BARBED WIRE LOVE

So, Valentine’s Day is almost here.  Hope you’ve bought that extra perfect present for your loved one, and subsequently, hope you get one back that doesn’t make it look total shite.  Or, for that matter, hope you get one all.  Finger crossed, eh?
Love and rock ‘n’ roll has never been the healthiest mix, but surprisingly there are a few relationships that have survived the roving eye, or the shotglass , or the needle.  Most, as we well know, end in heartache; therefore, in celebration of this oh so special day, we’ve rounded up a list of both the best and worst relationships in the rock genres.  So, whether you’re loved up or lovelorn this pseudo-holiday, here are a bunch of musical Messrs and Mesdames who did find that special someone...at least for a time.  Bleaughh!

1)    Sid Vicious & Nancy Spungen





















A punk rock fairytale or a match made in heroine hell?  Whatever your opinion, Sid and Nancy’s 23 month love-affair is undoubtedly one of the most infamous in music history.  Though never a musician herself, Nancy Spungen had toured the New York punk scene for several years as a groupie and at age 19, set her sights on London.  Shacking up with the troubled Sex Pistols bassist after Rotten shot her down; the two began a heavily documented two year haze of drugs and violence, culminating in Nancy’s murder and Sid’s suicide...allegedly.  I guess love isn’t always the best medicine.




2)    Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love
























Both prominent figures in the alt-rock underworld, both mad as a bag of hammers; the Nirvana frontman and Hole lead singer first met at a gig in 1990 and bonded as most rock ‘n’ roll couples do: through narcotics and nymphomania.  Two years later, after discovering they were in the family way, Cobain and Love wed in Honolulu and promptly welcomed Francis Bean Cobain to the world.  But we all know how this story ends.  Following Cobain’s death, Love’s career blossomed, with Hole gaining critical acclaim over the years.  Shame the same can’t be said about the lady herself.  Ouch! 



3)    Brody Dalle and Josh Homme






















After punk power-couple Tim and Brody ended the love back in 2003, the Distillers/Spinnerette frontwoman quickly found solace in the arms of noted ginger and Queens of the Stone Age singer, Josh Homme, announcing their relationship via the racy Rolling Stone covershoot pictured above.  Tying the knot a few years later, the two are now the proud parents of Camille Harley Joan Homme born 2006.  Want to know more? Check out ‘The Ballad of Queen Bee and Baby Duck’ (the latter being Brody’s pet name for her hubby) by The Eagles of Death Metal: I think it pretty much says it all.



4)    Patti Smith & Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith




























Patricia Lee ‘Patti’ Smith, also known as the ‘Godmother of punk’, has had a fair share of high-profile relationships during her turbulent career; including Blue Oyster Cult guitarist Allen Lanier, Television’s Tom Verlane and American playwright/actor Sam Sheppard.  However, her marriage to former MC5 guitarist Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith (no relation) is easily the most significant.  After getting hitched in 1980, the two dropped largely out of the limelight to pursue the American dream, siring two children and living happily until ’94, when Fred suffered a fatal heart attack.  This prompted Patti’s re-emergence, allowing the musician to continue her protopunk poetry into a whole new century.  Thank God for silver linings!   



5)    Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore

























This geek-chic couple first met in New York City in the mid seventies, where a shared love of punk and metal led them to form The Arcadians; a short lived band that would eventually balloon into a major keystone of the alternative rock boom.  Sonic Youth, the group in question, formed in 1981 and with Gordon and Moore at its helm, soldiered through almost 3 decades (and sixteen studio albums) of music evolution, gaining worldwide acclaim and a reputation as one of the most venerated  bands in the business.  Marrying three years into their career and with bouncing baby Coco Hayley Gordon Moore arriving ten years later, this couple are a testament to how love and music can sometimes find a happy medium.



6)    Lux Interior & Poison Ivy Rorschach

When Erick Lee Purkhiser picked up hitchhiker Kristy Marlana Wallance whilst driving through Sacramento in 1972, little did he know that he’d just taken the first steps in cementing a major driving force of America’s early punk rock movement.  Taking their pseudonyms from dreams and car-ads, the duo formed The Cramps, arguably world’s first ever psychobilly band.  An influence to countless that would follow and one of the key players of the CBGB scene, The Cramps (their progenitors now a happy pair) continued to ‘Tear It Up’ across the world until one tragic day last February, when the band and a 37 year marriage were ended by the sudden death of Lux Interior. R.I.P. a legend.




7)    Blaine Cartwright & Ruyter Suys


























Hillbilly hardrockers Nashville Pussy are another mom and pop organization, fronted by one couple you probably wouldn’t want round your dinner party, but that might come in handy in a bar brawl. Once describing their life-long commitment as ‘a one night stand gone real wrong!’, Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys (pronounced Rider Sighs) are not your average spouses and it’s a miracle that they haven’t killed each other.  Yet despite the misgivings, the twosome have somehow managed to keep the spark going through more than 16 years of rough-living.  Probably due to all that ‘Fried Chicken and Coffee’.                




8)    Kim Nekroman & Patricia Day


























Picture the scene: 1996, Munich, the annual Popkomm music festival.  He was a high-haired, ex-submarine operator gigging with the acclaimed Nekromantix; she, a doe-eyed punk rock pin-up filling the support slot with her outfit Peanut Pump Gun.  It was destiny in the making.  Though both notable misfits of the Copenhagen punk scene, the two had never met previously but soon fell in love, wed and began to make beautiful music together.  The Horrorpops, a quirky psychobilly band, was the end result and in addition to boosting Hellcat record sales by a hefty margin, the group has also solidified the couple themselves as one of the hottest fashion icons of the musical underground.




9)    John Doe and Exene Cervenka.
 































Founding one of the most important punk bands of the American first wave, Doe and Cervenka’s musical story begins in 1977 with X, but their personal partnership began even earlier.  Marrying in 1980, the couple’s affection may only have lasted 5 years, but their gift to the genre has endured over five times that number. Both remarried and bred shortly after the breakup, Doe with his current wife Gigi Blair and Cervenka with method actor Viggo Mortensen, whom she divorced in 1997.  Still good gigging friends, the two reformed the band in the mid-nineties and have continued to collaborate until recent times.  Thumbs up for clean breakups!




10)     Nikki Sixx and Kat Von Dee





























Although Miss Von Dee may not be a rocker in the literal sense, anyone with that much ink on her skin surely deserves a place in this list. After breaking it off with her tattooist hubby Oliver Peck in 2007, Kat was soon seen pictured canoodling with Mötley Crüe founder Nikki Sixx, a man also known for his love of Playboy Bunnies and Big H.  Proclaiming their love via Myspace, with comments like “He OWNS my heart” and “NEVER SAW IT COMING, BUT IT MOWED US DOWN LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN... HELL YEAHHHH, LOVE IS IN THE AIR...”, you cannot deny that the two look great together, but who knows how long this romance will last?  What? They broke up last month? Well, I guess that’s celebrities for ya.

Best of the rest-

•    Deryck Whibley and Avril Lavigne
-He was a boy, she was a girl: could a breakup have been any more obvious?

•    Hayley Williams and Chad Gilbert
-This couple’s rumoured relationship has only just begun.  Let’s give them a few years to work out the kinks before they’re list worthy.

•    Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne
-He may be the Prince Of F*cking Darkness, but she ain’t even close.


Tom Williams