This is a request i receved from one of my subscribers so I want to thank them
for suggesting this topic. For today's video we go back to lolapalooza in 1995.
Founded in 1991 by Jane’s addiction frontman perry farrell he would start the traveling tour
known as lollapalooza that would become one of the most memorable music festivals of the 90’s.
It would run until 1997 after which it took a 6 year hiatus. The 1994 incarnation of the
festival was supposed to be featuring so called Indie bands. Keep in mind I’m using
the promoters words not mine. The 1994 version of the festival was supposed to see Nirvana headline,
but by the summer of 1994 Kurt Cobain was dead, so their plans changed. The so called indie year
would be moved to the following year to 1995 with Sonic Youth headlining along with Hole,
Pavement, Beck, Cypress hill, Bikini Kill. and Sinead O’Connor\on the bill. It seemed like the
promoters of the festival by 1994 were receiving a lot of backlash from both fans and critics. Stuart
Ross who served as the festival’s tour director during the 90’s recalled to the Washington Post
In ’94, the press was starting to take shots at us. They said, “Smashing Pumpkins and Beastie Boys
are platinum-selling artists, and Lollapalooza was never a show for platinum artists.”
In ’95, the same press came back and said, Lollapalooza’s a rip-off, there’s no headliners.
When the 1995 incarnation of the festival happened it had been about a year since Courtney Love’s
husband had passed away. Of all the artists on the bill that year, Courtney Love and her band Hole
seemed to attract the most media attention. From the beginning of the tour in George, Washington
there was drama between the bands on the bill.It was only further exasperated by the internet
which was still in its infancy. it created a new way for fans to get even closer to the artists
and get a better understanding of what happened behind the scenes.
For the 1995 incarnation of Lolapolaozza Spin Magazine teamed up with some of
the artists on the bill who wrote tour diaries that would be published online.
Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth would publish an entry that called out Courtney Love writing
“everyone is disgusted and grossed out. Perry [Ferrell, Lollapalooza figurehead] is bummed.
Everyone’s bummed.” He would go on to reveal that Courtney Love during a stopover in Vancouver and i
quote “yell[ed] at the audience something about how she’s wearing a cast on her arm cuz she
‘punched some expletive in the face.’” He would go on to reveal that Courtney Love and i quote
“suckerpunched” Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, and she in turn filed criminal charges against Love.
Four days later it had turned out that Love had read Thurston Moore’s posts.”
Suddenly Moore had a change of heart. & from his follow up online posts
it appeared him and Courtney Love were friends again.
Courtney Love for her part also published some online posts about her experience on that tour.
In one rant she would call out Kathleen Hanna saying and i quote “Kathleen Hanna was my
husband’s worst enemy in the world, someone who would stop at nothing to aggravate us.” She would
go on to refer to Hanna as and i quote“Ratface.’ It’s important to note that Hanna was responsible
for coming up with the name Smells Like Teen Spirit which eventually became nirvana’s most
popular song. So you're maybe wondering what went down between Courtney Love and Kathleen Hanna.
Well you’ll get a different story depending on who you ask and what you read in press
Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson would recall to the Washington Post “We had bulk candy
backstage. I go, “Courtney, there’s [Bikini Kill frontwoman] Kathleen Hanna. You should
offer her some candy.” She grabbed the candy and just threw it at her. Everybody was like,
“Oh my God, she punched her in the face,” but from what I saw, she threw the candy,
and kind of slapped her in the direction of her face. I don’t know if she actually hit her,
or what. It doesn’t matter, it was not cool. . . . The whole tour started on that note.
Meanwhile Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur Courtney did a fake cat hiss, like a joke. Like,
“We’re at war” kind of a thing , ” . . . making a weird joke in passing. Next thing you know,
there’s this explosion of arguing. Maybe a shove, I can’t remember. Kathleen Hanna
screamed at the top of her lungs: “I challenge you to a feminist debate
in any university in America!” I was like, “What is this?” It was hilarious she’d say.
Entertainment Weekly covered the incident at the time publishing a report On July 28,
1995 that read” Just hours into the alterna-fest’s July 4 debut in George, Wash., Love started a
fight backstage with Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna, a guest of performers Sonic Youth.
While the brawl was brief (a source says it ended it after a punch or two),
it was just the beginning of Love’s feuding.” Meanwhile the Orlando Sentinel reported something
completely different claiming the scuffle happened onstage publishing a report that read that read
Kathleen Hanna of the band Bikini Kill told investigators that Love punched
her in the face when she was onstage July 4 in George, Wash. Love was given a criminal
citation - similar to a traffic ticket - Love would look back at the incident telling
the LA weekly in 2013 You know I actually punched Kathleen Hanna and paid 30 grand for
that too. But that punch was so well-deserved, I wouldn't take it back for anything." she'd say.
It wasn’t just the punch that rubbed people the wrong way,
but Love's overall behavior on the tour.
Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus would tell the Post : She [Courtney] was terrifying to me. I remember
scolding her one time, she threw a temper tantrum in the dressing room. She took two jars of salsa
and threw them against a concrete wall, and I had just had enough, and I went in there and yelled at
her. I was like, “Some poor person’s gonna have to clean that up.” Everybody was concerned about her;
that kind of brought everybody together. It was kind of a really nice group he'd say.
Entertainment weekly meanwhile would publish a report in 1995 that read that Mighty Mighty
Bosstones w For Mighty Mighty Bosstones lead singer Dicky Barrett, the Love bite came backstage
at the Polaris Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio, on July 14. He was midway through a live phone
interview on Chicago’s WLUP-FM when Love took the receiver to offer, among other thoughts,
that she has ”clocked” four people since achieving star status. ”Everybody I clock
gets famous,” she said. When LUP DJ Liz Wilde jokingly offered herself up for punching, Love
demurred. ”I wouldn’t…because you haven’t been bugging me and Kurt for the past five years.”l
In 2019 it was reveald that bikini kill would be reuniting
from some concerts with Bust Magazine raving about the news on instagram,
but Courtney Love wasn’t. She responded to Bust magazine’s post responding ““Speak for
yourself. Biggest Hoax in [the] history of rock and roll.Yeah. It’s worse when I speak truth to
rock male industrial complex. But at least I have the best view. Two of that band total amateurs.
Hanna is a good hype man. But her persona is such a diy nonsense dilettante. A big idea they cannot
convey, because they suck. That’s all! Back to Paris couture, because frocks don’t trigger me.
So what triggered this life long feud?
Well there’s a couple theories. Courtney Love used to be close friends with Sonic
Youth vocalist and bassist Kim Gordan’s but apparently the pair bhad a falling
out and kathleen hanna would supposedly become Kim Gordan’s new best friend.
Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail also used to date Kurt Cobain before courtney love
In 2005 Love would be interviewed by Spin Magazine where she was asked about her relationship with
Hanna with her responding “i still don’t like her. She still bugs me. Kathleen Hanna runs
that ship (referring to her relationship with Beastie Boys member Adam Horovitz) in a way
that’s far more yoko than I’d ever be. I really liked Tobi Vail and Kathleen in the beginning,
but then I just thought they were hypocrites.” The website stereogum would claim the Hole song
“Rock Star”was partially written as a shot at Hanna, criticizing the band’s Olympia roots.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching
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