Biographies

Like many of the groups to emerge shortly before the grunge outbreak of 1991, Love/Hate‘s success was short-lived and, aside from a select few who remember their brief stardom in the wake of their debut album Blackout in the Redroom in 1990, their legacy has passed most metal fans by. First formed in 1985 under the name Dataclan, the group first started out attempting to emulate the then-popular sound of new wave under the guidance of manager who also worked as a car salesman. After being showcased to various record labels, and attracting attention from both Capitol and Atlantic, the band were able to obtain permission to host a party at the prestigious Pickfair mansion in Beverly Hills, which was once owned by silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

Dataclan were then sent by their agent to perform a six-week residency at a nightclub in Osaka, Japan but this begins to put a strain on the relationships within the band and bassist Skid Rose and quits midway through. Despite attempting to carry on their commitments in Japan, Dataclan are soon fired from the club and forced to return home to America, prompting the singer to also leave the group. Eventually, at the insistence of their manager, Dataclan recruited Chicago-born Jim Wilkinson as their new singer. Wilkinson had previously worked with the manager in one of his earlier groups and now performed under the moniker Jizzy Pearl. The band’s earlier shows were a disaster, with Pearl unable to come to an agreement with the other members as to the direction that the band should take, although Rose would return as both bassist and principal songwriter. They began to embrace the glam metal scene that had started to engulf Los Angeles and commenced work on an EP, before attempting to promote it through a series of shows in Mexico. By 1986 the band had changed their name to Love/Hate, after writing a song entitled Love and Hate, and continued to record a series of demos, which were inspired by a variety of different styles, from The Cult to Aerosmith.

Eventually dismissing their drum machine and using a live drummer, Love/Hate landed their first break when the track Angel was selected for the soundtrack to New Line Cinema’s horror sequel A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, which would become one of the most successful movies of the year. The movie would also feature tracks by other popular and up-and-coming artists of the era, including Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Blondie and Billy Idol, as well as actress Tuesday Knight. After one of their disastrous gigs supporting L.A. Guns was caught on camera, the band decided to take their attitude and music more seriously. With Rose having written new material that Love/Hate finally felt confident with, the group eventually signed a deal with Columbia Records and commenced work on their first full-length album, Blackout in the Red Room. Collaborating with producers Tom Werman (who had been responsible for Poison‘s second record Open Up and Say… Ahh!) and David Kahne, the album was released on February 22nd, 1990 and instantly began to attract attention from metal magazines such as Kerrang! and Raw. The album would spawn several tracks that would receive regular airplay on music channels – Blackout in the Red Room, Why Do You Think They Call It Dope? and She’s An Angel – whilst the group began to tour extensively.

Their newfound success brought them more exposure, with supporting slots for the likes of Dio, despite failing to impress the crowd, who wanted more traditional metal. By early 1991, Rose had begun writing material for what their second album but the songs that they submitted were rejected by Sony. Instead, they decided to relocate from Los Angeles to New York, away from the scene that they had grown from, to work on their sophomore record without outside interference. But soon the band began to feel that the label were becoming too hands-on and were not allowing them to make the album that wanted.

Further issues arose when Rose decided that he wanted to shoot a mock documentary entitled Wasted in America: The Movie to accompany the album, in which he would bring back their original singer to edit the film, much to the disapproval of the other members. The label would be disappointed with the result of their second album, Wasted in America, which they considered too radio-friendly and far-removed from the band’s earlier sound, coupled with the fact that Nirvana‘s 1991 record Nevermind had single-handedly killed off the ’80s hair metal scene. Whilst touring as a support act for Skid Row, Pearl and frontman Sebastian Bach head into London after a show and, after a heated, drunken exchange, Love/Hate wrere briefly fired from the tour but decided to turn up for the next gig regardless. Thankfully, Bach decided to forgive Pearl for their fight and the band were invited back onto the tour. After returning to American following an eventful tour with Ozzy Osbourne, Pearl discovers that Mötley Crüe had been hoping to hire him as the replacement for their singer Vince Neil, but Love/Hate‘s manager had decided not to tell him.

Following poor album sales and a pubicity stunt in which the band created a mock crucifixion on the Hollywood sign, Columbia finally decided that they would no longer support Love/Hate, whilst Pearl convinced his band mates to fire guitarist Jon E. Love. His replacement was Darren Housholder, whose eponymous solo album had been released the previous year, but he soon began to clash with Rose, who had been forced to sell his Corvette in order to finance the group’s third album, Let’s Rumble. It was eventually released by BMG Records oversees but performed even more poorly than its predecessor, whilst it received only a modest release months later from Los Angeles-based independent label Calibre Records. They soon decided to fire Housholder and rehire Love and, without support from a studio, decided to record their next album themselves using ADAT (Alesis Digital Audio Tape). The appropriately-titled I’m Not Happy would be a short process but would further strain the friendships between the members, particularly with regards to Rose’s attitude and drinking.

By 1997 the band realised that they needed to release a new album but, with Rose unable to write material due to working on side projects, discarded songs and overlooked B-sides were resurrected and rewritten for what would become Livin’ Off Layla. After one more disappointing album, 1999′s Let’s Eat (which was released around the time that Pearl performed vocals on the L.A. Guns album Shrinking Violet), the band went on a hiatus, with Pearl taking over vocal duties for former ’80s glam metal band Ratt. After occasionally performing under the name Love/Hate, Pearl reformed the classic line-up in 2007 to perform their debut album in its entirety, although at present they have not released an album of original material for over a decade.