Monday 22 February 2010

Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks

Andy McCoy's self-designated 'last great rock 'n' roll memoir', Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks, is, well, rather short to say the least. Remove the photos and use a font more typically used for (auto)biographies and this would probably run to around 80 pages.

Unfortunately it's not just the limited amount of text that disappoints - inevitably what has been written is more of a scattergun approach to a memoir, and whole periods of McCoy's career are omitted. Bar a reference to where he was when he wrote the songs and a photo caption suggesting that their one album was a forerunner to the 'Unplugged' era (I think he got that from me), the Suicide Twins don't get a look in (sorry Michael!).

The small amount of time it takes to complete the book offsets some of this disappointment; I've invested a lot of reading time to books where I've come away probably less informed that when I started. And there are some fine moments, albeit ones that leave you wanting more as you know there must be more. Having just read Watch You Bleed it's interesting that one tale crops up that offers an alternative take on the same story in Stephen Davis's book, concerning Steven Adler, Axl's wife Erin, a heroin overdose and Andy McCoy saving her life (Davis doesn't even mention McCoy).

McCoy does acknowledge that this isn't his full life story, and hints that he may write a more complete autobiography in the future. Whether you choose to wait is up to you.

Currently reading: Ric Browde - While I'm Dead...Feed the Dog




Previous posts:
Suicide Twins - Silver Missiles and Nightingales
Hanoi Rocks - Bristol Bierkeller 17/11/02
Hanoi Rocks - The Nottingham Tapes
Hanoi Rocks to split
Hanoi Rocks - heard that riff before at all?
Sloppy seconds and filthy thirds

2 comments:

Michael said...

Thanks for this...it probably goes without saying that this book ain't cheap in America, so I have to really weigh whether or not to spend the money. Sounds like it wouldn't really be worth it to me. Maybe a local library will pick it up.

DGW said...

You know, on balance I'm glad I picked it up but there'll definitely be something more satisfying that you could spend your money on.

One real positive is that Andy McCoy refers to Alvin Gibb's book 'Neighbourhood Threat: On Tour With Iggy Pop', which I've now bought and started reading today. They're only about 6 gigs in and I already feel I've learnt more about 'Cosmic Ted' that I did from reading his own book!

McCoy says that there's more in Gibbs's book about him than Iggy, and so far that really does seem to be the case.