![]() That is not many when you consider that without them we would not have the likes of Guns N Roses or Poison and the 80’s Sunset Strip, and Hair Metal scenes, would have looked very different indeed. With an infectious mix of glam rock, punk, ballads and reggae it is not an overstatement to say Hanoi Rocks changed the direction of rock music in the early Eighties. This new “Strange Boys Box” from Cleopatra Records covers the band’s first four studio albums “Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks”, “Oriental Beat”, “Self-Destruction Blues” and “Back To The Mystery City” and live album “All Those Wasted Years”. However, if you dig a little deeper you find such treasures as “Kill City Kills”, “M.C Baby”, “Tooting Bec Wreck”, “Village Girl”, “Love’s An Injection”, “No Law or Order” or the prophetically titled “Dead By X-mas”.Īll released between 19, and before the band’s career was abruptly halted by the car crash that killed drummer Razzle.įrontman Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy have a similar dynamic to the likes of Jagger/Richards or Tyler/Perry and when you add bassist Sami Yaffa and guitarist Nasty Suicide you get a line-up that should have taken over the world – and once drummer Razzle joined the band in 1982 it looked like they actually might pull it off.Īmongst the five albums here are such classic tracks as “Taxi Driver”, “Don’t You Ever Leave Me”, “Mental Beat”, “Motorvatin’” and “Oriental Beat”- staples of the band’s live set and firm fan favourites. Hanoi Rocks are the one band in my record collection that I probably couldn’t live without, and so for me as a massive fan of the band, I would have liked something extra here. For example, the band’s major label debut “Two Steps From The Move” is missing, or maybe the long out of print DVD of the Marquee show that is “All Those Wasted Years”. Or the disc that would have gone down a treat in the “Strange Boys Box”- a bonus disc of singles, B-sides and rarities. Due to this tragic turn of events Oriental Beat has to unfortunately stand as an album by a band full of potential that sadly was never given a chance to fulfill it.That said Cleopatra Records have done a good job of packaging the five albums in sleeves recreating the original album artwork and the booklet includes many rare pictures and excerpts from the band’s biography, which has also just been released in English for the first time. In 1984, the band's drummer, Razzle, died in a car accident as a passenger in a car driven by Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil the band broke up a year later. By listening to this album you can see the influence Hanoi Rocks had on the artists that followed them. Oriental Beat shows where punk would have gone in the '80s if new wave and synthesizers never came along. A slick '80s hit-making producer like Mutt Lange ( Def Leppard) or Bob Rock ( Mötley Crüe, the Cult) could have made this band huge in the States. The drums sound like they were recorded in another building separate from the rest of the band. Despite a respectable amount of potential on most of the album, poor production limits the effectiveness of many tracks. "Motorvatin'" and "Devil Woman" would easily have found a home on MTV circa 1987, and feminine-looking, lipstick-wearing, glammed-out lead singer Michael Monroe's image would have been plastered all over music television right next to Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, and Jon Bon Jovi. Guitarist and chief songwriter Andy McCoy does his best Johnny Thunders on "Teenangels Outsiders." Other tracks on the album show the band displaying a sound that would be emulated by many future pop-metal bands. Baby" and "Oriental Beat" find the band closely resembling English punk rockers the Damned. ![]() The band shows its punk and glam influences not only with its look on the cover of the album but also with the music performed on the album as well. Oriental Beat is full of big singalong choruses and catchy riffs that would have made the band heavy players either five years earlier or later. Oriental Beat is an album that finds itself slightly out of step with the music scene of the period - it was too late for the prime punk period of the late '70s and it was too early for the pop-metal explosion of the mid-to-late '80s. Oriental Beat finds Hanoi Rocks bringing the glam sound and look of the New York Dolls into the '80s. Hanoi Rocks may have been the best hard rock band Finland had to offer the world in 1982, but their sound and look was heavily influenced by the punk scenes of the late '70s in downtown New York and England. ![]()
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