Dogs D'Amour - remastered and reissued for download

Around 18 months ago Tyla posted up an interview in which he mentioned that China Records wouldn't communicate with him about re-issuing his back catalogue. So he took matters into his own hands and began re-recording and re-releasing past albums. It was however probably the reunion shows in February 2013 that have led to all the early Dogs D'Amour albums finally resurfacing, albeit only as downloads.

(Un) Authorised Bootleg Album (Re-Mastered 2013)
In the Dynamite Jet Saloon (Re-Mastered 2013)
Graveyard of Empty Bottles (Re-Mastered 2013)
Errol Flynn (Re-Mastered 2013)
Straight (Re-Mastered 2013)
More Unchartered Heights of Disgrace (Re-Mastered 2013)

Dogs D'Amour UK tour Nov/Dec 2011

2002. Hanoi Rocks reform with only two original members. To be fair, one had been fired (and his better-known replacement subsequently died) and so may not have wanted to return; another had largely turned his back on music; and the third original member, judging by comments in Andy McCoy’s book, would not have been made to feel welcome (although to this day he regularly works with Michael Monroe).

2004. The New York Dolls reform with only three original members. It should be noted that they were the only three still alive (I’m omitting Rick Rivets).

2011. The Dogs D’Amour reform with only one original member. As far as I know everyone that has ever been in the band is still alive. The case of the Dogs D’Amour is slightly different as the ‘classic’ line-up is arguably the one that counts, but even then only Tyla prevails. On bass, Dave Tregunna has some pedigree as he featured on some of the studio recordings that made up ‘The (Un)Authorised Bootleg Album’. As with the above re-unions, I'll still go ....

Dogs D'Amour - A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles

Having recently obtained a turntable (my last one came to a sticky end around five years ago) I have been trying, as cheaply as possible, to rebuild my once-extensive vinyl collection. It could be argued that maybe I shouldn’t have sold on as much as I have over the years, but if nothing else at least I’m in a position to only buy those records I feel I’ve missed and so can be selective in what I replace.

Recent deliveries have included Singles Going Steady by the Buzzcocks, the Quadrophenia soundtrack (I actually lent that to someone’s now-ex but never got it back) and yesterday, A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles. 10" vinyl edition of course.

Criminally all the ‘classic’ era Dogs D’Amour albums remain out of print (be careful with 'Dynamite Jet Saloon' as that's been re-recorded - more on that another time), and their CD versions can command silly money. Vinyl editions though, with a little patience and a degree of luck, can still be picked up at decent prices. Although not quite the ‘acoustic’ album it claims to be, it includes the definitive version of ‘Errol Flynn’ (ignore its later appearance as a title track) and was arguably their last essential release.

Previous posts:
Dogs D’Amour – Bristol Bierkeller 13/03/89
Dogs D'Amour - The State I'm In
Punk Knits

Shooting Gallery

It’s 1992. Andy McCoy has just plundered the Kill City Dragons and put together a new band featuring their vocalist Billy G Bang and bassist Dave Tregunna (also noteworthy of course for his stints in Sham 69 and the Lords Of The New Church, as well as the pre-Lords outfit The Wanderers, his previous work with McCoy in the Cherrybombz and his contributions on the Dogs D’Amour’s ‘Unauthorised Bootleg Album’), along with Psychedelic Furs’ drummer Paul Garisto. For their live line-up the band, christened Shooting Gallery, will add Jo ‘Dog’ Almeida.

Gotta be good, surely?

To be fair the resulting album started off okay with ‘Restless’ and ‘Teenage Breakdown’ before hitting a wall with ‘Don’t Never Leave Me’ and ‘House of Ecstasy’. Sound familiar? Yes it’s that ‘Don’t Never Leave Me’, of which at least six recordings by Hanoi Rocks exist, the definitive one surely being the version on ‘All Those Wasted Years, and that ‘House of Ecstasy’ by the Cherrybombz. A glance further down the track listing and you get ‘Devil Calling’, hardly a classic but nevertheless recorded twice by the Kill City Dragons and, having been co-written by Nasty Suicide, also formed part of Cheap and Nasty’s set and made an appearance as a live b-side).

Housed between these needless trips down memory lane are three of the album’s weakest tracks, plus a decent enough cover of Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (nb: I was not familiar with the original when I first heard this album and would probably have been far less accepting of the Shooting Gallery version if I had). Surprisingly the album finishes on a bit of a high with ‘Leave Me Alone’ and ‘Dandelion’, but the general laziness that went into the album left me with a pretty foul taste in my mouth (and I never wore lipstick so it wasn’t that).

What I will see in its defence is that it’s a damn sight better than the Michael Monroe / Steve Stevens collaboration, Jerusalem Slim....

Dogs D'Amour - The State I'm In

Apparently it's Dogs D'Amour week. Not sure why, but later on I will be meeting some friends up in Hoxton Square, who were planning a Dogs D'Amour 'tour' of London sites, i.e. Kensington, Powis Square and up in Highgate (you all know where).

Instead I anticipate rounding off the evening pondering the state I'm in, particularly as I'm hoping to find somewhere between work and Hoxton that sells that delightful beverage, Thunderbird. A regular tipple between 1989-1993 (along with Clan Dew and 20/20), I haven't touched a drop since approximately 1996 and am fairly certain that my older taste buds will be appalled ...





Previous posts:

Dogs D’Amour – Bristol Bierkeller 13/03/89

Gift idea #6: Punk Knits by Share Ross

As many of you will know, Share Ross was the bassist in Vixen. More recently she formed Bubble with a certain Bam on drums, which led now only to her taking the role of bassist in the Dogs D'Amour circa 2004 but also for the two of them to marry.

They've also collaborated on Punk Knits: 26 Hot New Designs for Anarchistic Souls and Independent Spirits (Bam took the photos; and for reference one of the models is Jo 'Dog' Almeida). Given the current cold weather this book is as much a practical gift as anything else!




Punk Knits website

Dogs D'Amour - How Do You Fall In Love Again?

Quireboys - Man On The Loose

After a friend played me a recording today of the Quireboys at Reading Festival in 1987, we chatted about the band's early recordings before the slickly-produced debut album (as well as a horribly clean 'live' concert video they released that was clearly filmed in a studio).

A quick trawl over on YouTube threw up this clip from 1988, which I remember as I once had a bootleg live video of this show. Support came from the Brooklyn Dogs, with a set largely unmemorable except for a guest appearance by a man called Tyla for a version of 'The Last Bandit', and who completely upstaged the (probably not that) young pretenders. My next challenge is to find that clip ...

The Dogs D'Amour - I Don't Want You To Go

Classic stuff ... all I wanted to do at the time was move to London and this video didn't help! Finally managed it a couple of years later though.

Suicide Blonde and the Birmingham scene

Suicide Blonde popped into my head today - not the INXS song, but a Birmingham band from the late 80s/early 90s. As is clear from the cartoon drawing on their MySpace page, Suicide Blonde emerged on the (velvet) coat tails of the Dogs D'Amour and despite some good press only managed to release one 12" single ('Nobody Tells Me Anything', a tune we used to busk occasionally).

I got to see them once at the Borderline on Charing Cross Road on my birthday (to say which one would give far too much away!). Openers were the then perennial support act White Trash; I must have seen them about half-a-dozen times, all unintentionally. Their one redeeming feature was that they covered 'Another Girl, Another Planet', and on this particular evening were joined for their rendition by one Steve von Saint. Bless him, he looked most crestfallen when he went to play the opening solo but was beaten to it by White Trash's own guitarist, then trying to pull some shapes only to lean back too far and fall over! I dare say he claimed to have been drunk ...

Suicide Blonde's performance led to a Kerrang review that stated that 'the best band in London is actually from Birmingham'. And it's fair to say that England's second city (Mancunians will debate that one!) was arguably producing the better bands - along with Suicide Blonde there was Gunfire Dance, who never got close to the success they deserved, Dave Kusworth and Nikki Sudden (in both their solo guises, Kusworth's Bounty Hunters and together as the Jacobites).

I also stumbled across some great You Tube links from this era, including the band that spawned Suicide Blonde (Hollywood Refugees) and also the Subterranaen Hawks (an early Kusworth outfit along with Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy and performing 'Big Store', later re-recorded by the Jacobites on Robespierre's Velvet Basement). Each clip also has some notes on the bands - well worth checking out.

Previous posts:
Jacobites - Robespierre's Velvet Basement
Suddenly Dead - Nikki Sudden movie
Gunfire Dance
Interview with Ozzie from Gunfire Dance 

The top 10 pages on Glamrock Aftershock

A check on the Google Analytics stats for this site over the last three months threw up some notable trends. Naturally I'd expect the homepage to be at the top, and it's not a massive surprise to see bands with the stature of the New York Dolls and the Manic Street Preachers taking positions 2 & 3. I'd like to say that The Rockit Dolls are at number 4 on merit but I know full well that the majority of that page's hits came via a posting on the Swindon Music Forum. Still, I'll take a number 4 placing any day.

Numbers 5 to 8 however are what really caught my eye. None of Gunfire Dance, The Last Of The Teenage Idols, Soho Roses or Uncle Sam are household names. In their time they managed five albums between them (three by Uncle Sam, one each by the Last of the Teenage Idols and Soho Roses) and four singles/EPs (two each by Gunfire Dance and Soho Roses), all of which were on small labels and/or self-financed and all long-deleted.

Over the last couple of years the collected recordings of Soho Roses and Gunfire Dance have been reissued and MySpace has also helped bring their music back into the public arena.

Their high positions will have been helped by the comparatively small pool of sites available to anyone searching for them; but it's heartening to see that people ARE searching. I suspect most of these readers are of a certain age (i.e. roughly the same as me), have warm, possibly rose-tinted, memories of these bands (ditto) and probably feel that their equivalents today don't come close to matching them (double ditto).

Dogs D'Amour - Bierkeller 13/03/89

Damn, should have posted this last week, for it was 20 years (and a few days) ago that I first saw the Dogs D'Amour down at regular stamping ground the Bristol Bierkeller.


Memory suggests that this gig was on the same day that the mini-acoustic album A Graveyard of Empty Bottles was released. In real terms this was when the band were at their peak, just before they took to releasing hastily-assembled albums every other week (or so it seemed) and with the classic line-up firmly in place, before Ginger or Andy McCoy whisked anyone away.

It was around this time that I took to frequently calling the Dogs D'Amour's management - after all, they'd put their contact number on their record sleeves - usually testing the water to see if they used local bands for supports. And very polite and friendly they were too as they rejected my overtures. In recent years I've found that another friend - that I hadn't met back in '89 - used to do the same thing.

Move forward to 1998 and quite by chance I finally got the gig - supporting Tyla at an acoustic show at the Water Rats in Kings Cross. Thing is, I wasn't looking forward to it having seen him two years earlier Upstairs At The Garage - a dreadful gig, where he was simply going through the motions while flagged by two bouncers (their presence may have been for more sinister reasons), barely acknowledging the audience and ignoring any requests for the 'hits'. The intervening years had obviously been kind to him though - he gladly played whatever anyone wanted to hear, cracked jokes inbetween songs and ensured we all went home happy.

A few weeks later we supported Spike at the same venue - where were these gigs when I needed them ten years earlier?!!

Under Neath What? - What Is It

One for Dave/Lazarus.

Under Neath What? were the slightly odd choice of support for the Dogs D'Amour in 1989, a tour I caught at the Hammersmith Odeon (this was before it became the 'Labbats Apollo' and all the other daft names - it's the Hammy O, let's just leave it at that). Less than 6 months earlier I'd seen the Dogs at the much smaller Bristol Bierkeller, and it looked as though they hadn't upgraded their equipment in that time as their small, 50w amps were simply on chairs on the Odeon stage and miked up - not quite the wall of Marshalls that you might see lined-up behind The Cult.

Anyway, back to Under Neath What? and their only album, What Is It?. Difficult to describe (and that's not me being lazy; even the band's posthumous My Space page sidesteps any attempt at naming influences or describing their own sound), I did like Dave's description on the thread that refuses to die: "the musical version of taking Ketamin...warped, heavy and oppressive".

Yet again Sleazegrinder comes through with another great piece (in fact I mention that site so often that I'm wondering whether I should make this blog a permanent link to it and forgot about writing anything of my own ...).

Punk Knits

When looking online for a picture of Jo Almeida for my previous post, I was surprised to find that he is a model in a knitting book called Punk Knits.

Imagine my further surprise in discovering that the two people behind the book are Share (ex-Vixen) and partner and former Dogs D'Amour/Wildhearts drummer Bam Bam!

Bam's very proud of his hobby :

"Photographer, Director, Video Editor, Musician - Bam also knits!"

Whatever turns you on I suppose ....

Lookalikes part one: the rock & roll years

I seem to get told a lot that I look like different people. On some occasions I've actually been mistaken for someone famous. I guess most of the following conform to a type, but if I look like them all shouldn't they also look like one another?


CC Deville

While I was playing a gig in 1990 an American girl shouted out 'I want to f**k you CC Deville'. Now this may have just been an annoucement she felt the urge to make, or she was talking about me with my then bleached hair.

(I can't vouch for CC, but just for the record - I didn't.)






Mick Cripps (far right)

Never understood this one.







Jo Almeida (far right)

I did tend to dress in a slightly raffish, Dogs D'Amour way and that might have influenced this comparison.

I shared a house for a while with a Tyla-lookalike and we were once supposed to go on a night out with Bam which could have proved amusing. Didn't happen though.





Izzy Stradlin

Now this I liked. My choice of hat would have helped. As previously reported I was once mistaken for the man himself.









Bill Wyman

This one has haunted me to this day.

I wish I could say I can't see it, but there are certain photos where I can't deny it ....







Johnny Colt (far right)

Possibly missed a trick here, as one friend used to look like Chris Robinson and another like his brother Rich, so we were three-fifths of the way towards forming a tribute band ...






To follow:
Lookalikes part two: when the crimping stopped

Albums I still listen to 15/20 years on ...

This blog started off the back of a thread on Glitzinet, encouraging people to post their top-10 albums of all-time. I'm not that up on what's new on the scene, and any list I might have submitted is unlikely to have included anything post-1995.

I'm also incredibly bad at naming favourite bands/albums/songs, and when I finally tried to put a list together various memories came back to me that related to many of these albums. Hence, Glamrock Aftershock.

I still don't have a definitive list, and am unlikely ever to have one. However as a starting point here are 10 albums that I first heard between 1987 and 1992 that I still listen to today (and in many cases have re-bought on CD to replace well-worn or lost LPs). Don't read anything into the order (which is roughly speaking the order in which I first came across them). Some albums I've already blogged about, some are yet to feature.

Guns & Roses: Appetite For Destruction
The album that saved me from a descent into thrash before it got too serious (liking Metallica & Anthrax is one thing, but I've even found an Onslaught record in my collection - it could have got so much worse ...).

Hanoi Rocks: Back to Mystery City
The album where Razzle came on board and the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place. I know a lot of diehard fans favour the band's debut but this is the standout album for me (exception as below!).

The New York Dolls: self-titled
From the opening crash of cymbals and Thunders' ploughing the riff to 'Personality Crisis', right through to the finale of 'Jetboy' the Dolls' debut is a lesson in pure trash.

The Dogs D'Amour: In the Dynamite Jet Saloon
It may have taken them five years (and several line-ups) to reach the public eye but it was well worth the wait! Strange to find this is out-of-print - if there's a market for Soho Roses and Gunfire Dance collections (see below) then surely the Dogs D'Amour's back catalogue should still be available?

Hollywood Brats: self-titled
Had no idea who they were but trusted the guy at the record fair (Tony McCrory - responsible for many discoveries I could have missed).

The Jacobites: Robespierre's Velvet Basement
Another record fair purchase, and again I had no idea what to expect. Lo-fi production and the occasional Casio keyboard do not detract from the rest of the music.

Letters From London - Uncle Sam
Again, why on earth has this never been reissued? Rock's most famous milkmen deserve more!

Flies on Fire: self-titled
(Revival of) Creedence Clearwater Revival. Despite being on a major label, having Ric Browde at the helm and even bringing in Jo Dog, Flies on Fire remain obscure but their two albums are well worth the pittance they trade for.

Redd Kross: Third Eye
KISS meets the Beatles. 'Nuff said.

Motorcycle Boy: Popsicle
Dragged kicking & screaming into the studio by Sylvain Sylvain, arguably the forgotten hero of the Dolls gets his name onto another great rock & roll album.


Honorary mentions (as they're not strictly 'albums'):

Soho Roses: Whatever Happened To... The Complete Works
Collection of their 2 EPs and album. A fine band who I managed to see once (an MTV Xmas show at the Astoria along with Last of The Teenage Idols and Tigertailz). My band at the time desperately wanted to be a mix of Soho Roses and Hollywood Brats. We didn't quite pull it off but we had fun trying.

Gunfire Dance: Archway of Thorns
Another post-career collection. Taking their cues from Iggy, Brian James and Stiv Bators Gunfire Dance always seemed on the verge of something - and then went no further. RIP Ant.

Hanoi Rocks: Self Destruction Blues
The best Hanoi album, but as it's a collection of b-sides and out-takes I thought it only right it should be down here!

Soho Roses - Whatever Happened To ....

As a rural teenager, my eyes were very much focused on London and its seemingly burgeoning glam scene. At the time Kerrang! was a fine source of information (largely via the Shrapnel page that accepted contributions from anyone and everyone) and bands that probably only ever played about three gigs seemed like the next generation of rock stars.

The next level up (but one down from the Dogs D'Amour and the Quireboys) were bands such as Soho Roses. Regulars at the Marquee, they even managed to get the occasional live review and feature in Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. On tracking down their debut EP in Shades (those people of a certain age will know the shop in question), we thought it ever so impressive that the record was mastered at Abbey Road studios. Abbey Road! Okay, so it was on the band's own label but surely someone significant must have been bankrolling them to get into such a famous studio!*

However, the first Soho Roses record I got hold off was actually their second single, So Alone, as fine example of trashy glam punk you're ever likely to hear. My band at the time was desperate to sound like Soho Roses, and kind-of succeeded in that we were compared to the Buzzcocks (a cover of What Do I Get turned up on the Third & Final Insult, the album Soho Roses recorded to clear their debts once they'd decided to call it a day).

Almost twenty years on their complete recordings (which in their vinyl forms had been going for large sums on Ebay) have been committed to CD: Whatever Happened To... The Complete Works. And do they stand the test of time? OK, so Ric Browde and Mike Clink might have something to say about the production but there are enough great songs to here to overlook that: Why D'ya Break My Heart, 'Cos of You, Just A Girl, Crazy 'Bout Me and the afore-mentioned So Alone (in particular the original single version) prove that Soho Roses had more to offer than most, but this was London and not LA and it wasn't just a simple case of showing up at a record company with backcombed hair to be instantly signed as the next G'n'R.





*Many years later when releasing a self-financed record of my own we too found ourselves in the mastering room at Abbey Road. It clearly wasn't such a big deal after all ......

Flies On Fire - self-titled

This album seemed to be released without any promotion despite being on a major label (Atlantic), produced by Ric Browde (Faster Pussycat, Dogs D'Amour) and, most importantly, actually being rather good.

I only stumbled across it as I was working in a record shop at the time and was processing the new releases on Monday morning. In amongst them was Flies on Fire and what I noticed at first was, quite simply, a picture of some blokes with long hair. Looking closer I clocked the name of the producer and so figured it was worth a listen, and as one of the priviliges with processing stock meant working in a backroom and being able to play whatever music you wanted I stuck it on.

The more folk-based fan I was working with seemed to think it sounded like INXS. In fact Flies On Fire are clearly indebted to Creedence Clearwater Revival (Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley's Grave is a deadringer for CCR's Lodi) and the band briefly recruited Jo Almeida (aka Jo Dog).

Perhaps it was the less-obviousness of the album that meant Atlantic overlooked it; after all this was 1989, G'n'R were at the top of their game and there was a huge market for the harder 'hair' metal. However within a year The Black Crowes hit the scene and showed that there was demand for a band coming more from a laid-back bar-room rock & roll background.

Jacobites - Robespierre's Velvet Basement

Another one of those albums (and bands) I have Tony McCrory to thank for.

Formed by Nikki Sudden (Swell Maps) and Dave Kusworth (guitarist in an early line-up of the Dogs D'Amour, who played on the once highly-collectable The State We're In), the Jacobites were a distinctly lo-fi band. Acoustic-based, songs would often be enhanced by cheap Casio keyboards and basic recording techniques. Three chords were the order of the day.

Robespierre's Velvet Basement was their second album. Originally intended as double LP, Glass Records decided this wasn't financially viable and so it was trimmed down to a single album. Since reissued on CD in its intended length, the album showcases some of the Jacobites finest moments. For me, these tended to be the Kusworth songs (Sudden's voice, with its impediment, polarised even the most ardent fans of the band) - Country Girl and Son of A French Nobleman are particular highlights, although Sudden weighs in with Fortune of Fame and All The Dark Rags, as well as taking the lead on the Stephen ('Tin Tin') Duffy-penned Big Store. Lyrically both Kusworth & Sudden were romantics at heart, with one eye firmly fixed on the past and aspects of this clearly rubbed off onto Tyla who contributed slide guitar to a handful of songs.

Graham Coxon's 2004 album Happiness in Magazines includes a very Jacobites-esque track, All Over Me - complete with simple song structure, basic slide solo and general Jacobites atmosphere - and given Coxon's appetite for music I wouldn't rule out it being intentional.

Wildhearts - Earth vs the Wildhearts

I first saw the Wildhearts in February 1992 at the Astoria supporting the Manic Street Preachers.

I thought they were c**p.

I saw them a few months later, again supporting the Manics, this time at the Town & Country Club.

I still thought they were c**p.

Thankfully a fledgling Xfm had recently been granted a temporary licence and it seemed that every time I switched it on they were playing 'Turning American' (in reality this probably happened twice). My opinion began to shift and I was happy to shell out 99p on a white vinyl copy of Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go from the Notting Hill Record & Tape Exchange (they actually had about a dozen copies marked down that far, approximately 1/50th of what it sells for now).

By the time the debut album Earth Vs. the Wildhearts was released I was fully converted. It still amazes me that someone involved in the Tattooed Love Boys went on to something this good (although to be fair it was their vocalist that really let them down - I had the misfortune to listen to their Why Waltz When You Can Rock & Roll single a couple of years ago and that has to go down as one of the worst vocal performances committed to vinyl).

Later releases seemed a but formulaic to me, and I saw little point in their cover of Dogs D'Amour's Heroine on Endless Nameless (the Dogs themselves having already killed that song off when re-recording it for Straight). But this was a British band who for a while looked like genuine contenders - if only certain substances hadn't got in the way .......