You don't have to look far for real life parallels for Mickey - Richey Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Ian Curtis to name a few. Talented, creative individuals whose desire and neediness drove them to the peak of their profession, and into the public eye. They seem to have cracked it with fame, money, success, adoration, the apparent freedom to shake the small-town dust from their boots and live out the lives most of us can only dream of. The point is that you can make all your dreams come true and still not make it any better.

"Fan killed himself after star's suicide".
A teenager who became obsessed by the death of the rock star Kurt Cobain and was brainwashed by his lyrics hanged himself in his mother's spare room, an inquest heard yesterday. The coroner, James Kenroy, recording a verdict of suicide said: 'Clearly he had come under the influence of this particular rock star. It seemed from his writings that he had almost an obsession with his music and lyrics and he clearly had idolised him, tragically where he wished to follow his idol even into death'." (The Scotsman)

Kurt Cobain was the dour, poetically brilliant leader of Nirvana, the multiplatinum grunge band that redefined the sound of the 1990s He was born on 20 February 1967 in Hoquaim - a small town south west of Seattle. He soon moved to Aberdeen, Scotland. He was a sickly, bronchitic child and when his parents divorced (he was seven) he says he never felt loved or secure again and Cobain found himself shuttled between relatives, and at one time homeless. His parents' split fuelled much of Nirvana's music.

Cobain's next stop was Olympia where he formed and reformed a series of bands before Nirvana came to be in 1986. He was heavily influenced by the Sex Pistols and Joy Division - the nihilistic punk band that some say Nirvana are directly descended from. In the UK Nirvana received a lot of recognition and in 1991 they signed to the mega-label DGC. Two-and-a-half years after Nirvana's first CD (Bleach) was released, Nevermind, a series of different, crunching screaming songs that, along with its first single 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', would propel Nirvana to main- stream stardom.

Cobain was shocked at the reception of his highly personal and passionate music repeatedly telling reporters that none of the band ever expected anything like this. It quickly became obvious that the obsessive sickly and sensitive 24-year-old was not going to cope well with the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

"If there was a rock star 101 course. I'd really have liked to take it."
(Kurt Cobain)

Cobain fell into heroin addiction in the early 1990s, and was distressed to find out that what he wrote and how it was interpreted could quite often be miles apart. He appealed to fans,

"If any of you don't like gays or women or blacks, please leave us the f** k alone'

Cobain also worried that his band had sold-out, that it was attracting the wrong kind of fans. In February 1992 Cobain went to Hawaii to marry the already pregnant Courtney Love, lead singer with rock band Hole. Cobain was a gun fanatic and always had several in his possession. On 4 March 1994, Cobain was rushed to hospital in a coma after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in which he washed down painkillers with champagne. Several days later he returned to Seattle. Cobain was still in deep distress and entered a detox programme, but fled after a few days into the programme. He was then seen in Seattle with a shotgun. Days later on 5 April he barricaded himself into the granny flat behind his mansion, put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

His body was found with a suicide note. The note was addressed to Courtney Love and their then 19-month-old daughter Frances Bean. It ended with the words "I love you, I love you' Two days after Kurt Cobain's body was found, about 5000 people gathered in Seattle for a candlelight vigil, the distraught crowd filled the air with profane chants, burnt their shirts and fought with police.