It was very dramatic. When Marilyn Manson vacated the stage halfway through his band's set at the Big Day Out last Sunday due to the much published bottle incident, it was left to Hole to pick up the pace.

As it turns out, they did so with aplomb. Meanwhile, however, Marilyn was backstage, taking out his anger on the inflatable pool located in front of the mobile band dressing rooms.

"oh yeah, with switchblades," Hole bass player Melissa Auf Der Maur told X-Press Magazine early on Monday. "He flooded the whole backstage area. But he was being a bad boy all day 'cause he'd been drinking tequila all day ... we got there at 3pm and he was looking for trouble (laughs)."

Guitarist Eric Erlandson chimes in : "There was an electrical problem that might have happened, it could have shorted out everything. They were trying to get the powerlines up above everything."

As water seeped through the backstage area, Courtney Love had other issues to deal with out front. Concerned that a group of female fans were being roughed up in the mosh pit, she invited them to watch on the stage. It wasn't, apparently, a remote incident.

Auf Der Maur : "That's been happening on our stages since the Live Through This tour too. There's always little girls sitting up on Eric's amps getting their ears blown out. He likes to torture them that way."

Erlandson : "I think Courtney's very geared towards that. She likes to play off the audience. At festivals she's playing off the front row and she's watching what's going on. At a festival the front row is usually the most damaged."

Certainly the response to Hole all 'round seemed absolute. Boys sang along, but much of the female quota of the audience - some in tiaras, others simply transfixed by the music - were at one with the w/Hole experience, their faith in the band absolute.

Auf Der Maur : "The young girls I think really need something in particular that they're not getting from Manson and Korn and stuff. I mean right now, especially in rock music, there's so little. Like Manson and Korn are our peers, and I don't see much similarity in terms of where we come from musically or spiritually with them. In terms of the females out there I don't think there's a band that quite has the rock rage with the sensitivity and romance that we kind of naturally blend. I think there's lots of girls ot there that need that."

"We've been doing a bunch of instores here and the other section of people that are really clearly affected and happy us are these young, still in the closet, overweight 15 year old boys. That, to me, is real special too. It's kind of like the oddballs - the women who want to be strong and loyal and who don't really know where else to look for that kind of role model and also the guys who want to be emotional and romantic, but also to be men."

Now feeling "reconnected as a band" Hole, at odds with all previous indications, are set to tour the US next month with Marilyn Manson. It's another chapter in the rollercoaster relationship between the two bands.

Auf Der Maur : "The funny thing, though, is that it's not a rollercoaster relationship at all. We've known those guys for years. The animosity that was there was almost like a joke in a cartoon way. We're just gonna have a boring family time on the tour (laughs). They get a little bit crazy but we totally get along with all of them and there won't be any animosity in the least. There might be excitement onstage, but it will all be theatrics."

And, dare we say, a distinct absence of inflatable pools backstage?

Auf Der Maur : "There will be no pools! At all. All Twiggy will do is pee in them (laughs)."