Maida Vale Studio 5 - London
1991-09-03 · United Kingdom · Studio · John Peel Session · more gigs in London
Circulating discs (11)
Into the Black Disc 5 & 6 Bootleg CD
- 15. Dumb 2:37
- 16. Drain you 4:05
- 17. Endless nameless (mislabeled: Here I Am) 6:23
- 18. Endless nameless (mislabeled: Meltdown) 2:24
Loose Ends Bootleg CD
- 6. Drain you 4:06
Loose Ends 2006 Upgrade Bootleg CD
- 6. Drain you 4:06
Loose Ends 2007 Upgrade Bootleg CD
- 6. Drain you 4:07
The complete Radio Sessions Bootleg CD
(Blue Moon Records - BMCD18)
- 9. Dumb 2:34
- 10. Drain you 4:01
- 11. Endless nameless 8:45
Turnaround Bootleg CD
(Stone pig records - NIR 23.001.80)
- 9. Dumb 2:34
- 10. Drain you 4:03
- 11. Endless nameless 8:43
With the lights out Album
(DGC - LC07266)
- 14. Endless nameless 8:48
- 15. Dumb 2:35
Radio Sessions Tape
- 8. Dumb 2:35
- 9. Drain you 4:04
- 10. Endless nameless 8:49
The Basement Tape
- 6. Dumb 2:37
- 7. Drain you 4:05
- 8. Endless nameless 10:03
Verse Chorus Verse Bootleg LP SBD
(Giffen Inc - verse chorus A)
- 6. Dumb
Foretaste Bootleg Single
- 1. Drain you
- 2. Dumb
- 3. Endless nameless (mislabeled: The end of music)
Notes & circulating recordings
Set
Dumb • Drain You • Endless, Nameless
Circulating Recordings
soundboard audio
15 min • A+
Also available on various bootleg CD and vinyl releases.
Producer: Dale Griffin
Engineers: Fred Kay & Mike Engles
Band members: Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar), Krist Novoselic (bass), & David Grohl (drums)
Recorded:
[U] Drain You
[U] Dumb
[U] Endless, Nameless
Sources: The best source for this radio session is the Westwood CD 'In Concert', which contains a pre-FM version, from the DAT master tapes. All bootleg releases are inferior, being taken from post-FM radio broadcasts.
'Endless, Nameless' was untitled ('No title as yet') at the time of recording. The session was first broadcast on November 3rd 1991. (22) All three Peel Sessions have since been re-broadcasted extensively over the world.
John Peel commented in 1994: "I noticed a staggering increase in the vocal quality [of the 1991 Peel Session over the 1990 one.]"
Notes: NIRVANA's third and final Peel session was recorded in MV5 as the control room using MV4 as the studio. The band had arrived from the continent and were very tired. (32)
Session producer Dale Griffin recalls, "Dave and Krist were in another world. They looked drained, zombified, tired beyond all help. But Kurt looked far, far worse. I made a bee-line for him. I had worried after session two about how would cope with 'The Big Time' and he looked to me like something about 'The Big Time' wasn't agreeing with him." (33)
"I stood two inches from his his face and spoke to him, but his eyes didn't see me, nor did his ears hear me. He hadn't a clue who the hell I was. We decided to let the guys rest, whilst their crew assembled their equipment and Fred (who is a woman) and Mike set up mics and inserted cables and plugged-up compressors, limiters, effects units, reverb, delays, repeats, ..."fairy dust" as it's called in the trade. Kurt fell asleep on the big couch at the back of the recording console." (33)
"We were well off schedule, but I was prepared to let that go. Better we get something on tape in due course, than stick to the strict rules and risk getting nothing. We'd had two trouble-free sessions - so the guys were 'in credit'! Meanwhile, Dave and Krist got themselves up and running and 'Fred' showed them up to the BBC canteen for food and the inevitable cup of tea which solves all things. Kurt slept on." (33)
Having given the NIRVANA guys quite some time to sleep off some of their weariness, and to collect their senses again, decisions had to be made as whether or not to go ahead with the session, or abort on the grounds that the band was too wrecked to perform to their, or the BBC's, requirements.
"I'd been pondering that problem for some while, when I noticed that - at the back of the control room, Kurt was beginning to stir and blink and groan ... showing decided signs of movement and consciousness. So I decided that an avuncular chat with him was in order. Dave and Krist had returned, looking rather the better for food and drink and were getting their drum and bass set-ups working - loudly." (33)
But talking with Cobain was more of a problem, "For a start, he obviously had no idea who the old fart talking to him could possibly be - so I brought up our previous sessions/meetings - but to no avail. The look of him - his eyes, his pallor, his lack of focus worried me greatly, since it reminded me so keenly and, in retrospect, so poignantly, of the later days of Paul Kossoff's life [lead-guitarist with 60's British rock band Free]; It was a hateful thing to see a young man like Koss wishing his life away on the dross of drugs. I hated to think that the same thing was happening to this likeable and highly talented young American, who was standing so unsteadily just inches from my gaze. I started to ask him whether he felt able to attempt the session today. 'Sure, why not!' was his swift reply, though his words were not backed-up by his body's language, like his legs' uncertain ability to hold him up for any great period of time. The more we spoke, the more concerned I became that it wasn't fatigue alone that had rendered Kurt almost helpless." (33)
However, the band got together and decided they would go ahead with the recording and leave both Mike Engles and Dale Griffin to complete (mix) it later that evening. Some songs had not been given a title before the guys left, but the Peel office were given these details prior to the date of the broadcast of the session. (33)
Unlike the earlier sessions, this one was not well rehearsed, it wasn't as easy-going and pleasurable a session as the others had been; "With the best will in the world, the set they played was not their finest hour, but I admired the way they did what they had come to MV5 to do, and they didn't complain about their lot the whole of the time they were in the studio." (33)
They played just three songs, pleading extreme fatigue. (32) The session was recorded on a 48 channel SSL G series and a Studer A 800 24 track recorder. It was mastered to Analogue Tape at 15 ips and DAT. (32)
"When we had got the songs onto tape via the highly talented Mike Engles, I took Kurt aside one more time, to try to find out from him just what the problem was - were he, Krist and Dave being overworked to this point by their management, their record company, some other influence? By now, Kurt seemed to have worked-out who-the-hell I was and he nodded and smiled and acknowledged the advice, but there was still that not-quite-there thing in his eyes that made me feel uneasy for him. I'd seen it in others before - and they'd ended-up dead." (33)
Dumb • Drain You • Endless, Nameless
Circulating Recordings
soundboard audio
15 min • A+
Also available on various bootleg CD and vinyl releases.
Producer: Dale Griffin
Engineers: Fred Kay & Mike Engles
Band members: Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar), Krist Novoselic (bass), & David Grohl (drums)
Recorded:
[U] Drain You
[U] Dumb
[U] Endless, Nameless
Sources: The best source for this radio session is the Westwood CD 'In Concert', which contains a pre-FM version, from the DAT master tapes. All bootleg releases are inferior, being taken from post-FM radio broadcasts.
'Endless, Nameless' was untitled ('No title as yet') at the time of recording. The session was first broadcast on November 3rd 1991. (22) All three Peel Sessions have since been re-broadcasted extensively over the world.
John Peel commented in 1994: "I noticed a staggering increase in the vocal quality [of the 1991 Peel Session over the 1990 one.]"
Notes: NIRVANA's third and final Peel session was recorded in MV5 as the control room using MV4 as the studio. The band had arrived from the continent and were very tired. (32)
Session producer Dale Griffin recalls, "Dave and Krist were in another world. They looked drained, zombified, tired beyond all help. But Kurt looked far, far worse. I made a bee-line for him. I had worried after session two about how would cope with 'The Big Time' and he looked to me like something about 'The Big Time' wasn't agreeing with him." (33)
"I stood two inches from his his face and spoke to him, but his eyes didn't see me, nor did his ears hear me. He hadn't a clue who the hell I was. We decided to let the guys rest, whilst their crew assembled their equipment and Fred (who is a woman) and Mike set up mics and inserted cables and plugged-up compressors, limiters, effects units, reverb, delays, repeats, ..."fairy dust" as it's called in the trade. Kurt fell asleep on the big couch at the back of the recording console." (33)
"We were well off schedule, but I was prepared to let that go. Better we get something on tape in due course, than stick to the strict rules and risk getting nothing. We'd had two trouble-free sessions - so the guys were 'in credit'! Meanwhile, Dave and Krist got themselves up and running and 'Fred' showed them up to the BBC canteen for food and the inevitable cup of tea which solves all things. Kurt slept on." (33)
Having given the NIRVANA guys quite some time to sleep off some of their weariness, and to collect their senses again, decisions had to be made as whether or not to go ahead with the session, or abort on the grounds that the band was too wrecked to perform to their, or the BBC's, requirements.
"I'd been pondering that problem for some while, when I noticed that - at the back of the control room, Kurt was beginning to stir and blink and groan ... showing decided signs of movement and consciousness. So I decided that an avuncular chat with him was in order. Dave and Krist had returned, looking rather the better for food and drink and were getting their drum and bass set-ups working - loudly." (33)
But talking with Cobain was more of a problem, "For a start, he obviously had no idea who the old fart talking to him could possibly be - so I brought up our previous sessions/meetings - but to no avail. The look of him - his eyes, his pallor, his lack of focus worried me greatly, since it reminded me so keenly and, in retrospect, so poignantly, of the later days of Paul Kossoff's life [lead-guitarist with 60's British rock band Free]; It was a hateful thing to see a young man like Koss wishing his life away on the dross of drugs. I hated to think that the same thing was happening to this likeable and highly talented young American, who was standing so unsteadily just inches from my gaze. I started to ask him whether he felt able to attempt the session today. 'Sure, why not!' was his swift reply, though his words were not backed-up by his body's language, like his legs' uncertain ability to hold him up for any great period of time. The more we spoke, the more concerned I became that it wasn't fatigue alone that had rendered Kurt almost helpless." (33)
However, the band got together and decided they would go ahead with the recording and leave both Mike Engles and Dale Griffin to complete (mix) it later that evening. Some songs had not been given a title before the guys left, but the Peel office were given these details prior to the date of the broadcast of the session. (33)
Unlike the earlier sessions, this one was not well rehearsed, it wasn't as easy-going and pleasurable a session as the others had been; "With the best will in the world, the set they played was not their finest hour, but I admired the way they did what they had come to MV5 to do, and they didn't complain about their lot the whole of the time they were in the studio." (33)
They played just three songs, pleading extreme fatigue. (32) The session was recorded on a 48 channel SSL G series and a Studer A 800 24 track recorder. It was mastered to Analogue Tape at 15 ips and DAT. (32)
"When we had got the songs onto tape via the highly talented Mike Engles, I took Kurt aside one more time, to try to find out from him just what the problem was - were he, Krist and Dave being overworked to this point by their management, their record company, some other influence? By now, Kurt seemed to have worked-out who-the-hell I was and he nodded and smiled and acknowledged the advice, but there was still that not-quite-there thing in his eyes that made me feel uneasy for him. I'd seen it in others before - and they'd ended-up dead." (33)