Though best remembered for their 1991 album “Nevermind” and its head-banging record “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana had been slowly building a regional fanbase in the years prior — with their first studio recording playing on the radio in 1988.
The exact record believed to be used to introduce the world to Nirvana for the first time on the radio waves is now selling at Goldin, with bidding at $10,370, including buyer’s premium, and more than two weeks remaining at auction.
Nirvana’s first single, a cover of Shocking Blue’s “Love Buzz,” has become the ultimate Nirvana collector’s item over the years. Around 1,000 copies were produced in hand-numbered sleeves, as well as another 200 unnumbered and around 10 test pressings. Copies fetch thousands of dollars on the rare occasion they hit the market.
But none of the other copies have the backstory as the test pressing offered at Goldin, which traces back to one of the band’s most formative moments. According to a letter of provenance provided by its original owner, a DJ named Scott Vanderpool, the copy was handed to him by Jon Poneman, owner of Nirvana’s indie record label Sub Pop, after it arrived in the mail from the pressing plant.
At the time, Vanderpool was working at Sub Pop as the National Sales Czar.
“While I was working at Sub Pop, any test pressing that came in I immediately took to the radio station to play on that show,” Vanderpool writes in the letter of provenance.
He goes on to say the test pressing has “the distinction of being the first Nirvana record played on the radio anywhere.”
The radio station in question was KCMU, a University of Washington student station in Seattle.
According to lovebuzz7.com, which tracks all known copies of the band’s first single, it previously sold about a decade ago to “a guy who owns a landscaping company just down South in Portland OR.”
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct, the premier company for collectible culture.