Hole was an American rock band. The band started in 1989 in Los Angeles, California and ended in 2002. In 2009, the band got back together with new members but broke up in 2012. The last members of the band were singer Courtney Love, guitarist Micko Larkin, bassist Shawn Dailey and drummer Scott Lipps.
Hole released four studio albums. The band's first album, Pretty on the Inside, was released in 1991 but was not very successful. After the album was released, the band's members changed but Love and Eric Erlandson, the original guitarist, stayed with the band. When Kristen Pfaff and Patty Schemel joined the band, Hole released their second album, Live Through This, in 1994. The album was very successful and entered the Billboard music chart. The band changed their members again in 1998 and Melissa Auf der Maur and Samantha Maloney joined the band. Hole released Celebrity Skin in 1998 and it is their most popular album. The band tried to make another album but broke up in 2002.
In 2009, Courtney Love started Hole again with new members. Some of the old members of Hole did not agree with this and there were legal issues with the band's name. Later, the old members allowed Love to use the name. In 2010, the band released its next album Nobody's Daughter but the album was not successful. After touring around the world, the band broke up in 2012 because Love wanted to work on her solo career.
In 2014 Courtney Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf Der Maur, and Patty Schemel started playing together again.
Band history
Creation
Hole began in summer 1989 in Los Angeles, California. Courtney Love put an advertisement in a magazine called The Recycler and said she wanted to start a band. In the ad, she said her favorite bands were Big Black, Sonic Youth and Fleetwood Mac. Eric Erlandson phoned Love when he saw the advertisement and the band began rehearsing in August. Love became the singer and second guitarist and Erlandson became the lead guitarist. Love and Erlandson got Love's friend Lisa Roberts to become the bassist for Hole and found a drummer called Caroline Rue at another punk rock show. The band had two other guitar players, Mike Geisbrecht and Errol Stewart, but both of them left the band soon after. The band played their first show in September at Raji's, a small club in Hollywood, and played three more shows in California in 1989.
Early releases
After a lot of shows on the West Coast, Hole signed to the indie record label Sympathy for the Record Industry in 1990. In April 1990, Hole released their first single, "Retard Girl." The single was not popular but was played on the radio in the United States and the United Kingdom: on KROQ-FM in Los Angeles and BBC Radio 1 in London. During a tour in March 1991, the band released a second single, "Dicknail", on Sub Pop, the grunge label in Seattle, Washington and then released their first album Pretty on the Inside in August. The album was produced by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Sonic Youth's early music influenced the album. Hole switched record labels again and they chose to be on Caroline Records. Pretty on the Inside and was very successful in the United Kingdom. In the UK Albums Chart, it went to number 59 and the single "Teenage Whore" went to number 1 on the UK Indie Chart. During the tour of Europe to support the album's release, Courtney Love started a relationship with Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. In February 1992, the couple got married in Hawaii. Just before they got married, Jill Emery and Caroline Rue left the band because they wanted to play different styles of music. Hole then signed a major label recording contract with DGC and Geffen Records. The record deal was worth over $3 million.
In 1993, Hole released a new single "Beautiful Son." Patty Schemel was the new drummer for the band and played on all of the songs. Before the band went on tour, they got Kristen Pfaff as a new bassist. The band then took a small break in July to work on new songs for their next album.
Mainstream success
In 1993, Hole moved to Carnation, Washington to write songs for their next album. In October, the band went to Marietta, Georgia and began recording the album. The recording was finished in a month and was produced by Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade. The album was called Live Through This and was released on April 12, 1994. Four days before it was released, Courtney Love's husband was found dead in Seattle. He had killed himself and all of the band members did not want to go on tour. In June, Kristen Pfaff died after a drug overdose and the band had to cancel more shows. Hole got Melissa Auf der Maur as a new bassist before the tour for Live Through This.