THE NIGHT KURT COBAIN PROPOSED TO COURTNEY LOVE IN NEWPORT, WALES
4th July 2017



nirvana
(Photo: Therapy? Archive)

WalesOnline newspaper are running a story with eye witness accounts of the night that Hole played TJ's in Newport, Wales. It is said to be the night that Kurt Cobain proposed to Courtney Love.

Love was of course the lead singer of Hole and she brought her boyfriend, Cobain, to the gig. Nirvana were riding high at the time with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'

Simon Phillips, of promoters Cheap Sweaty Fun, helped organise the gig and tickets were £4, or £4.50 on the door.

He told WalesOnline:

"There is quite a lot of shakily accurate stuff out there about that night. It was a Hole tour and Therapy? and Daisy Chainsaw were supporting. That night was completely the wrong way around. Daisy Chainsaw were amazing and should have headlined. Therapy? were really good as usual. Hole, as a musical outfit, I thought were all right but they left me mildly disappointed.

"The band turned up to soundcheck without Courtney Love, they came in late afternoon. But Courtney Love turned up very late with Kurt. They were both with a guy called Russell Warby who was Hole's booking agent.

"That night they had a car crash on the Old Green Roundabout, just along from TJ's. I remember Russell's car being put on a low-loader, because it was a write-off. It was an old sky-blue Skoda and it was a right old mess.

"They came from London with Russell and the band came down separately. We had a phone call from Russell saying they would be late and then this crash happened. But as they were playing last we just carried on with the show.

"Shortly before they were due to come on stage Russell came in with Courtney, who I had never met, but anyone would have recognised her. Ten minutes later this scruffy guy sauntered in.

"He had his hair all over his face so I did not recognise him, which I would have done otherwise. I told him, 'It's £4.50'.

"There was little response so I said 'Mate, it's £4.50 tonight, you have to pay to get in'. He pulled his fringe to one side and I was like 'Oh, shit'. And in he came.

"The only other contact I had with them was at the end. I shook Kurt's hand and he said 'Hey man, cool venue you've got here'. There were no minders or any of that bollockks. He was just milling about on his own."

Graham Edwards was in the lower sixth at Newport's St Joseph's RC High School when he attended the show and he remembers Kurt watching Hole from the left of the stage.

"I heard the proposal happened behind the fruit machine, but I don't know whether it is an urban myth. It's amazing if he did. Some people go to the top of a mountain. But no, let's go behind a fruit machine in Newport. Where it stinks. I like it."

Courtney, who was later one half of one of the most unlikely celebrity couples of all time when she and Steve Coogan had a two-week fling, resulting in her alleged pregnancy, recently appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, and said:

"I'm going to write a memoir, but I have a lot of secrets I have to keep."

The memoir, titled 'The Girl With The Most Cake', was originally due to be released in 2013 but has yet to appear on shelves. In 2014, the singer branded the project as a "disaster" and "a nightmare", stating that she never wanted to write a book in the first place. She has since been sued by her first ghostwriter. She added:

"I'm on my second ghostwriter. The first one was too tell-all, too much in a kind of sleazy way.

"Let's make it tasteful. Patti Smith did a really tasteful one, Bob Dylan did a really tasteful one, Keith Richards owned his stuff but did a really tasteful one, so I want a co-writer and I want to write it myself. I want somebody to make it funny and true."

Courtney was also recently named as a celebrity casino goer by the Toronto Sun along with Kate Beckinsale and Lars Ulrich.

Red Flush online casino recently added a page to their site featuring unlikely celebrity couples but did not feature Courtney and Steve Coogan.







 
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