When Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan recommended Courtney Love enlist Melissa Auf der Maur as Hole’s new bassist, Auf der Maur initially declined the offer. Yet destiny was calling, and in due course a spotlight alongside the world’s most famous widow of the time.
Auf der Maur, the bohemian child of a beatnik poet and a forward thinking hippy mother, became a vital part of the group. As Love – processing the deaths of not only Kurt Cobain but also Hole’s Kristen Pfaff, who fatally overdosed not long after relinquishing Hole bass duties – had her every move scrutinised by the media, Auf der Maur documented the whole thing. Even The Good Girls Will Cry begins at her first gig with the group, at the 1994 Reading Festival, before going back through her life. Raised by her mother alone, childhood took her all over the world (including a stint in Wales, in a circus caravan no less) before settling in Montreal.
By her teen years, Auf der Maur had fallen in love with British bands like The Cure and Tears For Fears, and had begun to document her life with her beloved camera. The results can be found inside this fascinating book, providing fantastic visual insight. If you weren’t lucky enough to be around in the 90s, Melissa Auf der Maur has done you a solid: Even The Good Girls Will Cry brings you about as close as is possible to experiencing it, without smearing your makeup or getting cigarette smoke on your clothes.
