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Gigs & Festivals Top Stories
Love addresses Oxford Union, misses comeback gig
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 15 February 2010
Courtney Love addressed 300 students at the Oxford Union on Friday evening, managing to cover subjects as diverse as the state of the music industry, the British public’s part in its downfall, her relationship with her daughter, Kurt Cobain’s suicide, Greek myths and her affinity with the UK.
She also told the students present that she would like to live in “either Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire”, describing her nationality as “Amglish”. Explaining her love of the area around the university city, she began by explaining her history in the UK, having lived in Liverpool and gone to school in Suffolk at different points in her life, and saying: “The first time I came to Oxford I was with Echo And The Bunnymen and I walked around, and the bricks were so black and it was so magical”.
Moving on to weightier subjects, she discussed her husband’s suicide in 1994, and her continued social status as “Kurt Cobain’s widow”, saying: “That action had a horrible effect on our family. It’s not cool. It just wasn’t cool. And that action was regretted the second it happened. I was expected by the zeitgeist to go with him or something. But I worked. I had to work to get money to feed my kid. I never expected I would be connected to the Alpha male as some kind of ancillary object and to this day it mystifies me”.
On the subject of the previously reported restraining order stopping her from contacting that “kid”, daughter Frances Bean Cobain, who has also been placed in the custody of Cobain’s mother and sister, she said: “I’m having my Demeter and Persephone moment with my daughter”.
In the Greek myth, Persephone was abducted and taken down to the underworld by Hades, where she became queen. Her mother, Demeter, goddess of the harvest and controller of the seasons, began searching for her daughter night and day, neglecting her work, which led the earth to begin dying. Persephone’s father, Zeus then convinced Hades to return his daughter, though she was forced to return to the underworld for four months each year. Make of that what you will.
On the subject of the music industry, she said that the growing trend for 360 degree deals was not a good thing, proclaiming: “Friends don’t let friends do 360 deals”. She also blamed British record buyers for taking music down a new and dangerous road when they let the Crazy Frog go to number one. She told the audience: “Your country did a terrible thing in sending the singing frog into the charts. That was a terrible thing that you did to us because then ringtones started to compete with songs”. Which is a fair point.
Though she didn’t pretend that everything musical she has ever put out into the world necessarily furthered the industry, or the artform, in any way. She described her 2004 solo album ‘America’s Sweetheart’ as “a really crap record”, blaming drugs for its poor quality, and saying: “I thought I could be both Mick [Jagger] and Keith [Richards] at the same time, but one of you has to be sober and I’m not two people. Much of my hi jinx have been drug-related. When you’re under 30, whatever, but once you’re past 40 it’s just ugly”.
However, she said that her best work was yet to come, and that it would be the newly re-launched Hole that she would be remembered for. Discussing the resistance from her former bandmates, none of whom are involved in the band’s latest incarnation, she said: “Melissa Auf der Maur, our old bass player with the really thin hips and the great ass, she wanted to do a reunion, but I said ‘Melissa, we only did two relevant records’. I will play old songs [but the] legacy is to be written”.
That said, the new legacy got off to a bad start last Thursday, when the band’s first gig, which was due to take place in London last Thursday, was cancelled after a mini-riot got between where Courtney was staying and the venue where she was due to perform.
The band were due to play at the Proud Galleries in Camden, but their route there was blocked as police responded to a party going on at a west London squat, a party which reportedly got out of hand, resulting in Park Lane and Oxford Street being closed while police brought the matter under control. Unfortunately, the road closures meant that Courtney Love was one of the people unable to make their way across the capital, and as a result she could not make it to the show.
On the party and road closures, a spokesman for Scotland Yard told reporters in the early hours of Friday morning: “We have been attending a call to a building in Park Lane after reports that in excess of 2000 young people were holding a large party. Some people were seen climbing onto the roof and there is concern that the roof may have become unsafe. Police have attended to get the partygoers removed for their own safety. We were called at 11pm and the situation was being brought under control within the first 90 minutes. The London Ambulance service and Fire Brigade have also been in attendance and there are reports that they have had bottles thrown at them”.
The band did, however, manage to perform one song on ‘Friday Night with Jonathan Ross’ (which was recorded on Tuesday), and there will be another opportunity to see Hole v2.0 play in London this week, when they play the NME Awards show at the Shepherds Bush Empire on Wednesday.
