Never-before-seen images of Nirvana's first Manchester gig - and just the band's second ever UK show - have been released for the first time.
Richard Davis photographed the then pretty much unknown band when they played Manchester Polytechnic Students Union on Oxford Road on Tuesday, October 24, 1989.
It was the second date on Nirvana's first UK tour alongside Sub Pop labelmates Tad.
Nirvana's debut album Bleach had been released just a few months earlier and the band played with drummer Chad Channing, as Dave Grohl wouldn't join until the following year.
Richard reviewed the gig for the Manchester Polytechnic photography magazine Pulp.
But his pictures from the night were never published and he thought the negatives had been lost or stolen years ago, until he rediscovered them while searching through his old stuff during lockdown.
He said: "For years I was convinced that someone had nicked the negatives.
"But about two months ago I was going through my kids stuff and found it among the old primary school
"I looked at it and though 'Oh my God, I thought I'd lost them'."
At the time the Acid House and Madchester scenes were at their peak- that same night The Stone Roses played a gig in Tokyo and the following month would appear on Top of the Pops alongside Happy Mondays - but the Nirvana tour showed the seeds of the next big thing were already being sown.
Richard said: "I didn't know much about Nirvana at the time. I'd heard a couple of songs off Bleach, but I was a big fan of Sonic Youth, Mudhoney and Dinosaur Jnr, so I knew it was going to be good.
"The thing I remember most about the night was there was lots of stage diving. Punk had spitting, but Grunge's big thing seemed to be stage diving.
"Both bands were good, but the funny thing is I think if you'd have asked everyone who was there that night who was going to be the bigger band and go onto global stardom, I think most would have said Tad.
"I laugh about it now, but afterwards one of Nirvana's team asked me if I'd like to interview the band and I turned them down because I was knackered.
"A few weeks later I interviewed Mudhoney.
"It was interesting because they were very much aware of Manchester and what was happening in the city at the time, but they just didn't get it.
"It just didn't connect with them for some reason.
"It was kind of like two worlds clashing. But within 18 months grunge had taken over the world."
It would be another two years before Nirvana played their second - and last - Manchester gig at the Academy on December 4, 1991, three months after the release of Nevermind, the album which propelled them to superstardom.
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