This revisionist (or, depending on your viewpoint, visionary) rock quintet was formed in Seattle, USA, in the early 90s, by Jeff Ament (b. 10 March, 1963, Big Sandy, Montana, USA; bass) and Stone Gossard (b. 20 July 1966, Seattle, Washington, USA; rhythm guitar). Gossard has played with Steve Turner in the Ducky Boys, the latter moving on to perform with Ament in Green River. Gossard became a member when Mark Arm (like Truner, later to join Mudhoney) switched from guitar to vocals. Gossard and Ament, however, elected to continue working together when Green River washed up, and moved on to Mother Love Bone, fronted by local 'celebrity' Andrew Wood. That ill-fated group collapsed when, four weeks after the release of its debut album, Apple, Wood was found dead in a heroin overdose. Both Gossard and Ament subsequently particpated in Seattle's tribute to Wood, Temple of the Dog, alongside Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, who instigated the project, Soungarden drummer Matt Cameron, plus Gossard's schoolfriend Mike McCready (b. 5 April 1965, Seattle, Washington, USA; guitar) and ex-Bad Radio vocalist Eddie Vedder (b. 23 December 1966, Evanson; Illinois, USA). He had received a tape of demos recorded by Ament, Gossard and McCready by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons. Both Vedder and McCready eventually hooked up permanently with Ament and Gossard to become Pearl Jam, with the addition of drummer Dave Krusen (having originally dabbled with the name Mookie Blaylock). The band signed to Epic Recods in 1991, debuting the following year with Ten. A bold diarama, is saw the band successfully incorporate elements of their native traditions (Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana) with older influences such as the Doors, Velvet Underground, the Stooges and the MC5. The self-produced recording (together with Rick Parashar) showed great maturity, particulary in the full-blooded songwriting, never better demonstrated than on hit single "Alive". Dynamic live performances and a subtle commercial edge to their material catapulted them from obscurity to virtual superstars overnight, as the Seattle scene debated raged and Kurt Cobain accused them of 'jumping the alternative bandwagon'. In the USA Ten was still in the Top 20 a year and a half after its release, having sold over 6 million copies by the end of 1996 in that country alone. The touring commitments that followed, however, brought Vedder to the verge of nervous collapse. He struggled back to health in time for the Lollapalooza II tour, an appearance on MTV Unplugged, and Pearl Jam's cameo as Matt Dillon's band, Citizen Dick, in the Cameron Crowe film Singles. Vedder would also front a reunited Doors on their induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles at the Century Plaza hotel, performing versions of "Roadhouse Blues", "Break on Through" and "Light My Fire". The eagerly awaited difficult following-up was announced in October 1993, close on the heels of Nirvana's latest offering. While reviews were mixed, the advanced orders of playced the album on top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Vitalogy seemed overtly concerned with re-establishing the group's grass-roots credibility, a strong clue to which arrived in the fact that the album was available for a week on vinyl before a CD or cassette release (a theme revisited on 'Spin the Black Circle'). There was also numerous references, some oblique, others not, to the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Ironically, 1994 also saw drummer Dave Abbruzzese dispensed with, amid unfounded rumours that former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl would be invited into the ranks. This turmoil did not affect the quality of No Code, featuring more melody with grunge guitar replaced by steely acoustics. Although the album was greeted with fairly positive reviews and debuted at number one, its weird amalgam of rock, worldbeat, and experimentalism dissatisfied a large portion of their fan base, and it quickly fell down the charts. The record's performance was also hurt by Pearl Jam's inability to launch a full-scale tour, due both to their battle with Ticketmaster and a reluctance to spend months on the road. The band spent most of 1997 out of the spotlight, working on new material; Gossard also released a second album with his side project Brad, titled Interiors. By the end of the year, Pearl Jam had completed a new, harder-rocking record entitled Yield. The album was greeted with enthusiastic reviews upon its February 1998 release, but its commercial fortunes weren't quite as clear cut. While their sizable cult embraced the album, sending it to number two its first week of release, Yield quickly slipped down the charts. Pearl Jam supported the record with a full-scale arena tour in the summer of 1998, issuing the concert LP Live on Two Legs at the end of the year; Jack Irons did not participate due to poor health, and was replaced by ex-Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron. In 1999, Pearl Jam scored an unlikely pop radio smash with their cover of the J. Frank Wilson oldie "Last Kiss," originally released as the seventh in a series of fan-club-only singles which had also featured several incongruous covers in the past. Demand from fans and radio programmers resulted in the nationwide release of "Last Kiss," and it eventually became the band's highest-charting pop hit to date, peaking at number two and going gold. The group returned in 2000 with the Tchad Blake-produced Binaural. In order to circumvent bootleggers, their subsequent European and American tours were recorded in full and released in an unprecedented series of double-CD sets, each of the 72 volumes featuring a complete concert.