Your must have, ultra-essential glam release ...

Nice little thread over on Glitzinet - name "the album, whatever, that you feel is an essential MUST HAVE of the genre ... that one release that we all feel is the "must have", the CD that when you go into somebodies house who claims to be into the style, if they don't have it, you almost faint."

"Easy" you might say .... but then think again. As there had already been a few answers I had a brief inclination to say something different. I toyed with Appetite For Destruction, as that was the album that kick-started things for me and moved me away from Metallica and Anthrax, but as good as it is it's not THE album. Too many flaws, particularly much of side two.

Soho Roses nearly got a look in for 'The Third And Final Insult', the album that my band at the time attempted to imitate (and almost got there in that we apparently sounded like the Buzzcocks). Then there's the Hollywood Brats - I can still remember my excitement when I first got that LP home and on my turntable.

But in the end it came down to the debut album by The New York Dolls. It wins almost by virtue of the opening chord and cymbal crash on Personality Crisis alone.

Voice your comments and nominations here.

Iggy Pop - Lust For Life

I was pleased to pick up a CD of Lust For Life in a charity shop today - another case of an old LP sitting in my collection, gathering dust, hoping that one day I'll have a turntable again, so it's great to have it back in my life.

Still not sure what I think about that Swiftcover ad though - particularly as they won't insure musicians!

Gary Holton & Casino Steel

In the early 80s Gary Holton & Casino Steel made four albums together. On some sites this is reported as three - I have it on good authority that even Casino Steel himself doesn't own a copy of the fourth one and so can only assume its rarity has confused many. However it does exist and commands high prices on Ebay (meaning that I don't own a copy).

A friend first mentioned them as they'd been referenced in a Hanoi Rocks interview way-back-when and I stumbled across copies of the first two (Holton And Steel and Part II) in the Camden Record & Tape Exchange.

Comprising of covers of country and western songs (Ruby), sixties standards (Del Shannon's Runaway; The Beatles' No Reply) as well revisiting their own back catalogues (versions of The Boys' B-17 and the Heavy Metal Kids' She's No Angel both make appearances) and some new material for good measure (Good Ol' Gary) these albums are well worth digging out by anyone with a passing interest in either of the artists involved or the quirkier side of trash rock & roll.

The Hanoi link goes a little deeper, with Michael Monroe of course covering She's No Angel on both of his first two solo outings, as well as Jimmy Brown on 2003's Whatcha Want. I also can't help but feel that the Suicide Twins' Silver Missiles & Nightingales wouldn't have existed without this series of albums.




See also:
Hollywood Brats