Lush's Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson recall the 'macho' nightmare of Lollapalooza '92

As this year's Lollapalooza festival prepares to open in Chicago's Grant Park with headliners like Lorde and Charli XCX, a very different story emerges from the festival's early days. In 1992, the British band Lush found themselves as the only women on a seven-band bill dominated by 'muscle and testosterone', a journey that left them bandaged, exhausted, and questioning the very nature of the rock and roll circus.

The London shoegaze quartet, led by Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, had been hand-picked by festival founder Perry Farrell after a successful opening slot with Jane's Addiction in 1991. But the 1992 tour, headlined by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, proved to be a trial by fire. Berenyi and Anderson, then both 25, were the only female main-stage performers, sharing the bill with Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam.

'Emma and I worried about being the only women on a seven-band bill,' Berenyi wrote in her 2022 memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success. 'We were used to being in a male environment, but this was on an entirely different level, one that radiated muscle and testosterone.'

The tour's atmosphere was not helped by the behaviour of some of its stars. Berenyi recalled that her own tour manager had taken bets on which musicians would 'shag' her and Anderson. Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers interrupted conversations with blunt sexual propositions. And Anthony Kiedis, the Chili Peppers' frontman, subjected Berenyi to endless monologues about his 'conquests', a behaviour she later described as 'a bit of a twat'.

'All my conversational gambits on neutral subjects,' Berenyi wrote, 'are quickly steered toward ex-girlfriends, former conquests, female friends, a bragalogue of faceless females made distinguishable only by the multitude of ways in which they serve to illustrate Anthony's profound love and respect for, y'know, the whole genre of woman.'

The experience inspired the Lush song 'Ladykillers', a pointed commentary on the casual misogyny of the music industry. Yet, for all the trials, the tour was also a triumph. The band's album Spooky became their most successful in the United States, thanks to the exposure. And the camaraderie among the bands, including dressing in women's clothes for jams with Soundgarden and Ministry, provided moments of levity.

'Playing 'Cop Killer' with various members of Soundgarden and Ministry, while dressed in a Charlie Chaplin suit, was strange but fun,' Anderson recalled in a 2008 interview.

The final days of the tour were brutal. Both Berenyi and Anderson ended up in emergency rooms: Anderson for punching her hand through a window at an afterparty, and Berenyi for a stage dive during a Ministry set that left her unconscious and needing 15 stitches. The tour ended with a farewell party in Los Angeles, where a smoke alarm triggered the sprinkler system, forcing an evacuation.

'It's an aptly idiotic end to a chaotic nine weeks,' Berenyi said. 'And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.'

For the British music fan, Lush's story is a reminder of the grit and grace required to navigate the excesses of the American rock scene in the early '90s. It is a tale of survival, of talent overcoming the 'macho' nonsense, and of a band that refused to be defined by the tokenism of its era.

What was the 1992 Lollapalooza line-up?

The 1992 Lollapalooza tour featured the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Lush.

How did Lush get on the 1992 Lollapalooza bill?

Lush had opened for Jane's Addiction in 1991, impressing Perry Farrell. Their debut album Spooky had also charted well in the UK.

What song did Miki Berenyi write about Anthony Kiedis?

Berenyi wrote the song 'Ladykillers' inspired by her conversations with Kiedis, which she described as a 'bragalogue' of his romantic conquests.