Polly would be a cracker: PJ Harvey asked to front Nirvana by Dave Grohl

PJ Harvey was asked to front Nirvana (Getty Images)

PJ Harvey nearly became the new singer with Nirvana at a UK concert last month, Dave Grohl has revealed.

Harvey was invited to take Kurt Cobain’s place and join the band’s surviving members at a London concert staged by Grohl, the trio’s former drummer.

Grohl told NME: “We were thinking about musicians that we could invite because Stevie Nicks and John Fogerty couldn’t make it.

“Someone came up with the idea of doing a Nirvana song with PJ Harvey. Kurt loved her and we love her and we thought, 'Yeah, what would we do?’

I said: ‘God, what if we were to do 'Milk It' from In Utero, with Polly singing?' We all looked at each other, like, 'Whoa, that would be amazing!' …And then she couldn't do it!”

The Foo Fighters frontman and original Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic instead performed alongside other guests including Rick Springfield at the Sound City Players gig held at the London Forum.

Harvey would have followed in the footsteps of Sir Paul McCartney, who joined the surviving Nirvana members for a special performance last December.  The former Beatle sang a new song he had written with the band members.

In the 19 years since Cobain’s suicide, his former band-mates have declined to perform his songs together.