Hail Hail Hanoi Rocks!!!!

I have not seen a thread yet for this brilliant band, so i thought i might rant and rave. I'm listening to Oriental Beat at the moment so i'm inspired. So anyway Hanoi Rocks are one of the truly great genre bending gender bending rock n' roll bands of our time, a band not able to be boxed in any micro rock genre.
I would describe their sound as a manic post-punk rock n' roll rush kinda like the rhythm section of the Clash combined with the New York Dolls twin guitar attack and a singer in the mold of the edgy chaos of fellow chicken hawkers Jagger/Pop/Bators!
Of course other styles running through their musical veins are the surf beat of the Surfaris and Chantays, backing vocals full of Weee-ooooohhhs and dooooo-ahhhhs lifted straight from the Shangri-las and other 60's girl groups, the slip slidding amphetamine blues of Andy McCoys guitar, cruisy new wave sensabilites, the old old time 50's r+b driven rock n' roll of originators Chuck Berry and Little Richard and those off beat brit 70's glam rock melodies ala Bowie, Mott etc.
Of course when talking about Hanoi image is one of the main talking points, the look is like the bastardised New York Dolls image Adolescent Sex era Japan took on board complete with the Dolls penchant for thrift stores and Keith Richards gypsy look.
There are a lot of what ifs in rock n' roll and a lot of people including Hanoi Rocks fans swear they would of been huge had it not been for the untimely death of Razzle and subsequent split of the band (although i think Razzles's death was one of many factors that contributed to the split).
But i think Hanoi Rocks wouldn't have been as huge as people make out, sure Japan and Europe were big markets for this band and the UK was catching on slowly but i think America would never have worked out for Hanoi Rocks.
Two huge bands that succeeded post Hanoi Rocks were Guns N' Roses and Poison they both derived influence from Hanoi Rocks. Poison adopted the Hanoi Rocks feminine glammed out look but Middle America adopted them cause behind the mascara and lipstick they were good ole american boys raised on Aerosmith and Lynyrd Skynryd whereas Hanoi Rocks would have been looked upon as a bunch of gay europeans.
Guns N' Roses had that heavy metal element too their music that Hanoi Rocks lacked, so in the era of heavy metal this was a huge reason why Guns N' Roses was successful. Plus they were a bunch of misfits all coming from different american backgrounds so American kids could relate to one of them unlike the finnish and euro centric Hanoi Rocks.
The Post Hanoi Rocks projects are hit and miss, the highlights are Mike and Sami's hard rock punk band Demolition 23 and Andy McCoy's sleaze rock Shooting Gallery. Of course Andy and Nasty's Suicide Twins is brilliant, full of plush blues and country inflicted acoustic rock that brings to mind Johnny Thunders solo and the classic Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth's Jacobite's band. Mike and Andy are hit and miss solo and the Cherry Bombz and Jerusalem Slim are to be avoided.
Since then Mike and Andy have reformed Hanoi Rocks with members of 90's swedish funk metallers Electric Boys. 3 albums have been produced with the latest one Street Poetry being the highlight of the reborn Hanoi Rocks.

I dig 'em. I too think they were on there way to something much bigger but withthe death of Razzle, it totally derailed them. I have an old photo book of GnR and looking at early pics of them, it's easy to see that they totally ripped off their look from Hanoi. The trashy-rock-n-roll-gypsy look was all them.

The music was great too. I like the added element of Michael Monroe's saxaphone solos. I haven't heard any of their post-breakup music, but their original releases are great.

Yeah the saxophone adds a great touch to them they had so many different elements to them that it kills me when people lazily refer to them as a 'glam metal' band.
Yeah i know what you mean about the image with Guns and Hanoi check out these pics.

Its Andy McCoy no wait thats Izzy Stradlin, Too be fair both Andy and Izzy came from the Keith Richards/Johnny Thunders school of rock n' roll so the look is shared but still.



And hows this flyer looks like Mike Monroe and Andy McCoy

I love HANOI ROCKS...and nearly all things affiliated:

MICHAEL MONROE, CHERRY BOMBZ, JERUSALEM SLIM, DEMOLITION 23, even SHOOTING GALLERY....

I think I may have started a thread about them on the old board just before the switch over to here...

Fantastic band...

Whoo hoo!!

Ha! I was just thinking about them this morning. I've been really into Finnish music (my heritage) this week. Although they certainly don't fit in with the current Finnish wave, they were a great band. My favorite song: The melodic "Whispers in the Dark".

Hey Shiney, do you dig Andy and Nasty's Suicide Twins album? Kinda like the acoustic moments of Johnny Thunders solo or Dogs D'Amour. Are you familiar with the Jacobites?

Suicide Twins - Sweet Pretending Promo (Co-written by Dave Tregunna (Lords Of The New Church)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBc8uboltX4

I've never heard either of those projects....but I LOVE DOGS D'AMOUR....so if they are even remotely along those lines I'm all over it...

Wooo Dogs D'Amour, you don't come across many Dogs fans cool. I'm a fanatic of that band. Anyway if your a fan of the Dogs melancholic acoustic gutter poetry such as their brilliant A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles EP i suggest these 3 albums.

Suicide Twins - Silver Missiles And Nightingales (1986)
Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide of Hanoi Rocks acoustic album. Just them singing and playing guitar with touches of Blues and Country like the Dogs D'Amour.
http://www.myspace.com/thesuicidetwins

Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth (Jacobites) - Robespierres Velvet Basement (1985)
What the Suicide Twins wanted to be, Dave Kusworth was the former guitarist in the Dogs D'Amour and recorded their first album The State We're In (1984) before forming the Jacobites with Nikki Sudden. Again two glam rock guys playing acoustic gutter poetry. It's just stunning. And Nikki and Dave are the best dressed rock n' rollers.

Jacobites - Can't You See Promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4Crm0PNv4E

Jacobites - Don't You Ever Leave Me Promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWf8XGGgO6c

Dave Kusworth & The Bounty Hunters - Threads A Tear Stained Scar (1989)
This album is more of a hard rocker, former Dog Dave Kusworth releases an album more akin to Dogs D'amour full of that acoustic guitar weaved in and out of the electric guitars. Full of Dogs style rock n' rollers and melancholic gutter ballads.

My best friend and I torched a cassette copy of Two Steps... back in the late 80's just to eliminate evidence of its existence on Earth. My opinion hasn't changed.

Twos Steps From The Move is probably my least favourite Hanoi Rocks album it suffered from to much of a smooth hard rock production which doesn't do service to Hanoi's raw r n'r energy. But even that album is brilliant.
What don't you like about Hanoi Rocks? I saw your CD list and found Chuck Berry and the Alice Cooper Band on it, two artists Hanoi Rocks drew significant influence from. And i also noticed L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat in your list, two bands that drew huge influence from Hanoi Rocks.

Spectrefate is a blasphemer!!!

I am going to try and track all those down...

Never really been a fan of them could be i never heard enough!

Wargod48

NP: Silverdollar - Evil Never Sleeps

Has anyone hear the new album 'Street Poetry'. It took me a while to get round to it but it's really killer, definately the best of the reborn Hanoi Rocks. And more Hanoi Rocks than the Mike and Andy records of the previous two.

Bumped, why cause i love em.

Was listening to the odds and sods collection Tracks From A Broken Dream (1990), and i gotta say go out and get it if you don't already. Half of it is different versions of songs from their 80's albums and the other half is songs that never made it kinda forming a mini Self-Destruction Blues type album. I swear these guys couldn't write a dud back in the day. Their outtake tracks a brilliant.

The most interesting outtake is the song "Oil And Gasoline" which is basically a Roger Tayloresque ode to a man's love for his car over the top of what can only be described as Kate Bush styled sonics. I kid you not.

This is what the record look likes, for those scouring the 2nd hand record stores.

Love Hanoi Rocks, and I also think Street Poetry is awesome!!!!
Surprisingly few fans here...