A British photographer named Richard Davis has unearthed a series of previously unseen photographs from Nirvana‘s second-ever U.K. show.

The pictures were taken during the future grunge legends’ concert at the Manchester Polytechnic Students Union on October 24, 1989. They show a young Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and pre-Dave Grohl drummer Chad Channing rocking out for a raucous, stage-diving crowd.

Speaking to Manchester Evening News, which has now published the images, Davis shares that he thought the photos had been lost for good before he uncovered them in storage while in the midst of a lockdown cleaning session.

“For years I was convinced that someone had nicked the negatives,” Davis explains. “But about two months ago I was going through my kids stuff and found it among the old primary school photos.”

Davis adds that he was even given the opportunity to interview Nirvana after the show, but he turned it down because he was “knackered.”

By Josh Johnson
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