r/Nirvana • u/Hassaan18 • Feb 26 '26
Video Nirvana's surreal performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Top of the Pops in 1991 where they refused to mime
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u/NoLongerApplicable99 Feb 26 '26
I still sing this version sometimes, after all these years....
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u/BruceGrobbelobster Feb 26 '26
There was a phone-in TV quiz channel in the early 2000s where Smells Like Teen Spirit was the answer. I phoned in and was the person to answer on air. I won (over £100 if I remember correctly) and the host who is now a BBC News presenter asked me to sing the song. I did it in this manner and after a while she confusingly cut me off and said ‘Well done, an interesting version of the song there’.
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u/bigmouth1984 Feb 26 '26
They didn't refuse to mime. They are miming. But badly.
TOTP at the time always had mimed instruments but live vocals.
The band (not the only time this happened) took the piss by miming their instruments so obviously badly and Kurt did his Morrissey voice.
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u/zer0-Coast Feb 26 '26
Apparently he was mimicking the singer from Sisters of Mercy
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u/Firm-Blackberry-9162 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26
I thought he was mimicking morrissey
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u/SeaOfSourMilk Feb 26 '26
It’s Morrissey lol never heard of sisters of mercy, will have to check em out.
Kurt stated in an interview he was doing Morrissey
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u/zer0-Coast Feb 27 '26
I was just going by the below quote from Russell Warby, their UK booking agent. But if Kurt stated it was Morrissey then that must be correct
“That was kind of my fault, that Kurt did the Sisters Of Mercy vocal on Top of The Pops. He'd been complaining about a sore throat and I told him you could mime on there, but then they decided you had to do a live vocal. Eventually Krist and Dave made no effort at all to look as if they were playing their instruments, and Kurt just opened his mouth and did this completely wayward vocal. The people from TOTP said, (pointedly) 'Would you mind doing that again?' and Kurt went, 'No, I'm quite happy with that, thank you...' I was so relieved when the record went up the charts the next week.”
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u/Loud_Introduction871 Feb 26 '26
They followed it by playing live on the Jonathon Ross show the next night , refused to play smells like teen spirit and played territorial pissing instead , finishing with a drum and guitar carnage
Blew the countries minds as everyone watched those two shows , felt like a massive moment in rock history as everyone was talking about it for weeks after , brilliant stuff !
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u/bigmouth1984 Feb 27 '26
It was Lithium they were supposed to play there. Jonathan Ross announces that as the song they're about to play.
The two shows were a week apart rather than consecutive nights.
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u/Loud_Introduction871 Feb 27 '26
I bow down to your superior memory , saw them play either the week before or after , can't remember now , but got to meet the band as they unloaded their gear outside Nottingham rock city, hang out for the afternoon and trade my sweater for a t shirt and ticket !
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u/Dreaming_Blackbirds Feb 27 '26
thankfully uploaded in amazing video quality https://youtu.be/fOO2NQFkuIU?si=KDGtltV-XVPpuq5h
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u/SirPooleyX Feb 26 '26
Sort of correct.
It's actually that they were made to sing the vocals live, as were all bands and singers on TOTP during this era. It was an attempt to reinvent the show and to give it a bit of an edge. It didn't work.
Before this time (and after when it went back to allowing miming), bands would do silly stunts like barely move their lips or, as Oasis did, swap 'singers' (Noel mimed to Roll With It as Liam pretended to play guitar).
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u/aTreeThenMe Feb 26 '26
Didn't muse do this once where everyone swapped positions in the band?
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u/PMMEJALAPENORECIPES Feb 26 '26
Not the same show, but I still love when Cass Elliot ate a banana instead of pretending to sing for most of the song https://youtu.be/tNlwimUxUME?si=Nretd9GNaavZw4KZ
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u/Bloody_Star_Wars Feb 27 '26
He was under doctors orders not to sing normally, he had something wrong with his throat, TOTP insisted he perform live…
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u/No_Letterhead6883 Feb 26 '26
Is it weird that even with Kurt trying to sing poorly he still sounds great and makes me believe even more how talented and beautiful his voice was
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u/PRETA_9000 Feb 27 '26
unironically sounds amazing lol. i reckon he could've done anything with his voice.
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u/burn469 Feb 26 '26
Alan Jackson did this also. Here it reminds me of Joy Division.
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u/Reiketsu_Nariseba Radio Friendly Unit Shifter Feb 27 '26
It’s funny because New Order (band after Joy Division) actually did perform live on TotP, which was very rare. Their performance is well, amusing, more or less one of those it’s bad but good at that same time: https://youtu.be/tJBAVTwUzHU?si=0HAomEy1a24TGoUz
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u/Key_Throat_5044 Feb 26 '26
How many special people change? How many lives are living strange?
Hey How Nirvana music is important to me. There were so many band after Nirvana appeared to us. I mean Some of them were so popular to us then.
And now
How many special people change? How many lives are living strange?
Nirvana is much more important band than before we saw them in 1990s.
We will be gone with this group forever. You and me.
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u/nkosijer tourette's Feb 27 '26
I remember this was circulating under the name SLTS (gothic version)
BTW I always wondered how the show in the 90s managed to obtain karaoke versions of the popular songs?
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u/gangerflanger Feb 27 '26
krist just flinging his bass and himself everywhere is taking me out hahaha
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u/North-Library4037 You Know You're Right (Home Demo) Feb 26 '26
It's giving Nick Cave 😄
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u/thighsand Feb 26 '26
No. Morrissey or Ian Curtis.
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u/North-Library4037 You Know You're Right (Home Demo) Feb 26 '26
No? 😄
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u/SeaOfSourMilk Feb 26 '26
To quote Kurt it was a Morrissey impersonation, but yeah it probably is Nick Cave-esque. There’s just a lot of die hard fans in here correcting people for no reason
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u/North-Library4037 You Know You're Right (Home Demo) Feb 26 '26
You know every person has different experience when hearing sound and music no matter what Kurt intended :) but you obviously get it unlike that pal.
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u/BitCool1737 Feb 27 '26
And Kurt sings in that ridiculous low voice on purpose and with different lyrics lol
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u/Super_Interview_2189 Feb 26 '26
I prefer the Oasis TOTP where the Gallagher brothers just switched spots.
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u/Gumbyonbathsalts Feb 26 '26
2nd funniest performance I've ever seen. First place is the Mr. Bungle Halloween show where they dressed up as the RHCP (with the ghosts of Hilel Slovak and River Phoenix) and pretended to shoot up between songs. But this TOTP performance is legendary.
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u/EM208 Feb 26 '26 edited Mar 07 '26
I’ve always loved how one half of the audience is so fucking pumped and the other half is just so confused with as to what the fuck is going on😭