1994

August 16, 2026 Alejandro De Luna

Front cover of NME magazine, 26 March 1994, "Mozmania" issue featuring Morrissey, with cover lines for Nine Inch Nails, Björk, St Etienne, and Nick Cave.

I've been opening old dusty boxes with hundreds of magazines in them, and I randomly picked this one today. Nostalgia is strange like that.

One issue of NME, 26 March 1994. Morrissey had just released Vauxhall and I, his last great masterpiece. The news page reported Nirvana's tour was back on. Kurt Cobain died two weeks later. Trent Reznor had just released a masterwork of despair, recorded at Cielo Drive. Oasis, still just a bunch of working class scallies from Burnage, months away from releasing Definitely Maybe. Glastonbury 1994, a great lineup.

Old newspapers and magazines tell a story that is long gone, but they bring you back.

The news page

The headline reads "Nirvana shows: as you were." Kurt Cobain had overdosed in Rome on the 4th of March, and Nirvana cancelled the rest of their European tour. By the time this issue went to print, the story was one of recovery. Cobain was reported to have fully recovered, new UK and European dates were booked for April and May, tickets for the original shows would carry over, a new single was coming to coincide with it all.

None of it happened. Kurt Cobain died two weeks after this issue hit newsstands. Every date on that rescheduled list went unplayed.

NME news page headlined "Nirvana shows: as you were," reporting Kurt Cobain's rescheduled tour dates following his overdose in Rome, alongside a photo of Cobain performing live.

Where things stood that spring

Everything else in the same issue tells you where things stood that spring.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, two nights at Shepherd's Bush Empire, billed as the last chance to see them before Glastonbury. Oasis, still supporting other bands in Bedford pubs for £3.50. Primal Scream, sold out night after night at Brixton Academy. Killing Joke and Buzzcocks, both still touring, both already a decade-plus into their careers. Nine Inch Nails on The Downward Spiral tour, recorded at the house on Cielo Drive where Sharon Tate was murdered. Pulp, two months out from playing Glastonbury's NME Stage, a year before "Common People" would make them a household name with that national anthem.