TShirtSlayer Heavy Metal Merch Gallery
  • Bands (0)
  • Groups (0)
  • Members (0)
  • (X)

World's largest community of heavy metal tshirt and battlejacket collectors.

Courtney Love –12/05/14 – Shepherds Bush Empire

Hockney
Sun, 22/09/2019 - 12:54

Courtney Love –12/05/14 – Shepherds Bush Empire

Courtney Love is probably the most hated wife in rock’n’roll, even more so than Yoko Ono. Marrying Kurt Cobain derailed any music career plan she may have had and led to the complaint that she was riding on his success. Except that the first Hole material was recorded and released before they were an item and she was already a force to be reckoned with.

Courtney is the daughter of a one-time Grateful Dead’s road managers and is [not]( https://deadessays.blogspot.com/2015/01/it-wasnt-courtney.html) on the back sleeve photo of ‘Aoxomoxoa’ (a very fine album, if hard to ask for at the counter), despite a long-held legend that she is one of the children shown (although which child it is tends to change with the telling).

The First Hole album, ‘Pretty on the Inside’ is a distorted slash of teen angst, while the second, ‘Live Through This’ was more melodic, less distorted at more disturbing and brought the band international recognition. It was the third, ‘Celebrity Skin’, recorded after Cobain’s death, which had the hit singles and finally featured the west-coast Fleetwood Mac vibe that Love had been threatening when she formed the band. It’s either a triumphant summit or the fall off the edge of an artistic cliff, or even a Smashing Pumpkins offshoot, depending on your perspective. I happen to love it. Either way it’s better than what followed. Love got totally messed up in the aftermath of the album and stopped making music for a while, surfacing mainly in the gossip pages for a decade.

In 2004 there was an abysmal solo album released. The single was okay but the rest was baffling cocaine-induced rubbish.

Then, weirdly, in 2007, a gig was announced at the Bush Hall, a tiny ballroom in Shepherds Bush. Natasha and I went along. The backing band comprised of an obscure folk-punk band called ‘Two Gallants’ and a couple of other session musos, and took place on Love’s birthday. It was a chaotic affair with most of the songs being brand new and destined for an album three more years in the making, and more that have never seen the light of day. The crowd was visibly under-whelmed; we’d all anticipated a Hole greatest hits set, so the new material fell on deaf ears. My memory of Courtney herself is vague. She seemed to be relatively straight but still loud and rude.

The 2010 album, ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ was released as ‘Hole’ record, despite none of the rest of the band being on it. Treated as a Courtney Love solo album, it’s very good - more acoustic than Hole, and thus hated by most of the fans.

Which brings us to the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2014. There were rumours of a Hole reunion that never happened, but we got the gig we’d been hoping for seven years earlier. Courtney was on top form - talking to the crowd playing up a storm and having a lot of fun. There were costume changes - black lacy things or white lacy things, like a punk Stevie Nicks.

I’m not sure who was in the band but they did their job of keeping things tight so that Love could unravel them. We got a bunch of songs from ‘Pretty On The Inside’ and Celebrity Skin, but nothing from before that and little from the recent album. And still (thankfully) nothing from the solo album. And we got ‘Gold Dust Woman’ - not as a victim but as challenge to battle!

Looking at the video, I was reminded that the mic stand kept falling down through the night. She went through two or three of them, just trashing them when they misbehaved.

There’s been no music in the intervening decade, but unless there really is a Hole reunion, I think it’s best that Courtney Love keep away from the stage and leave us with the memory of this tour.

Not for sale or trade

Year: 2014
Original TShirt Fabric Color: 
Purple
Size: 
Not yet set / Ask
5
Courtney Love –12/05/14 – Shepherds Bush Empire

Speedrider's picture

this as nothing to do right here burn it.

Hockney's picture

Yay! I've been wondering how long it would take for another user to tell me a shirt wasn't appropriate :) Didn't think it would be this one.
No offence taken or meant, but why is this one wrong?

5
Speedrider's picture

I mean it's a metal website

Hockney's picture

Take a listen to the the early Hole albums. They're metal enough for me :)

5
Lloyd H's picture

Celebrity skin is a great album! Glossy but intentionally so. Is she a Greek or Roman goddess on that pic? At first glance I thought Medusa - but no snakes! Typeface is odd choice but a cool shirt nonetheless!

5
Hockney's picture

Thanks Lloyd,
I was wearing this to punk festival at the weekend - got favourable comments from a couple of passing women.
The image is a parody of the Versace logo, which according to Wikipedia is based on Medusa. But I agree - there's no snakes and I'd have gone for Cassiopeia or maybe Medea.
Love did some modelling for Versace about the time of this gig and the 'People for Larry Flynt' film.
So there you go :)

5
Lloyd H's picture

Versace - I see, thank you!

Their brand of Haute Couture isn't quite in my wheelhouse but looking at their logo online that makes the image choice even smarter.

Courtney Love modelling for Versace? The photographer better have bought his/her A-game that day...

Briefly - very briefly - Grunge/Post-Grunge was big news wasn't it?

PS. I like you casually throwing in some Greek mythology references too - not the average chat you find here.

5
568,383 items in the gallery, 881,020 comments, and 554 items have changed hands in the last month.

Guess this TShirt!

Can you guess which metal tshirt this is from?

Can you guess which metal TShirt this is from? Click here for all previous tshirt guesses

Recent Comments