Rather than simply play acoustic versions of their hits, Nirvana treated MTV’s Unplugged show as an opportunity to turn their own music on its head, to connect it to American roots and European glam. 25 years on, the resulting album, MTV Unplugged In New York, stands as their finest work, says David Bennun
Across three decades, John Shepherd built a Nasa-style lab at his grandparents’ Michigan home to communicate with extra-terrestrials, beaming sets featuring Can, Kraftwerk and Neu! into space. Now the subject of an acclaimed film, he tells Ben Gilbert why and records an exclusive tQ mix