Steve Gullick is one of the world’s finest, most gifted rock photographers, and in the early '90s, freelancing for weekly British music magazine Melody Maker, he found himself right at the epicentre of the grunge revolution, shooting images of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and every major player on the emerging alt. rock scene.
In 2015, Gullick collected some of his most iconic photos of the era in Nirvana Diary, a truly essential visual document of one of the most vibrant and exciting movements in recent musical history. That limited-edition book is long since sold out, but as a reminder of the time, here are five striking featured images from it, and Gullick's recollections of the stories behind each one.
Soundgarden
Hyde Park, London, April 8, 1990
“This was actually my very first photo session for Sounds magazine. I think the only ‘rock star’ I’d shot before that was Wayne Hussey (The Mission) for a fanzine called Helter Skelter, so I didn’t have a huge amount of experience at that point.
“This shot was taken a day or two after I’d seen them play for the first time, at The Marquee, and they were so loud and powerful, so I was expecting them to turn up looking and behaving like rock gods, but they weren’t like that at all, they were just goofing around like kids and having a laugh, with no trace of moodiness. I was a bit taken aback to be honest. I’ve got photos of them rolling around in the grass, messing about, which totally wasn’t what I was expecting having seen them live. [Ex-Nirvana guitarist] Jason Everman was in the band then, but you could tell they really weren’t getting on with him, and this line-up wouldn’t last long.”
Kurt Cobain, Nirvana
Civic Centre, Springfield, MA, November 10, 1993
“I got on well with Nirvana, and I enjoyed being around them. I worked a lot with [music journalist] Everett True at the time, and he was really good friends with Kurt, so I was accepted pretty quickly. I shot Nirvana a lot, but I think these are the best shots I did with them. After the experience of that first Soundgarden shoot I never treated bands like rock stars, I treated them as people, and I think Nirvana responded well to that: if these pictures capture a certain intimacy it’s because Kurt was just a bloke to me and I was just a bloke to him, there was no pretence or posing. You build up a rapport with certain people, and I think I just got on with Kurt because we felt we had some things in common.”
Courtney Love, Hole
Rough Trade record shop, London, March 23, 1993
“I like Courtney. The very first time I met her was at [Nirvana/Hole press officer] Anton Brookes’ office: I was walking out and she was walking in and she said [drawls] ‘You look like my ex-boyfriend…but less handsome.’ I thought, Oh, thanks very much, nice to meet you too! So that was an interesting first impression.
“I think she’s a great artist, and those first two Hole albums are incredible. Funnily enough, I don’t remember even being at this show. I mean, obviously I was there, but I’ve no memory of it at all! I remember they were also playing [West London club] the Subterranea on this trip and I was quite outraged that I couldn’t go because Courtney had made it a women only gig: I think she’d been sexually assaulted after stage diving into the crowd [in Glasgow] so you could understand her logic: fucking fair play to her. I think a couple of guys might have got into that show by wearing dresses, but I didn’t want to do that.”
Melvins
Disneyland, Anaheim, California, September 18, 1993
“Melvins were doing promotion for their Houdini record, half of which Kurt Cobain produced, and so we asked if we could take them to Disneyland and that was fine with the label. We just thought it’d be funny if they joined the Disney parade, and obviously no-one but us knew who the fuck they were, so that added to our amusement as they walked along waving to the crowds.”
Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam
Paramount Theatre, New York, April 17, 1994
“This is one of the last pictures in the Nirvana Diary book, and it’s where I wanted it to end, because this is obviously right around the time where my relationship with Nirvana ended. Kurt objected so strongly to Pearl Jam, and I could understand why musically, but it seemed to go to a personal level which I always thought was out of order, because Eddie Vedder is one of the most beautiful men on the planet, and he’s most certainly punk rock in spirit, even if that didn’t always come out in Pearl Jam’s music.
“This photo was taken about a week after Kurt’s suicide, and it was such a strange time, because obviously that massively affected everyone that knew Kurt, and everyone was mixed-up and sad and confused. Pearl Jam and Nirvana were seen as the two figureheads of grunge, and I think that Eddie now felt that all the pressure was now on him, and he thought he couldn’t handle it. This photo captured something of the mood of the time, which was pretty fucking heavy.”
All photos © Steve Gullick
To purchase original prints of Steve Gullick's iconic photographs of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Nick Cave, Smashing Pumpkins and many more, visit his website.
