Nirvana - A Tour Diary: My Life on the Road with One of the Greatest Bands of All Time

Book excerpt: When Nirvana first exploded onto the music scene in 1991 with the anthemic 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', few people could've predicted their subsequent global impact. No one knew then that Nevermind would become one of the seminal albums of the decade, selling over 30 million copies worldwide and spearheading a whole new 'grunge' movement. In so doing, the band's lead singer Kurt Cobain was transformed into one of music's most enduring and iconic figures.As drummer for the British group Captain America - one of the two support bands on Nirvana's Nevermind UK tour - Andy Bollen had a ringside seat at the exact moment that Nirvana went massive. Afforded the sort of access a journalist could only dream of, Andy Bollen wrote up his own personal diary in Nirvana's dressing room. Here, he spoke candidly to Cobain: from his fears of losing original fans to his love of the Bay City Rollers. He saw firsthand how Nirvana worked, the relationships that made them tick and the dynamic that made them one of the great bands.Nirvana - A Tour Diary is a warm, affectionate, funny and, at times, brutally honest account, written by a guy on the periphery, waiting in the wings, a mixture of Woody Allen's Zelig and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. Drawing on diaries kept at the time, the book brings to life a pivotal moment in rock history making it a must-read for the many millions of Nirvana fans and lovers of iconic rock stories everywhere. If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be there, backstage, at the start of the Nirvana phenomenon, then read on ...