ROCK DOCKET: There’s another Nirvana, and...

ROCK DOCKET: There’s another Nirvana, and it wants the one that you already know about to stop using the name. It seems that two London-based musicians have been performing under the name Nirvana since 1967. The more familiar one is, of course, the Seattle-area trio whose album “Nevermind” has sold 3 million copies in the United States.

“We want our name clean,” said Alex Spyropoulous of the English group, calling from London. “We want to be fair. Nothing against (the other Nirvana). They’re great. But they’re destroying over 25 years of work we’ve done, and for us that’s something we can’t take lying down.”

To that end, Spyropoulous and partner Patrick Campbell-Lyons attempted to open discussions with the David Geffen Co., which released “Nevermind,” and Gold Mountain Management, which handles the Seattle Nirvana. When that got no satisfactory response, they hired Los Angeles lawyer Debbie Drooz to pursue the matter. Drooz told Pop Eye that she planned to file for an injunction preventing the Seattle Nirvana from using the name pending some other agreeable settlement.

“Their ability to perform has been obliterated,” Drooz said of the English act.

However, Alan Mintz, attorney for the Seattle Nirvana, disputes the other band’s claim to the name. “It’s our position that any rights they had to the name have been long-since abandoned,” Mintz said. “If you look at their history, they had some mild success in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, and virtually the only records released since then were reissues.”

The old Nirvana had only one real hit, 1968’s “Rainbow Chaser,” which has recently turned up on several compilations, including Rhino Records’ “British Invasion” series. The group released only one new single in the ‘80s.

Mintz said that he assumed the English Nirvana’s real goal was a financial settlement. He also said there was the possibility that some modification of the Seattle band’s name might be required in a few markets where the older band still has some market value. He cited such precedents as the English Beat and Dinosaur Jr., two modifications made by bands to differentiate themselves from others who used the original names first.