‘Rock Is Dead’ Clings to Life

When it was announced that Marilyn Manson and Hole--two of rock’s most flamboyant and high-profile acts--would team up on a concert tour, fans starting taking bets on when the whole volatile vehicle would go crashing out of control.

Instead it appears the tour just ran out of gas--and then suffered a flat tire while coasting to the curb.

After only nine shows, Courtney Love of Hole casually confirmed to the audience at the Great Western Forum on Sunday that her band was abandoning the tour.

And as one-half of the bill bowed out, the other half left limping: Manson severely sprained his ankle during the Forum show, forcing the postponement of concerts in San Diego, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Manson and opening act Monster Magnet will press on with the “Rock Is Dead” tour in Houston on Sunday, while Hole will launch a hastily organized tour of theaters and ballrooms beginning in May, managers for the bands said Tuesday.

What prompted the creative divorce of two of rock’s most colorful characters? Disappointing ticket sales, infighting, production issues and perhaps a mismatched bill were cited by insiders and observers in the wake of Hole’s departure.

“The pairing looked good on paper, but it may not have been the best idea,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar, a concert industry trade publication. “Manson had been getting a disproportionate amount of the audience and Hole was playing in front of an audience that wasn’t that appreciative. That may have been part of it.”

Peter Mensch of Q-Prime, Hole’s management company, said it was the production cost overruns--not personalities--that prompted him to pull his clients from the bill.

“It’s all about the bottom line,” Mensch said. “There were well-documented personality issues, but even if there was a love-fest going on, we would have left.”

Mensch says he underestimated the cost of Manson’s elaborate stagings, and because the production costs were deducted before the bands split the gate, the tour was a losing proposition.

“We couldn’t have afforded to stay on the road. We would have lost $150,000 to $200,000 by the end of the tour,” he said. “We were a brick shy of a load most nights.”

The two Southern California shows were the only truly profitable dates in the early leg of the tour, he said. Mensch added that Manson “should come out ahead” by proceeding as the only headliner and not having to split the profits.

Money was not the only problem on the tour.

A combative Love stormed off the stage in Portland, Ore., when the Manson-loyal audience balked at her band’s mix of punk and pop-leaning music. The outspoken Love also made derisive comments from the stage about Manson’s sets, which are dripping in Gothic imagery and horror-show trappings.

In interviews in San Francisco, Manson shot back by referring to Love as a “bitch,” and before the tour even launched he was quoted as saying Hole was “the last band in the world I would ever, ever want to tour with.”

Still, Manson stressed in a Monday interview with MTV that he had no personal animosity toward Love, and handlers for both acts echoed that sentiment, saying the split was amicable.

The mixed messages and the events Sunday night left some wondering if the rift was part of a scheme for headlines, in keeping with the professional wrestling-style tone ascribed to the venture.

“Someone said, ‘Wow, what a coincidence,’ after the injury,” said Manson’s manager, Tony Ciulla. “But you think for one minute he’s happy about being at a sold-out Forum with screaming fans and have that happen? You know the cancellation costs? Sure, he fell on purpose, cut his show short in the most important market in the country.”

Ironically, that concert was one of the few on the “Rock Is Dead” tour to do strong business.

The first nine shows included several that were nearly half-empty. That apathy has also been reflected in the lukewarm sales of Manson’s “Mechanical Animals” and Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” albums. Despite major press attention, both have tumbled out of the Top 40, and Manson’s has failed to reach the million mark in sales.

According to promoters interviewed, the “Rock Is Dead” tour deals were structured so that promoters covered production costs (usually around $35,000 per show) rather than paying a flat, guaranteed fee to the artists. After other costs and deductions (the promoter’s cut, building rental, etc.), Manson and Hole then split the gate--so smaller crowds meant a smaller pie from which to take their slice.

“We were killer in L.A., we were less killer in Phoenix,” Mensch said. “If we sold 2,000 more tickets per show, we would have been OK.”

Insiders also said that pie was getting smaller when shows ran long, ratcheting up production costs with crew overtime. Hole often plays longer than scheduled, and in one reference from the stage during a recent show, Love extended an encore and wryly noted that Manson would pick up the bill.

Backstage at the tour’s opening show in Spokane, Wash., a visibly upset Manson grew impatient with Hole’s late-running set for a different reason: The shock-rocker was worried that his young fans would have to leave before his set so they could meet their parents for a ride home.

Ticket buyers in the 28 cities remaining on the tour will be offered refunds because of the Hole defection, but several promoters and venue officials contacted this week expected few fans to ask for their money back.

“Manson and even Monster Magnet are the real draw, I’d have to say,” said Sean Flynn, a spokesman for the Ice Palace, a 20,000-seat venue in Tampa, Fla., that will host the tour on March 27. “We’ve sold about 10,000 tickets and we just announced the refund offer, but I don’t expect a lot of calls.”