Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson and post-grunge rockers Hole will mount
a co-headlining U.S. tour following their stint on this month's Big Day Out festival in 
Australia and New Zealand.

"Courtney [Love] and Hole will be touring with Manson," Hole spokesperson Gayle Fine said.
"We don't know when it will start yet or what size venues they will play, though."

A spokesperson for Artist & Audience, Manson's booking agency (and the company booking the tour),
confirmed the shock rocker's participation. While dates and venues were unavailable, it was 
confirmed that hard rockers Monster Magnet will open the tour.

The announcement of the long-rumored pairing comes at an interesting point in the sometimes 
contentious relationship between Love and Manson (born Brian Warner). Just last month, Manson 
claimed in England's New Musical Express weekly that "Courtney never bothered to say hi to me 
until I sold a million records. She's an opportunist and I wouldn't consider her a friend ... 
the way she's behaved towards me in the media has seemed very exploitative."

At the time, Fine said Love had no response to the attack, which concluded with Manson stating 
"I'm not interested in being anything to her."

Both artists have recently undergone a transformation in both sound and appearance. 
Manson adopted a David Bowie-like glam look in place of his formerly black-clad gothic persona. 
Love assumed a similarly high-sheen, glitzy image. Both also released new albums last year that 
have fared somewhat modestly on the charts.

Hole's glossy Celebrity Skin -- which resides at #51 on this week's Billboard 200 albums chart 
-- has spawned such radio hits as the title track and "Malibu," but so far it has failed to 
notch platinum (one million copies) sales numbers.

Manson's heavily hyped Mechanical Animals, which features the current single, "I Don't Like The
Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)" , has settled in at #84 on this week's chart and failed to live 
up to the double-platinum heights of his previous, and breakthrough, album, 
1996's Antichrist Superstar.

Aside from a few television appearances and one-off dates, neither act has yet mounted a 
full-scale U.S. tour in support of their respective albums.


At least one die-hard Manson fan thought the pairing of the seemingly unrelated artists made 
perfect sense. "I'll definitely be going when they stop here," said Evan Moore, 18, webmaster 
of the unofficial Nothing Records/Marilyn Manson site, "Seems Like Salvation."


"I'm not too crazy about Courtney," Moore continued, "but since she now has a glam look herself 
and is now all pretty, I think with Manson's pretty look and his new sound it will work out. I 
think it will be interesting and if I don't like Love, I'll just leave."


Gary Bongiovanni, editor of touring industry trade magazine Pollstar, gave the package high 
marks for its "curiosity factor." "I think it's a really good bill," Bongiovanni said. "On the 
face of it, they're very compatible and, as long as the audiences are also compatible, and not 
put off by each other, it should do really well."