: a history of grunge' - well worth a read for the background on the music scene.

On my bucket list is a trip to Seattle!

Checking in. I was at Reading 92 for Nirvana and the L7 tampon throwing. I had to throw my docs away after that as the soles split and took on loads of mud.
I saw loads of bands "back in the day", but in recent years have managed to see many of them as they've come back around again.
The were a couple of cracking all-dayers in Manchester, with JAMC and The Fall.
I've always been a Fall fan, since my teens, discovering them through listening to John Peel and they never stopped touring until Mark died.
I remember nights out up North at The Banshee, Planet X, McMillans, The Brickhouse, The Boardwalk (there was always a character there who wore sunglasses in the dark club who looked like John Cooper Clarke- we used to refer to him as "cool bastard"), The Ritz, Spiders, The Blue Lamp and the 1 in 12 club.
Great times. I was glad I was young in the nineties and had nice, comfy Docs.

I LOVE this thread. I can't really contribute much as I suffered from being slightly too young, had no money and lived in Scotland so unable to attend gigs at that time in my life but I absolutely lived and breathed grunge music and envied you lot that were seeing those bands live. Love all the bands mentioned here and yes, I still rock my tea dresses and doc martens in my 40s!

PPs have mentioned the liberalism and respectful attitudes of a lot of these musicians and I really don't think this side of the grunge movement has been championed enough in the subsequent years. I grew up in a very bigoted household and, as a child/very young teen, would accept and agree with my parents' viewpoints as if they were my own. It was Kurt Cobain who made me stop and think. I remember how outspoken he was against homophobia and I remember thinking how his words made a kind of sense that I hadn't really considered before. I must have been around 12 at the time (I was 15 when KC died) and I definitely credit the grunge musicians of that time with making me a better and more tolerant person. It's a shame that Krist Novoselic has become a Trump supporter

My love of grunge, and especially Nirvana, was like a red rag to a bull with my parents. They hated the music, hated my clothes, hated the viewpoints I was developing... I remember I didn't find out about Kurt until 3 days after it happened (obviously no internet or 24/7 access to information back then). We were in the car driving back from visiting family and I had insisted on listening to the Radio 1 Rock Show which used to be on Sunday afternoons. The dj opened the show by saying that the whole show that day would be dedicated to Kurt Cobain. At first I didn't get it and thought they were just doing it because he was brilliant. Then the reality dawned on me. I was really upset and my dad was yelling at me for being upset, telling me he had hid the news from me because he didn't want me idolising a screwed-up junkie loser.

@phlebasconsidered wow! Amazing stories! Were they all quite down to earth not rock star esque?

@HalloumiFries I’m sorry to hear that about your family but glad to hear grunge etc helped shape your perspective I myself was a lonely, quite odd and not very attractive teen (I’ve since blossomed.. I hope!) and when I discovered bands like greenday, nirvana, smashing pumpkins (as well as the early 00s Emo bands!) it made me realise there was a whole world outside of my rural conservative upbringing and made me more confident to be myself for the rest of my life.
I know we have a lot of wokeness about now but in those days it wasn’t about online likes or being right on, it seemed to be a reaction to old fashioned values and a sort of mission statement for how young people wanted to be more open minded etc than their parents.

I’ve seen Hole a few times, Smashing Pumpkins at least 3 times, met them once. Never got to see Soundgarden which was always gutted about. Seen Pavement, Mudhoney etc, too many to mention.

I feel nostalgic for that time every day. It really was the best time of my life...I’m 43 now

They were all really kind and respectful, especially given that I was a young and pretty 18 or 19! No perving or advantage taking. L7 paid for me and my mates curry becuse we were students. Very kind!

@m00Ma love Taillights Fade, been on my listening list since the 90’s!

Saw Jane’s Addiction a few years ago. Still got it. Dinosaur Jr too. J Mascis has always got it!

Enjoying this thread as all my friends ‘grew out’ of this type of music and I have no-one to discuss it with in real life!

@Clytemnestra2 I was a young teenager still but didn’t stop me going to gigs. First was aged 14 in Brixton - venues didn’t give a shit in those days!

I have to say me and my friend from that era do look back and admit it wasn't the best age to be a teenager as unless you were brave enough to go full Courtney love a lot of us wore the grunge uniform of jeans, band t shirt and plaid shirt- not very flattering as a 16 year old

This is a very depressing attitude. It was a time where it wasn’t all about looking classically ‘sexy for the boys’ which was so freeing and positive for young women.

I really wore what I wanted at that time!

nuggles amazed to see someone mention Therapy. What happened to them? (I saw them just the once).

Saw Foo Fighters on their first UK tour. I can't believe how long they've been going now- my 11yo is a huge fan, and I can't quite believe that he loves the music I love (and that is from 25+ years ago).
I liked Screaming Trees a lot too.

Did anyone else like The Posies?

So jealous of those of you who went to Reading 92.

Mertyle it was incredible to have been there with 1000s of people who were like me, but also so cold and muddy, it would be beyond grim to even contemplate now - we had to sleep with our DMs on sticking out of the tent because they were so comprehensively coated in mud you couldn't see or undo the laces! I think I only coped because I was a teenager and therefore fuelled by adrenaline, hormones and class c drugs, so could overlook things like being freezing, wet and muddy for the whole weekend, being thoroughly filthy, the unbelievably bad toilet situation and all the rest.

So yeah. Wouldn't do it now for £million in cash, but also wouldn't have wanted to have missed it

nuggles amazed to see someone mention Therapy. What happened to them? (I saw them just the once).

Therapy? are still recording and touring.

One of my friends - the one I mentioned earlier who likes Mark Lanegan - is a huge Therapy? fan (she's from Belfast) and had a band play Screamager at her wedding. She guested on bass, in her wedding dress.

Also - I went to Seattle in my early 20s - deliberately tagged onto a US roadtrip - they have a Museum there which had a whole grunge section. I was in heaven.

Also, Seattle is a fantastic city anyway.

Ahh my people! I love grunge but was too young to really be part of it in its heyday sadly. That said I’ve seen Pearl Jam 16 times, Soundgarden and Chris Cornell solo, FNM, Smashing Pumpkins, Alice in Chains all multiple times.

Visited Seattle a few years ago and went to easy street records which was fab. Plus saw everclear at the SoDo while we were there.