“My lyrics are a big pile of contradictions. They’re split down the middle between very sincere opinions and feelings that I have and sarcastic and hopefully humorous rebuttles (sic) towards cliché-bohemian ideals that have been exhausted for years. I mean, it seems like there are only two options for songwriters/personalities, either they’re sad, tragic visionaries like Morrissey or Michael Stipe or Robert Smith or there’s the goofy, nutty white boy, hey let’s party and forget everything people like Van Halen and all that other heavy metal crap. I mean I like to be passionate and sincere, but I also like to have fun and act like a dork. Geeks unite.”

The above is an excerpt from the Kurt Cobain diaries, probably the book of the year and without doubt the Christmas pressie of the year. Whatever your ambivalence about nosing through pages that were only ever meant for one reader, it's really a brilliant, funny read and a book to cherish. In that spirit we re-present our Nirvana cover story from earlier this year, encompassing ten-years-on recollections from Butch Vig, Greil Marcus and Mark Lanegan and one of Hot Press' undisputed highlights of '02.
Click here to read.