Motorcycle Boy - Popsicle

A former housemate of mine once told me about a band he saw when on a pilgrimage to LA. They came on (at, I think, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go), played one song (‘I Hate The Sunset Strip’), trashed their gear and walked off again.

That band was Motorcycle Boy.

Eschewing the usual LA clichés, Motorcycle Boy looked towards Iggy Pop and classic garage rock for inspiration, and when they finally committed themselves to vinyl they had Sylvain Sylvain on production duties (and their not-too distorted guitar sound owed a certain debt to that favoured by the New York Dolls).

Sylvain is in fact the first voice you hear on Popsicle (he contributes some French mutterings over the album’s intro) before the opener proper (‘I Get Around’, the first of several gloriously misogynistic tracks to grace Popsicle) makes its appearance. Even though side one (to those of us who still stuck in the realms of vinyl terminology) is chock-full of corkers ('Supersonic' and 'Cool You and Me' in particular) the band don't shoot their bolt before the second half of the album with 'She Says' and closer 'What I Want' battling it out for the right to be considered the album's highlight.

Popsicle is another example of an album that missed the glam boat, and in some ways this has maybe served the band well as it's an album that is fondly recalled by many rather than one that was swallowed up and forgotten about.

See also:
Nina Antonia - The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon
Johnny Thunders - So Alone
The New York Dolls - One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This

Guns 'N Roses - Appetite For Destruction

To be fair this should have been the opening blog. After all, without this album I might never have heard (or at least paid any attention to) many of the bands I've written/will write about, and I'm sure I'm not alone there.

In 1987, aged 16, my favourite band was Metallica. Donington 1987 (Metallica and Anthrax on the same bill) was one very happy day. By this time of course Poison had released Look What The Cat Dragged In but they were never going to be the band to change the face of rock music.

Notably Appetite For Destruction was released on the same day as Faster Pussycat's debut album, and the two bands arrived in the UK on a joint-headline tour. I turned down a ticket - after all, what did these bands have over James, Kirk, Lars and Jason (Cliff RIP)? Having heard 'It's So Easy' and 'Mr Brownstone' I wasn't exactly bowled over. The first seeds of regret were sown when I heard 'Night Train' on the Friday Rock Show - and for a moment there was a possibility that the spare ticket was still up for grabs. It was not to be.

The rest is of course history. Slowly, the world (myself included) woke up to what was arguably the rock album of the 1980s. I bleached my hair for the first time; bought some crimpers; gave make-up a go (quickly concluding that eye-liner and mascara would do; lipstick and rouge was just daft) and plans for a band of my own took a significant change of direction.

I finally did get to see them at the ill-feted Donington Monsters of Rock show in 1988. Between the annoucement of the bill (with G'n'R fifth on the bill, second on between Helloween and Megadeth) and the show itself Axl and Co were the most talked about band in the world and could easily have headlined. Even though we were a fair way from the stage the sheer force of the crowd meant we were dragged twenty yards one way and then twenty yards back again in a matter of seconds - wash, rinse, repeat. We got out as quickly as we could but some weren't so fortunate.

See also:
Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds

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 ......