A Hole reunion may be quietly brewing after Courtney Love posted a series of Instagram videos featuring former bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, sending fans of the iconic grunge band into speculation mode.
The posts, shared on Tuesday (March 3rd US), features Auf der Maur dancing and smiling in front of a wall of photographs from her life on the road (per Billboard), the clip is soundtracked by Hole’s 1998 single ‘Celebrity Skin’, the band’s biggest mainstream hit from the album of the same name.
It didn’t take long for fans to start reading between the lines, Love appeared to fuel the speculation further by hinting at a possible tour in the caption, writing: ‘So do we tell the kids about the tour?’
Melissa Auf der Maur responds
Auf der Maur, who played bass for Hole from 1994 to 1999, seemed to lean into the moment in the comments:
“it starts with eternal love ….”
Love later followed up with another post featuring a vintage photo of herself with Auf der Maur and guitarist Eric Erlandson, taken at Los Angeles’ famous Chateau Marmont shortly before the release of ‘Celebrity Skin’ in 1998.
At this stage, no official reunion or tour announcement has been confirmed.
A complicated history for Hole
Hole were one of the defining bands of the 1990s alternative and grunge era, with albums like ‘Live Through This’ and ‘Celebrity Skin’ cementing their place in rock history. Auf der Maur joined the band following the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff, performing on the ‘Celebrity Skin’ album before leaving the group in 1999.
The band later returned with ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ in 2010, though the record was widely viewed as more of a Courtney Love solo project featuring a new backing lineup.
Recent collaborations spark speculation
While Hole have not formally reunited in years, Love and Auf der Maur have crossed paths a few times recently, performing Hole songs together during a 2018 tribute event honouring Love at Basilica Hudson in New York. More recently, they also worked together in the studio during 2024, recording material for an upcoming project.
According to Love, the pairing still works musically:
“I wanted her voice,” Love told The New York Times. “because it’s robustly an octave over mine. It’s surprisingly, to me, more robust and embodied now than it was in ’98 … Silver, tinkling, all the things I can’t do. We’re perfect together.”
Love has been famously non committal about a reunion over the years, in 2021 she told Vogue the idea was “just not gonna happen.”, during a 2024 London performance with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s Coverups, she hinted things may have shifted.
“Later, I’ll be back in Hole.”
For now, it’s a big time case of watch this space.
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