The musical world in the late 1980s
was a very different place to now.
Back then, there was no internet (for
any readers under 30, this is true!) so if you read about a band in Kerrang! or
Raw Magazine, they remained mystical. Consequently, when your heroes - in our
case mostly groups such as Love/Hate, Poison, Guns N Roses, Warrant and Motley
Crüe - mentioned their influences, Hanoi Rocks seemed out of reach.
Then Rocks' former frontman, Michael Monroe, played Harmonica and
Saxophone on G'n' Rs "Bad
Obsession" record and we simply had to check him out.
We had heard tales of excess,
hell-raising and great songs from the band many thought were the godfathers of
Hair Metal - it turned out they were all true.
This is worth pointing out
because tonight's main support, Voodoo
Sioux, probably had the same experience as RTM growing up.
Whether that's the case or not,
the flamboyant foursome certainly take
you back to that time, and do so unashamedly, plus the first line of their
opening track tonight is "I remember back when I was young."
That it's sung by a bloke in Nikki
Flaherty, who is part dressed as a Native American, and part Adam Ant, probably
tells you they aren't the most earnest group around but Voodoo certainly cast
their spell effectively. Bassist, the fabulously monikered Mario Ermoyenous,
attacks his instrument with an enormous smile on his face and you suspect this
is the point. The Ramones-esque grooves of what they introduce as their first
ever single, with its key line "do you believe in Jesus Christ walking on
the water" certainly stick in the head long after they leave.
After our initial teenage
infatuation, it was only later we discovered that Hanoi Rocks were European and
far from being from outer space, their drummer was born just up the road from
where I lived. What never changed, though despite
the realisation that rock n roll was normal, was the music was fabulous, and that Monroe solo record we found in the library
was "Not Fakin It" which
contains the supreme piece of sleaze
that is Dead Jail And Rock n Roll. He plays it tonight, as last song in the
main set and it is still as amazing it was back 20 odd years ago.
Rewind about an hour from
"Dead...." and the band take the stage. In typical OTT style, Monroe
does so by climbing onto the speaker stack and waving. Stick thin and still
caked in make up, the fact he is over 50 now clearly hasn't slowed him down and
his performance is one of almost boundless energy.
Monroe is in town to plug new album
"Horns And Halos" which essentially takes up from where previous
album, 2011's stunning "Sensory Overdrive," left off.
There is one key difference. Ginger
Wildheart is no longer on guitar. Dregen of The Backyard Babies plays on the
album, but not this tour, so Rich Jones (Yo-Yo's, Loyalties) joins Hanoi bass
man Sam Yaffa and New York Doll Steve Conte.
The first part of the show is almost
literally a breakneck run through the golden moments of the last two albums -
and there are plenty - "Trick Of The Wrist" and "Ballad of the
Lower East Side" not least among them.
Then he moves into Rocks territory,
and "Malibu Beach Nightmare" proves what a band they were.
The encore contains a couple of welcome surprises. Monroe reaches back to his Demolition 23 days for the underrated glam punk stomp of "Nothin's Alright" before Eddie And The Hot Rods classic "Do Anything You Wanna Do" gets an outing too.
Monroe is an incredible frontman,
shaming those of half his age. He jumps, high-kicks and splits his way though
the 80 minutes and still finds time to tell us he's happy to play in venue
named after Slade as they were first band he had ever seen live.
Tonight truly was the best of both
worlds. There are great new songs but also a chance to watch a childhood hero. To borrow a line from a song
that was played tonight: when I was a kid all I wanted to be was the meanest
dude on the meanest machine. Michael Monroe still is. This is rock n roll the
way it always seemed to be. Glamorous, a little dangerous, but above all
tremendously exciting.
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