On The Road With Nirvana - A Tour Diary

When Nirvana first exploded onto the music scene in 1991 with the anthemic 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', few people could have predicted their subsequent global impact.

No one knew then that Nevermind would become one of the seminal albums of the decade, selling over 30 million copies worldwide and reluctantly becoming the flag-bearer for a new movement known as 'grunge'.

Subsequently the band's lead singer Kurt Cobain was transformed into one of music's most enduring and iconic figures. As drummer of the British group Captain America - one of the two support bands on Nirvana's Nevermind UK tour - Andy Bollen had a ringside seat at the exact moment that Nirvana went massive and, thankfully, he took a notebook.

Afforded the sort of access a journalist could merely dream of, the only place the author could find solace to write up his own personal diary of this pivotal tour was in Nirvana's dressing room.

Here, he spoke candidly to Cobain about all manner of subjects: from fears of losing original fans to his love of the Bay City Rollers. Bollen hung out with Nirvana backstage, shared their rider, watched Cobain and Dave Grohl cringe as they watched themselves on Top of the Pops, witnessed them write new material during their soundchecks and even joined them onstage for encores.

Cocooned from the celebrity world that was about to engulf Nirvana, Bollen saw at firsthand how the trio worked, the relationships that made them tick and the dynamic that made them one of the great bands.