Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub recalled for Noise11 the time he met Kurt Cobain. Kurt was a huge fan of Norman’s previous band BMX Bandits and also Glasgow’s The Vaselines.
Normal tells Noise11.com, “The first time I met Kurt I wasn’t the only person in the room. People often say ‘you were Kurt Cobain’s favourite band’ and I say ‘we weren’t even his favourite band from Glasgow’. His favourite band from Glasgow were The Vaselines”.
Norman says he met Kurt for the first time when Nirvana toured Scotland. “Kurt had gotten in touch with Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines and asked if they would reform to play a show with them in Edinburgh. They had broken up a few years before. I was hanging around with Eugene at that time and ended up going across from Glasgow to Edinburgh with those guys. I remember we get to the venue and we met Krist Novoselic, he is this big, tall fella. And he says to me ‘Kurt is up in the dressing room and he would love to meet you’. Me and Eugene walk up the stairs and it was when Kurt had really heavy black eyeliner. I remember him telling Eugene. ‘Wow, Eugene Kelly, I can’t believe I’m meeting Eugene Kelly’. They kind of hit it off. I was the other person. We had Teenage Fanclub going at the time and so that was quite an experience”.
The introduction paid off in work. “Then we toured on the European leg of the Nevermind tour and that was an amazing experience too. We were on the periphery of this phenomenon. It was brilliant,” Norman says.
Teenage Fanclub will tour Australia in March 2024. The next album Nothing Lasts Forever will be released on September 2023.
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