Sonic Youth and Nirvana - Sir Henrys 1991

A few words on Sonic Youth and Nivana taking in: Sir Henrys in Cork; disposable cameras, Traci Lords; Brendan Behan; Issac Bells on Patrick’s Quay; old-school printing techniques and Kathleen Hanna’s The Punk Singer.

My ticket stub. Scanned by Paul McDermott.

Last Friday, 05 April 2024 was the 30th anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death. I was lucky enough to see Nirvana play with Sonic Youth in 1991 at Sir Henrys in Cork, a legendary gig that has been mythologised over the last 33 years. I even contributed to that mythology when I was interviewed about the gig on its 30th anniversary by my old Cork Campus Radio colleague Justin McCarthy for RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme (the interview can be heard by clicking on the image below).

Truth be told, not a lot of people were there for Nirvana’s performance, but the place was stuffed by the time Sonic Youth took to the stage. I had bought my ticket earlier that summer and was really excited about Sonic Youth playing my home town. I had gotten into Sonic Youth around the release of Goo and had worked back through their back catalogue to Daydream Nation, Sister and Evol.

I didn’t know who Nirvana were, not a lot of people did. Members of local band Muffdive were really excited - “you have to see this band” - and maybe 50 people were in early to watch them. There were probably no more than two dozen people up close to the stage while Nirvana played. I can clearly remember Krist Novoselic wearing a purple Dinosaur Jr t-shirt and thinking that was kind of cool.

But to be honest, I didn’t really pay that much attention to Nirvana, because I was too busy checking out the merch stand, eventually buying a Sonic Youth t-shirt, a photo of Traci Lords with a halo above her head. I loved that t-shirt, but I don’t think I had a clue who Traci was then!

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore was paying attention to Nirvana though. In Sonic Life, his recent memoir, he writes: “Standing on the side of the stage that night at Sir Henry’s in Cork, I was taken aback anew by the group.”

Sonic Youth were amazing. I brought along a disposable camera to the gig and took no photographs of Nirvana - that’s how much I cared about them! Of the snaps taken on the night only the below photograph has survived.

In Nirvana in Cork: The legendary 1991 gig in Sir Henrys, the Irish Examiner’s Des O’Driscoll writes about the gig. He explains that Thurston Moore wore a Brendan Behan t-shirt on stage that night given to him by my friend Shane Fitzsimons. You can clearly see the Brendan Behan t-shirt in my photograph, but what happened to the t-shirt?

Now that’s a story!

Sonic Youth in Sir Henrys. Photograph by Paul McDermott

Paul Cussen, an old friend of mine, had a stupid altercation with a bouncer and was thrown out of Henrys before Sonic Youth came on stage. He went to the front of the Grand Parade Hotel and met the band. He told them what had happened and they let him watch the gig from the side of the stage.

Before the last song Thurston pointed to his Brendan Behan t-shirt and said: “This is our last song tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to dedicate it to this dude that’s on my shirt. You know who this guy is? You know?” They then launched into a blistering ‘Expressway to Yr. Skull’.

As the band left the stage Thurston gave Paul the Brendan Behan shirt. When we came down the stairs out of Henrys there was Paul standing on the wall of Beamish & Crawford holding up his treasured trophy. WTF. We couldn’t believe it!

As I mention to Justin McCarty in the above interview, at the time I had a regular Friday night DJ slot in Issac Bells on Patrick’s Quay and within a month of the gig everyone wanted me to play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. Dyno, another old friend of mine, used to even bring in his copy of Nevermind to the pub to ensure that I’d spin it. It was just nuts - people couldn’t believe that Nirvana had played a gig in town a few weeks earlier.

Jim Morrish, another friend, did the printing for the gig. “I designed and printed the tickets,” Jim told me a few years ago.

“I’ll always remember the promoter, Des Blair, bringing in a fax of the Nirvana logo (you can see the fax lines on it), as you’ll recall faxes were pretty poor quality, plus the logo was tiny (no such thing as e-mailing high res eps or pdf logos back then). My first reaction was, ‘Who are they?’ Then I said ‘this won't be great, you sure you want it on?’ He said, ‘I don’t know but it’s in the contract so I have to include it.’ So I photocopied it, we made a bromide of it and pasted it on to the design by hand with Pritt Stick and made the plates from a new bromide of the entire ticket.”

Bizarrely my own ticket stub (pictured above) even ended up in The Punk Singer, Sini Anderson’s brilliant documentary film about Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna. I had shared it on an old blog and I assume that it was just found when someone from the film went searching for archive ephemera. No one asked could they use it but as I watched the film I saw the ticket stub and could clearly make out the “No. 009”.

“WTF, that’s my ticket,” I shouted at the TV.

Paul still has the Brendan Behan t-shirt, he told me that he had located it a few years ago: “I have been looking for it without any luck. I put it away somewhere safe. Too safe to find.”

I hope he locates it again, I reckon it belongs in a museum!