He added: It would be pointless as well as unkind to tell those 10 million followers [Nevermind had

He added: “It would be pointless as well as unkind to tell those 10 million followers [Nevermind had sold 10 million copies] that they will have forgotten him in a year or two.” Pointless, unkind, and wrong. Bernard Levin pronounced that Nirvana’s albums Nevermind and In Utero hardly matched Brendel’s rendition of Beethoven’s sonatas. Such was Nirvana’s influence that it is hard to remember the music scene before they arrived, but when their leader, Kurt Cobain, killed himself, whole generations of (older) people had no idea of the changes he had instigated. A year ago next week, the 27-year-old lead singer/guitarist/ songwriter of “grunge” gods Nirvana, was found dead in his home in Seattle, Washington. He had shot himself in the head, leaving behind a wife and 20-month-old daughter. Amazingly, the British media had to spend more time explaining what all the teenage fuss was about – nothing much, many concluded – than paying tribute to Cobain’s talent.
Anne Robinson was “thoroughly irritated by the humbug of his suicide note”, but decided that Cobain’s farewell message was “quite clever” because it “caused albums of his horrible music to be snapped up hungrily by grieving fans”.

As for Mondesir’s Marmite jar: in one song he used it as a plectrum, obviously.. FOR A BAND so loud, it was a quiet revolution. Meanwhile, McDonald and vocalists Kevin Gibbs and Saz Bell intone portentous lyrics; an entrancing mystery. It’s a trippy, spacey vibe, orbiting round two basses and a drum machine. Drummer Keith LeBlanc adds jazzy syncopation, and on top of that there is McDonald, a laidback Hendrix, sustaining notes as if he had only a few to spare, and stamping on effects pedals as if they were cockroaches.

But McDonald sometimes calls himself Little Axe, and his real name is Bernard Alexander, so it does get confusing.Another mystery is why Mondesir has a Marmite jar Velcro-ed to his bass, but even that conundrum is not as enigmatic as the music. Little Axe are a fashionable new dub-blues band led by the preternaturally mellow McDonald, formerly of the Sugarhill Band and Tackhead (he and bassist Michael Mondesir wear Tackhead baseball caps). Well done, James.”Everybody’s wondering what is Little Axe,” says Skip McDonald at London’s Borderline on Tuesday, “and who are Little Axe and where are Little Axe…” In theory, it shouldn’t be too much of a puzzle. This experience no doubt set off the self-loathing that fuels their art, and as a direct result, their potent second album, The Bends (EMI), has gone straight into the British charts at number six.Even though they dispense with That Song in the main set they are called back for three encores.