BLUE JEANS AND CHINOS; COKE, PEPSI AND OREOS (Part 6)

I got thinking about putting a posting together about Hole the other week when I did the back-to-back pieces on Cope, McCulloch and Wylie.  I had forgotten that Courtney Love, as a teenage tearaway, had lived in Liverpool for a spell during which she became very friendly with Julian.  I believe him when he says they never fucked…

I don’t actually own all that many bits of music by Hole but then again they didn’t really release all that much material.  They formed in the late 80s but took ages to get a settled line up – the other constant member was Eric Erlandson.  The debut LP, Pretty On The Inside, was released on small indie labels in 1991 on both sides of the Atlantic and its rough and ready production combined with the lead singer’s confrontational approach to life and to performing got them plenty of attention and in very soon they were signed on a fat and lengthy contract to Geffen Records, one of the biggest labels in the world.

It took a while to get the material for the next LP together but that was completely secondary to the circus that was Courtney Love’s life….she had only gone and married the world’s biggest rock star and had his baby daughter.

But amidst the chaos surrounding Mr & Mrs Cobain,  Hole (which had once again gone through further changes with seemingly nobody capable of working with Courtney & Eric for any extended period of time) announced that their debut for a major was set for release in the spring of 1994.

On 8 April 1994, Kurt Cobain shot himself.  Four days later, the very unfortunately named Live Through This was released with an eerie cover of a beauty queen, similar in looks to Love, with mascara running down her cheeks as the result of her crying.  You couldn’t make it up……….

It was known that Cobain had worked with his wife on the LP and critics and fans alike poured over it to see if the record contained any clues to his suicide.  None were forthcoming, but what they found however, was an incredibly impressive record – one that showed Courtney Love and her band had talent to burn – with a very fine combination of rock and pop that was incredibly radio friendly.  Or to put it another way…it sounded the way that the industry had hoped Nirvana would go on the back of Nevermind when in fact they had gone much heavier on In Utero.

It took another four years for the next Hole record to be released and in the intervening period the band had lost its bass player to a drugs overdose, the lead singer had starred in a Hollywood movie for which she and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance while the other band members did side projects.  All the while the spectre of Kurt Cobain hung over everything.

Celebrity Skin again caught folk out being very friendly rock that was soon on heavy rotation on radio stations all across the States.  Courtney had shown, as a singer-songwriter/performer that she was no one-horse pony. The album is estimated to have sold over 2 million copies worldwide, of which some 75% found homes in the USA.

On the road though, things didn’t work out well.

In the winter of 1998–99, Hole planned a tour to promote Celebrity Skin jointly headlining with Marilyn Manson, but after just nine dates they quit, partly due to the poor reception they were receiving from Manson’s fans who made up the majority of the live audiences.

For the next six months, Hole toured the world in a combination of their own headline shows or as part of festivals and then were dealt a blow in late 1999 when again those members who weren’t named Love or Erlandson quit the band.

It took another three years before the band officially broke up.  In 2010, Love announced Hole would be reforming but in reality it was just her with new backing musicians and the subsequent LP, Nobody’s Daughter, and the live shows that followed were a pale imitation of the goddess who had conquered all in the mid 90s.

Here’s some of the great singles from that era:-

mp3 : Hole – Miss World
mp3 : Hole – Violet
mp3 : Hole – Doll Parts
mp3 : Hole – Celebrity Skin
mp3 : Hole – Malibu

Enjoy.