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  1. 2023 Albums Thing 146 - Hanoi Rocks “Back To Mystery City”

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    We’ve already figured out that I’m not a fan of Prog Rock. Neither am I a fan of Heavy Metal. It always struck me as a ridiculous genre of music suitable for teenage boys  but something that they should grow out of by the time they leave school and enter the real world. Long haired (grown) men in too tight spandex trews squeeling songs about pixies, demons and their sexual proclivities while fretw@nking and showing off how fast they can play (look how fast/big mine is) was never gonna do it for me.

    So some of you might reasonably ask “if you don’t like Heavy Metal what are you doing with records by Hanoi Rocks ?” and the answer dear reader is this…although I’m sure people would pigeonhole Hanoi Rocks into the HM genre, they’d be wrong. This ain’t heavy metal, this is good ol’ Rock ’n’ Roll, or in Hanoi’s case Glam rock ‘n’roll and we’ve already ascertained that Glam I do like. I also enjoy Motörhead, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Aerosmith, it’s just great rock music, nothing to do with that ridiculous genre we mentioned earlier.

    I first encountered Hanoi Rocks when another of those friends whose identity is lost to the mists of time asked if I wanted to go to a gig as he had a spare ticket. The gig was at the Tower Ballroom in Edgbaston, a building sat next to Edgbaston Reservoir, a genuine former old-time ballroom built for ballroom dancing with a beautiful maple dancefloor, full size plastic palm trees arranged around the room and very likely a bar name the Bali Hai or some other faux exotic moniker. I went because I had nothing better to do.

    Info available online tells me the support were Brummie Post Punk/proto Goth lords Ausgang, I honestly don‘t remember and as they’re a band I only grew to appreciate later I likely wasn’t too impressed. The room was full of Heavy Metal types, long hair, cut off denims festooned with sew on patches over leather jackets, you know the types, which probably wasn’t improving my mood either.

    Then the lights dimmed, the intro tape started and the next 90 minutes or so were a blur of glitter, fag smoke, bleach blond backcombed hair, silk scarves, big hats and something that sounded like a fight between The Stooges, the New York Dolls and the Spiders From Mars in a back alley arguing over who had pinched who’s lipstick ! Heavy Metal be damned this was as Punk Rock as anything I’d seen or heard in a long old time. It was incredible.

    I’m pretty sure the opening song was this albums title track “Back To Mystery City”, a song which perfectly represents what Hanoi were about. You can almost hear the cigarettes permanently hanging from guitarists Andy McCoy and Nasty Suicide’s lips, see how low those guitars are slung, was Mike Monroe the greatest singer in the world ? Absolutely not but he looked bloody fantastic, danced around like a demented dervish and blew the most asthmatic saxophone you’d heard since Bowie. Razzle was a proper tubthumper and alongside the other pretty boy in the band, bassist Sam Yaffa, made up a pretty fearsome rhythm section. Oh and all these names are pseudonyms as four of the band were from Finland, yes Finland that well known hotbed of sleazy rawk ‘n’ roll !

    “Back To Mystery City” was Hanoi Rocks 4th album and bought them to a much bigger audience. It doesn’t move far from the formula of the title track (have a listen below), they knew what they were good at and stuck to it. Other highlights on here include the “ballad” “Until I Get You”,  “Mental Beat” and the single “Malibu Beach Nightmare”. Now I’m aware this has been more of a gig review than an album one but live is where Hanoi Rocks made sense. This is a great album (arguably their best in the studio) but tomorrow’s is the one where they get it all right on record.

    After this album they signed to a major label and released one more studio album “Two Steps From The Move”. On the eve of the tour for that record, for which we had tickets, drummer Razzle tragically died in a car accident and it was all over. Hanoi Rocks didn’t make music that was clever, innovative or lyrically deep, they made good time Glam rawk ‘n’ roll and sometimes that’s all you need.

    Back To Mystery City - https://youtu.be/mOqM8zWKNS8

  2. 2023 Albums Thing 145 - Great Outdoors “Making Allowances For The Jargon…Until All Intentions Are Clear”

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    The Great Outdoors were Birmingham’s great hope in the early ‘80’s. A flamboyant looking 4 piece led by singer Martin Silvers (who also ran the Highway 69 record shop in the city centre) and guitarist Simon Holland they seemed forever on the brink of the big time. If you need a musical reference then think somewhere around very early REM with a hint of 10,000 Maniacs all seen through a lens pointed at British Psychedelia including early Floyd and the Teardrop Explodes. I saw them live once, in a club in a hotel bar in Brum, and they absolutely blew me away.

    By the time they made this, their only album, they had become a 5 piece by adding 2nd guitarist Julian Gibson, with whom I’d been in a band for about 10 minutes prior to him snagging this gig. With respect and love to Julian I don’t think they needed a 2nd guitar. Some of the songs on this record sound confused purely because it feels like a 2nd guitar part has been tacked on where it wasn’t needed. The prime example of this is what I would guess most would remember as the Great Outdoors great moment, “Acid Rain”. 

    I’d bought a cassette at the gig I saw them at which featured a demo version of “Acid Rain” exactly as I’d heard it live that night, and that night it had been an absolute highlight of the gig. By the time the album was released and Julian added, the song, to me, had become a stumbling confused mess (sorry mate).

    The album was recorded in London and produced by Pat Collier (who would later do fantastic work with The Wonder Stuff among many others) and I’m not sure this would be one he would look back on too often. There are great songs on here, the single “World At My Shoes”, the beautiful “Bird In The Hand” and the Teardroppy “Glass Houses”, it’s the execution that’s lacking. The version of “Acid Rain” I’ve included below is the album version, the demo version did used to be available on YouTube but it seems to have been deleted. Don’t let the confused guitars put you off what is a fabulous song.

    In the year after this album was released another wave of Midlands bands came along who did make the breakthrough, initially the Wild Flowers, Mighty Lemon Drops and Balaam & The Angel swiftly followed by Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and the Great Outdoors window of opportunity was closed. For those that saw them play around the early to mid 80’s you’ll know how great they were, for those that didn’t you’ll just have to trust us.

    Acid Rain - https://youtu.be/ELMn0fSIHNA

  3. 2023 Albums Thing 144 - Grant Lee Buffalo “Mighty Joe Moon”

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    Another band/record I discovered via a track on a comp CD sent to me by Miles. The track wasn’t the reasonably well known single “Mockingbirds”, which is an absolute beauty, but the opening “Lone Star Song”, a crushing guitar riff, that most grunge bands of the time would have been proud of, leads us into a song about David Koresh and the Waco Massacre. It’s a song that struck me immediately and has been a favourite ever since.

    Grant Lee Buffalo formed in Los Angeles in 1991. A three piece headed up by songwriter Grant Lee Phillips, “Mighty Joe Moon” is their 2nd of four studio albums and could loosely be placed in the Americana bucket if you needed to do that. It has hints of country and folk music but equally has splashes of Grunge, The Beatles and classic American Rock, Americana in the loosest sense.

    2nd track “Mockingbirds” maybe one of their better known songs, a gentle lament with Beatle-esque strings and that’s followed by the folksy “It’s The Life”, all ringing 12 string acoustics and gently brushed snare; “Sing Along” returns us to the grungy feel of the opening song. And so it progresses swinging twixt beautifully melodic ballads like the title song and the tougher songs in the vein of “Lone Star Song”.

    On its release in 1994 “Mighty Joe Moon” was about as out of step with American music as it was possible to be at the time, which is likely what drew me to it. Grunge was where it was at, Cobain had recently taken his own life, and here was a band with a predominantly acoustic rooted album singing songs referencing Tecumseh, David Koresh and John Wayne Gacy with hints of country and folk. Gimme that over bands who were playing heavy metal in check shirts any day. Needless to say it wasn’t a huge seller and remains a much overlooked classic to these ears.

    If I have one problem with this album it would be that the original CD and my recently acquired remastered clear vinyl beauty is mastered so bloody quietly that you really have to crank the volume and consequently I always feel like I’m never hearing it at it’s best. But don’t let that put you off…

    Lone Star Song - https://youtu.be/-bz71U4BZGk