Hole in Njimegen, Netherlands, November 24, 1991

These pages were translated from the book “We Do Music: 40 Jaar Doornroosje.” I’m not familiar with the language and I used Google translate, so apologies for any messiness.

Doornroosje stands between Kurt and Courtney, Bambix offers help.

Also memorable is the performance of the band Hole on November 24, 1991. Musically it is not much. The concert is especially special because of singer Courtney Love who does not want to be in Njimegen at all, but prefers to be in Amsterdam with her new boyfriend Kurt Cobain. “The rest of the band was already there in the afternoon, very nice people. Courtney Love was still in Amsterdam with Kurt,” says Dorethy Krielen. “All we could do was wait for Love. Around ten o’clock I took the car to the station on the gamble. If she wouldn’t be on the train from Amsterdam, we could forget the concert And sure enough, she was on that train. With smeared makeup, lipstick over her face and in a certain condition, she walked across the platform. I told them in the car that a hundred tickets had been sold. “I’m fucking playing for a hundred people,” she complained, fuck this and fuck that. The concert was not a flute and just before the last song she offered 100 guilders to the person who would drive her back to Amsterdam.” In the audience are the three ladies who at that time form the Nijmegen band Bambix. “I was there with Maniet Voets and Nathalie Delisse,” says singer Willia Vanhoudt. “At one point Courtney begins to tell that she is in love with the singer of Nirvana, who is in Amsterdam the same evening and that she wants to go there so much. She’s quite drunk and yells at her manager, who’s near us, that she wants to be fucking taken to Amsterdam. He yells back something like, ‘No way, tomorrow is Paris!’ Then she gets angry and the audience asks who wants to take her to Amsterdam. She first offers 50 guilders and gradually higher, up to 100. At 100 I say to Nathalie: ‘Just do it, man! Costs 20 guilders petrol and the rest is pure profit.’ We stir each other up and at 115 guilders we shout ‘Yes!’ Then that manager comes to us and says, ‘What the fuck? No way you gals gonna take her anywhere.’

After Courtney walks off the stage, she grabs her bag. She doesn’t look up or back at her band members and heads straight for Bambix. The manager stops her, there is a lot of pushing and pulling and the fuck you’s are not out of the air. Willia vanhoudt: “Courtney says ‘Fuck Paris!’, stamping foot outside and we are ordered to follow her. In the car, one of those old blue ducks who drives up to 70, she tells how important it is that she sees Kurt, because he would be on tour for a long time after that. Now she’s so close to him and if she doesn’t see him now it’s too late and she’ll never get the chance again. In the car she’s full of energy ‘Coat of Many Colors’ by Dolly Parton and then she fell asleep snoring loudly. In Amsterdam we dropped her off at Nirvana’s hotel. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have done it. We liked Kurt so much. If we hadn’t brought Courtney to Amsterdam, maybe Kurt would have run into a nice girl instead of a loaded gun and the history would have been different.”