Grunge and Britpop of the 90s share certain similar elements, but Noel Gallagher once took it much farther than that. In particular, there was one grunge icon whom he felt connected to for the expected musical reasons, but also for a bunch of arbitrary things as well.
In an undated NME interview, but looking about a decade old at least, Gallagher spoke fondly of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Oasis and Nirvana emerged around the same time, and while the two bands found success in drastically different cultures, there’s still a sense of shared energy between them.
“I always had an affinity with [Kurt Cobain],” Gallagher began in the old interview, “Because he was left-handed, and he had blue eyes, and he was a Gemini like me, and he was into the Beatles, and that’s what I was [into]. And I was like, ‘F***ing hell.”
Noel Gallagher Explained How He Felt Kinship With Kurt Cobain
Noel Gallagher went on to explain that Mark Coyle, who produced Definitely Maybe for Oasis in 1994, had previously been a monitor tech for Scottish alt-rock band Teenage Fanclub. They were on tour with Nirvana, and Gallagher pressed Coyle for information.
“I said, ‘What’s he like?’” Gallagher said, recalling his question about Cobain. “And he said, ‘You’d f***ing love him, he’s great. He’s crazy as f***, but he’s great.’”
Later, after Oasis signed with Creation Records in 1993, Gallagher recalled talking to Teenage Fanclub, who were their labelmates. They also had similarly high praise for Cobain, Gallagher explained. “They were saying, ‘Yeah, he’s a really f***ing cool guy,’” he said.
Unfortunately, Kurt Cobain died before Noel Gallagher got to meet him. “I’d love to have sat and shot the f***ing s*** with him,” said Gallagher. But for him, he said, albums like Nevermind remain great because they age well.
“Albums like Never Mind the Bollocks and Nevermind, they all just get greater with time,” he said. “They start off by being album of the year, and they just never date. And you listen to Nevermind, and it still sounds like the future of rock.”
Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe, is the same, said Gallagher, “But it wasn’t by design,” he laughed. “All these things happen by accident. It’s just alchemy that happens in the studio, whatever it is.”
Specifically, however, Nevermind has held its influence over alternative rock and grunge for decades. Although Gallagher noted that Nirvana “wasn’t doing anything that the Pixies hadn’t already done,” it was still influential enough that “Everyone who’s into alternative music will always remember where they were when they first heard Nevermind.”
Photo by Diana Scrimgeour/Redferns
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