HOLE SAY MANSON TOUR EXPOSED THEM TO 'RIDICULE' Contributing Editor Brian Hiatt reports: NEW YORK -- Hole say their former management company subjected them to "public ridicule" by letting them tour with Marilyn Manson earlier this year and did nothing to stop the band from running up "ruinous cost overruns" during the recording of 1998's Celebrity Skin. The band made the allegations in a March 24 letter terminating its relationship with Q Prime Inc. The letter is now an exhibit in a lawsuit Q Prime filed against the band April 16, in which the management company asked for a percentage of the rock band's earnings for the next 10 years as well as for allegedly unpaid commissions of at least $180,000. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, cites Hole's "abrupt and offensive" firing of their management in accusing them of breaching their contract with Q Prime. But Hole frontwoman Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson, who both signed the March 24 letter to Q Prime, wrote that it was Q Prime who breached the contract. Hole's letter blamed Q Prime's alleged failure "to advise or counsel" the band properly in the making of Celebrity Skin (RealAudio excerpt of title track), thus helping cause "ruinous cost overruns and costly delays." It says Q Prime didn't "properly or competently advise or counsel" Hole in respect to their recently aborted tour with Marilyn Manson. The tour, Love and Erlandson wrote, subjected Hole "to public ridicule and potentially devastating financial losses." In its suit, Q Prime points out that Hole "chose to leave" that tour -- implying that Q Prime might not have agreed with the band's decision. Hole left their joint tour with Manson in March, after playing only nine shows -- 28 dates remained on the schedule. During those nine shows, Manson frontman Marilyn Manson (born Brian Warner) and Love traded insults both onstage and off. The split was attributed to a disagreement over production costs. The two bands were reportedly splitting those costs down the middle, even though Manson's elaborate glam-rock spectacle was far more costly to produce. Love and Erlandson also allege Q Prime interfered "with the duly appointed agents of Ms. Love insofar as her film career is concerned." Among other movie roles, Love co-starred in the film "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" and appeared in "200 Cigarettes." In the suit, Q Prime, which began representing Hole in 1994 -- the year the band's breakthrough album, Live Through This, came out -- and formally became Hole's manager in 1995, says it played a major role in boosting Hole's popularity. "Q Prime guided, counseled and advised the group on its transition from a member of the early 1990s 'grunge movement' scene to a more multidimensional mainstream rock group [that performed] for an increasingly broader audience," the suit claims. Under Q Prime's guidance, the suit asserts, "Hole went from playing clubs and relatively small venues holding approximately 1,500 spectators to venues involving 15,000 spectators." The company also claims to have lent "significant sums" of money to a member of the band, an action which it cites as evidence of a friendly relationship between band and management. Earlier this year the Smashing Pumpkins also dropped Q Prime. Among the major bands the company still manages are Metallica and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Hole lawyer Seth Lichtenstein declined to comment, as did Q Prime spokesperson Gayle Fine. A representative of Manage This! -- the New York company that is now managing Hole -- also declined to comment. (Senior Writer Gil Kaufman contributed to this report.) (from SonicNet) - - - - - - - - - - - - -