Mental health charity launch crowdfunder for Kurt Cobain anniversary mural in Manchester

A mental health charity has launched a crowdfunder to install a mural of Kurt Cobain in Manchester, commemorating the 30th anniversary of his passing.

• READ MORE: Nirvana’s first NME cover feature from 1991: “I’m not sure how our original fans will cope”

Headstock, which is based in Manchester, intends to work with the street artist Akse to create the mural on the side of The Bred Shed – a music venue just off the city’s Oxford Road. The venue is a short walk from where Nirvana played their only two gigs in the city, at the site of the current University of Manchester Students’ Union.

Readers can donate to the crowdfunder here, with the organisation aiming for a total target of £3,500.

The mural would be designed to raise awareness of the mental health text message support service, Shout 85258, with the charity’s logo and text number printed large on the artwork.

Cobain took his own life on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27.

Headstock have worked on a number of previous music-themed murals, including the famous image of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, which was infamously painted over in 2022 to make space for an advertisement for Aitch’s debut ‘Close to Home’.

The mural was later reinstated at a different location – the Star and Garter pub on Fairfield Street, close to Piccadilly Station – also overseen by Headstock and Akse.

In 2021, Headstock also curated a mural honouring the late Keith Flint from The Prodigy, who had died two years earlier. This artwork was unveiled in Hackney in East London to mark World Suicide Prevention Day that year.

In other Cobain news, an opera inspired by his life has premiered in the US this month. Last Days, which is based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film, is loosely based on the final days of Cobain’s life, and debuted in London’s Royal Opera House back in 2022.  The opera began its current run at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on February 6, and tickets are available to purchase here.

The show, which has been criticised by the Cobain estate, follows a successful musician called Blake, who escapes a rehab facility before taking his own life.

A synopsis continues: “The safety of his house is soon disrupted by a slew of unwelcome guests — an insistent delivery worker, a pair of Mormons on a mission, a chorus of scrounging friends, and the ominous figure of the property’s groundskeeper.”

Also, Spencer Elden, the baby on the cover art of Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ album, has had his child pornography lawsuit against the band reinstated by a US Court of Appeals.

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