Love/Hate demos were better than albums

Looking back: Love/Hate in the 1990s

Original Love/Hate guitarist Jon E Love insists the band’s demos for classic albums Blackout In The Red Room and Wasted In America sounded better than the final releases.

Frontman Jizzy Pearl has announced a tour with a lineup featuring Robbie Crane (Ratt), Keri Kelly (Alice Cooper) and Matt Starr (Ace Frehley). While Love is scheduled to appear at a handful of shows he’s not expected to take part in the UK dates through March and April.

But the return to action has given the guitarist cause to think about the band’s past, and the heady days of the early 1990s.

Love tells Legendary Rock Interviews: “Wasted was a strange record for me. We wanted Dave Jerdan to produce but he was not available. We were told by the label that John Jansen would be producing, and that was the way it was gonna go.

“I think John is a great guy, and a great producer – he just didn’t quite get what we were about. Also, because we had learned from trial and error how to produce our demos ourselves, we were a little wary of outsiders.

“Back in the day, Skid [Rose] and I would do four-tracks at his house on the beach. After years of honing my engineering chops we could record and mix a new song in a day and have immediate media to evaluate the day’s work.

“If the song was good enough we might book a session in a real studio and go in and bang it out. But I would always try to make our demos sound as professional as possible even with the limited gear we had. It’s not how many tracks you have to use – it’s what you put on the tracks available.

“I still think the demos for Wasted are better than the record. Same goes for Blackout. The fidelity wasn’t as refined, but the magic we captured makes up for the fidelity, in my honest opinion.”

In 1992, reacting to Columbia’s apparent lack of interest in the band, Pearl staged the celebrated publicity stunt in which he was crucified on the Hollywood sign. Instead of generating sales it led to Love/Hate being dropped, and Love left the band.

He says: “I was not in the best of minds when all that went down. The guys hated me at the time and I was strung out on cocaine. I was just beat, financially and mentally. I’d worked my whole life to be where I was and I had failed.

“Perhaps quitting wasn’t the right thing to do, but we needed a break from each other – or at least they needed a break from me.

“After a year or so we came to realise that the four of us were the magic and we tried it again with limited success. The four of us made some great music together and that’s what is really important when it’s all said and done.”

He says the band remains a part of his life and remains open to new opportunities in the future. “I really enjoyed the reunion show in 2007,” he remembers. “We picked up right where we left off and it was still magical.

“Never say never. I’d be up to record something new if it was done right.”

Love/Hate UK tour 2013

Mar 25: London Underworld
Mar 26: Grimsby Yardbirds
Mar 27: Edinburgh Bannermans
Mar 28: Newcastle Trillians
Mar 29: Bradford Gasworks
Mar 30: Sutton Diamond
Mar 31: Wakefield Snooty Fox
Apr 1: Crumlin Patriot
Apr 2: TBA
Apr 3: Wolverhampton Slade Rooms
Apr 4: Cardiff Bogiez
Apr 5: Belfast Diamond Rock Club
Apr 6: Rugby Vault
Apr 7: TBA