Our fav. songs of the 1980s

[The Watcher]

Hey guys and gals here we can list our fav. songs of the years between 1980 and 1989. and talk about what made them great. have fun.

1. Little Jeannie- Elton John
2. Jessie's Girl- Rick Springfield
3. Eye In The Sky- The Alan Parsons Project
4. Brothers in arms- Direstraits
5. Fall Down- Toad The Wet Sprocket
6. Analog Kid- Rush
7. Veteran of the Psychic Wars- Blue Oyster Cult
8. Oriental Beat- Hanoi Rocks
9. Rebel Yell- Billy Iodel
10. Heart Of Glass- Blondie

[The Watcher]

BORN: March 25, 1947, Pinner, Middlesex, England

In terms of sales and lasting popularity, Elton John was the biggest pop superstar of the early '70s. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter, John soon revealed he could craft Beatlesque pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb. He could dip into soul, disco and country, as well as classic pop balladry and even progressive rock. His versatility, combined with his effortless melodic skills, dynamic charisma and flamboyant stage shows made him the most popular recording artist of the '70s. Unlike many pop stars, John was able to sustain his popularity, charting a Top 40 single every single year from 1970 to 1996.

During that time, he had temporary slumps in creativity and sales, as he fell out of favor with critics, had fights with his lyricist Bernie Taupin, and battled various addictions and public scandals. But through it all, John remained a remarkably popular artist and many of his songs -- including "Your Song," "Rocket Man," "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," and "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" -- became contemporary pop standards.

The son of a former Royal Air Force trumpeter, Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in 1947. Dwight began playing piano at the age of four, and when he was 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. After studying for six years, he left school with the intention of breaking into the music business. In 1961, he joined his first band, Bluesology, and divided his time between playing with the group, giving solo concerts at a local hotel, and running errands for a London publishing house. By 1965, Bluesology were backing touring American soul and R&B musicians like Major Lance, Doris Troy and the Bluebells.

In 1966, Bluesology became Long John Baldry's supporting band, and began touring cabarets throughout England. Dwight became frustrated with Baldry's control of the band and began searching for other groups to join. He failed his lead vocalist auditions both King Crimson and Gentle Giant before responding to an advertisement by Liberty Records. Though he failed his Liberty audition, he was given a stack of lyrics Bernie Taupin, who had also replied to the ad, had left with the label. Dwight wrote music for Taupin's lyrics and began corresponding with him through mail. By the time the two met six months later, Dwight had changed his name to Elton John, taking his first name from Bluesology saxophonist Elton Dean and his last from John Baldry.

John and Taupin were hired by Dick James to become staff songwriters at his fledgling DJM in 1968. The pair collaborated at a rapid rate, with Taupin submitting batches of lyrics -- he often wrote a song an hour -- every few weeks. John would then write music without changing the words, sometimes completing the songs in under a half hour. Over the next two years, the duo wrote songs for pop singers like Roger Cook and Lulu. In the meantime, John recorded cover versions of current hits for budget labels to be sold in supermarkets.

By the summer of 1968, he had begun recording singles for release under his own name. Usually, these songs were more rock and radio-oriented than the tunes he and Taupin were giving to other vocalists, yet neither of his early singles for Phillips, "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "Lady Samantha," sold well. In June of 1969, he released his debut album for DJM, Empty Sky, which received fair reviews, but no sales.

For his second album, John and Taupin hired producer Gus Dudgeon and arranger Paul Buckmaster, who contributed grandiose string charts to Elton John. Released in the summer of 1970, Elton John began to make inroads in America, where it was appeared on MCA's Uni subsidiary. In August, he gave his first American concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, which received enthusiastic reviews, as well as praise from Quincy Jones and Leon Russell. Throughout the fall, Elton John continued to climb the charts on the strength of the Top 10 single, "Your Song."

John followed it quickly in February 1971 with the concept album Tumbleweed Connection, which received heavy airplay on album-oriented radio in the US, helping it climb into the Top 10. The rapid release of Tumbleweed Connection established a pattern of frequent releases that John maintained throughout his career. In 1971, he released the live 11-17-70 and the Friends soundtrack, before releasing Madman Across the Water late in the year. Madman Across the Water was successful, but John achieved stardom with the followup, 1972's Honky Chateau. Recorded with his touring band -- bassist Dee Murray, drummer Nigel Olsson and guitarist Davey Johnstone -- and featuring the hit singles "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat," Honky Chateau became his first American number one album, spending five weeks at the top of the charts.

Between 1972 and 1976, Elton John and Bernie Taupin's hit-making machine was virtually unstoppable. "Rocket Man" began a four-year streak of 16 Top 20 hits in a row; out of those 16 -- including "Crocodile Rock," "Daniel," "Bennie and the Jets," "The Bitch Is Back" and "Philadelphia Freedom" -- only one, the FM hit "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," failed to reach the Top Ten. Honky Chateau began a streak of seven consecutive number one albums -- Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), Caribou (1974), Greatest Hits (1974), Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975), Rock of the Westies (1975) -- that all went platinum. John founded Rocket, a record label distributed by MCA, in 1973 in order to sign and produce acts like Neil Sedaka and Kiki Dee.

John didn't become a Rocket recording artist himself, choosing to stay with MCA for a record-breaking eight million dollar contract in 1974. Later in 1974, he co-wrote John Lennon's number one comeback single, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," and he persuaded Lennon to join him onstage at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day 1974; it would prove to be Lennon's last live performance. The following year, Captain Fantastic became the first album to enter the American charts at number one. After its release, he revamped his band, which now featured Johnstone, Quaye, Roger Pope, Ray Cooper and bassist Kenny Passarelli; Rock of the Westies was the first album to feature this lineup.

Throughout the mid-'70s, John's concerts were enormously popular, as were his singles and albums, and he continued to record and perform at a rapid pace until 1976. That year, he revealed in an interview in Rolling Stone that he was bisexual; he would later admit that the confession was a compromise, since he was afraid to reveal that he was homosexual. Many fans reacted negatively to John's bisexuality, and his audience began to shrink somewhat in the late '70s. The decline in his record sales was also due to his exhaustion. After 1976, John cut his performance schedule drastically, announcing that he was retiring from live performances in 1977 and started recording only one album a year.

[The Watcher]

His relationship with Taupin became strained following the release of 1976's double-album Blue Moves, and the lyricist began working with other musicians. John returned in 1978 with A Single Man, which was written with Gary Osborne; the record produced no Top 20 singles. That year, he returned to live performances, first by jamming at the Live Stiffs package tour, then by launching a comeback tour in 1979 accompanied only by percussionist Ray Cooper. "Mama Can't Buy You Love," a song he recorded with Phillie soul producer Thom Bell in 1977, returned him to the Top Ten in 1979, but that year's Victim of Love was a commercial disappointment.

John reunited with Taupin for 1980's 21 at 33, which featured the Top 10 single "Little Jeannie." Over the next three years, John remained a popular concert artist, but his singles failed to break the Top 10, even if they reached the Top 40. In 1981, he signed with Geffen Records and his second album, Jump Up! became a gold album on the strength of "Blue Eyes" and "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)," his tribute to John Lennon. But it was 1983's Too Low for Zero that began his last great streak of hit singles, with the MTV hit "I'm Still Standing" and the Top Ten single "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues."

Throughout the rest of the '80s, John's albums would consistently go gold, and they always generated at least one Top 40 single; frequently, they featured Top 10 singles like "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (1984), "Nikita" (1986), "Candle in the Wind" (1987), and " I Don't Want To Go On With You Like That" (1988). While his career continued to be successful, his personal life was in turmoil. Since the mid-'70s, he had been addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and the situation only worsened during the '80s. In a surprise move, he married engineer Renate Blauel in 1984; the couple stayed married for four years, although John later admitted he realized he was homosexual before his marriage. In 1986, he underwent throat surgery while on tour in 1986, but even after he successfully recovered, he continued to abuse cocaine and alocohol.

Following a record-breaking five-date stint at Madison Square Garden in 1988, John auctioned off all of his theatrical costumes, thousands of pieces of memorabilia and his extensive record collection through Sotheby's. The audction was a symbolic turning point. Over the next two years, John battled both his drug addiction and bullimia, undergoing hair replacement surgery at the same time. By 1991, he was sober and the following year, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation; he also announced that he would donate all royalties from his single sales to AIDS research.

In 1992, John returned to active recording with The One. Peaking at number eight on the US charts and going double platinum, the album became his most successful record since Blue Moves, and sparked a career renaissance for John. He and Taupin signed a record-breaking publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music in 1992 for an estimated $39 million. In 1994, John collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on songs for Disney's animated feature The Lion King. One of their collaborations, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as well as the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. John's 1995 album Made In England continued his comeback, peaking at number 3 on the UK charts and number 13 in the US; in America, the album went platinum.


Elton John was the single most successful pop artist of the '70s, and he continued to score hits for decades after his initial reign of popularity. Born Reginald Dwight in Pinner, England, he showed an early aptitude for the piano and received classical training, winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 11. But after six years he turned to pop music, and struggled as a songwriter, sideman, and member of unsuccessful groups for the rest of the '60s. During this period, he hooked up with lyricist Bernie Taupin through a newspaper advertisement, and the two were signed as songwriters to publisher Dick James, who was to have a tremendous impact on John's early career. A debut album sponsored by James, Empty Sky, flopped in 1969, but in 1970, with the album Elton John and the single "Your Song," Elton John took off, scoring especially well in America. For the next five years, his output -- and the sales that material racked up -- was enormous. John always had an ability to hit with ballads like the wistful "Daniel," then turn around and rock as hard as The Rolling Stones on a song like "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." There hardly seemed a day from 1972, when "Rocket Man" began a streak of 16 straight Top 20 hits (15 of which went Top Ten), to 1976, when John took a breather, that his songs were not dominating the airwaves and the record charts. The late '70s seem to have been a period of recovery and indecision for the singer, but by 1980 he had settled into making one well-crafted album a year, and many of them tossed off hits, if not with such consistency as before. "Little Jeannie" (1980), "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" and "Sad Songs (Say So Much)" (both 1984), and "Nikita" (1986) all showed John could still hit the upper reaches of the charts, especially with his trademark ballads. The late '80s again saw a slowing in John's record success, but by the start of the '90s he had gone public about drug and alcohol problems he said were behind him, and he looked poised for a new start. After several more years of adult contemporary hits in the early '90s, John moved into film, writing the music for Walt Disney's 1994 film The Lion King. The soundtrack was an enormous success and John's version of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" was his biggest hit in years.

[The Watcher]

Birthday: August 23, 1949
Birth Place: Sydney, Australia
Birth Name: Richard Springthorpe

Biography:
Rick Springfield has:


◊Sold Over 18 Million Records.
◊Achieved 17 Top 40 Hits, including 5 in the Top 10.
◊Performed in front of over 1 Million fans since 1998.
◊Written some of the most enduring pop & rock music of the 80's.
◊A devoted, passionate and active fan base.


• 1949 Richard Lewis Springthorpe born in Merrylands, Sydney, Australia to Norman and Eileen Springthorpe
• 1959 Springthorpe family moves to England (father's military career is the culprit)
• 1959 Rick becomes interested in history. Plays "gladiator" in backyard in England. (precursor of Gladiator play in 2001).
• 1962 • Rick's 13th Birthday...is given his first guitar as a gift
• 1962 Meets John Kennedy, of Me and Johnny fame
• 1964 John and Rick form "Icy Blues", Rick's first foray into performing music
• 1967 Rick leaves high school and is asked by Pete Watson to join Rock House
• 1968 Rock House becomes MPD, Ltd and is hired to play gigs in Vietnam
• 1969 Rick returns from Vietnam in February of this year
• 1969 Rick is one of the founding members the short lived Wickedy Wak along with Paul Shannon (bass, vocals) and Danny Finley (drums) from MPD....later adding a keyboardist named Ray Wight.
• 1969 Zoot welcomes Rick as guitarist and vocals in the fall of 1969.
• 1970 Rick scores Oz celebrity in Zoot.
• 1971 Speak to the Sky recorded solo, reaching Top Ten in Australia.
• 1972 Rick moves to USA on wave of solo success with "Speak to the Sky"
• 1973 Comic Book Heroes recorded in London.
• 1974 Rick records Springfield album; breaks with managers; music is never released
• 1974 Mission Magic, a cartoon on ABC, is created to showcase Rick's music
• 1976 Chelsea Records releases Wait For Night; folds soon after
• 1978 Rick takes on acting contract with Universal and appears on several hit shows: Rockford Files, Wonder Woman, Battlestar Galactica.
• 1978 Rick begins writing what will become Working Class Dog.
• 1979 RCA signs contract with Rick to record Working Class Dog. Rick argues with them on cover art, finally winning out with his unusual Ronnie cover.
• 1981 With release of Working Class Dog in doubt, Rick signs with General Hospital as Dr. Noah Drake.
• 1982 Wins Grammy for Best Male Vocal Performance for Jessie's Girl.
• 1983 Leaves General Hospital to pursue music full time; releases the harder edged "Living In Oz"• which becomes Rick's third straight platinum selling album.
• 1984 Hard To Hold, Rick's first feature length film, is released in theatres with a PG rating so that his preteen fans can view the movie.
• 1984 Hard to Hold soundtrack produces Top Ten Hit "Love Somebody", but movie is out of theatres due to low sales in six weeks.
• 1985 Rick releases fifth album in five years, Tao. It is the first album to not score a platinum rating of the five. The Cathode Ray tour, including a performance at Live Aid, follows.
• 1985 Rick ends tour in time for the birth of his first son, Liam.
• 1986 Rick performs "My Father's Chair" live on American Bandstand's 25th Anniversary special. It would be the last live performance for several years.
• 1988 After a 2 year hiatus from touring and recording, Rick releases Rock Of Life, a departure from his earlier works, in it's grown up feel and vibe.
• 1988 Just prior to the scheduled tour to promote Rock Of Life, Rick crashes his ATV and shatters his collarbone. One promotional performance on "Top of the Pops" is not enough to promote the album. Unable to hold a guitar for six months, he cancels the tour and Rock of Life quietly falls off the charts.
• 1989 Second son Joshua is born. Rick begins work on a series of TV movies for both regular and TV networks.
• 1993 At friend Jack White's urging, Rick embarks on a short summer club tour. Longtime fans greet him with open arms.
• 1994 Rick signs on as Mick Barrett, one of a pair of brother detectives portrayed on the syndicated series High Tide. He moves the family to New Zealand for filming.
• 1995 Season two of High Tide is filmed much closer to home in San Diego.
• 1996 The third and final season of High Tide is filmed in Santa Barbara. While the producers try to change the thrust of the show to attract viewers, the show is cancelled at the end of the season. Rick is not disappointed; he is ready to go back to music.
• 1997 Rick reengages with fans at the Tucson Tennis Classics and performs live for the first time in years. Friend Jack White appears again for the performance.
• 1997 Sahara Snow, Rick's first collaborative work since his Zoot days, is released overseas. Loyal fans hungry for new music gobble up the discs and force a second pressing.
• 1998 Rick begins a tour to promote the album Karma, which while slated for release in 98, ends up not being available until the following year.
• 1999 VH1's Behind the Music profiles Rick. Without an official website to handle the fan interest, the Internet spawns many fan run websites and mailing lists to connect fans together.
• 1999 Rick releases Karma in April and continues touring to promote the disc. While venues fill and sell out, the disc flounders under the record company Platinum Records. When the company folds later, fans are disappointed that the disc does not reach its full potential.
• 2000 Rick spends this year touring and promoting Karma. Fan interest is so high, he releases an early Limited run of his upcoming live disc, "The Greatest Hits Alive". Spots on TV, including a concert broadcast on the Today show, ensue.
• 2000 In December of this year, Rick announces he has signed on to star in the Las Vegas show, EFX. The MGM Grand renames the show EFX Alive in honor of the new star, and Rick pens two original tunes for the show.
• 2001 Rick debuts in EFX Alive and releases the street version of "The Greatest Hits Alive," on Universal's Hip-O label.
• 2002 Rick closes his EFX Alive run on New Year's Eve after nearly two years in the role. Fans travel from all over the country to see the final shows; even Rick comments fans have made the pilgramage to Vegas to see him many, many times.
• 2003 Rick hits the ground running, recording his latest release, "shock/denial/anger/acceptance" in winter and spring.
• 2004 Rick releases "shock/denial/anger/acceptance" in February of 2004, following with a national tour. Buzz is strong going into the release, with press, TV and radio promotions giving the disc a head start in online preorders. Rick releases "sdaa" on his new label, "Gomer Records" and it is distributed by Red Distribution.

[The Watcher]

Born in Britain on December 20, 1948, Alan soon found that his interests lay in music. He studied piano and flute as a child and was always intrigued by gadgetry. He picked up the guitar in his early teens and played as a soloist as well as with various bands at school.

One of his first jobs was at an EMI tape duplication facility in West London. At this time he was fortunate enough to experience the master tape of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album and that boosted his determination to become a recording engineer. Says Alan, "I couldn't wait to find out the secrets behind the album. It left me totally in awe of the talent of The Beatles themselves of course, but also the work behind the scenes in the studio". His timing was perfect. He landed a post at the then not-so-celebrated Abbey Road Studios and garnered significant experience on the Beatles' Let It Be album, and actively participated in the famous Apple rooftop session.

The Abbey Road album (released before Let It Be but recorded later) helped Alan to make his mark with the Fab Four, although he was only an assistant engineer at that time. Still, it resulted in Alan going on to work as a full-blown engineer with Paul McCartney on McCartney, Wings Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway, including the singles Hi Hi Hi and C Moon. Alan adds "I couldn't have asked for a better grounding in recording - after all not many engineers got to work the greatest Rock act of all time". He also helped out on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass album both as an assistant and as a mix engineer.

After the experience of The Beatles, Alan worked on a number of hits with The Hollies including He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother and The Air That I Breathe. However, his reputation was totally solidified with his engineering work on Pink Floyd's legendary Dark Side Of The Moon, which earned him the first of many Grammy nominations.

Alan soon ventured into production with the British band Pilot and scored immediate success with the hit single Magic. (You know - "Oh Ho Ho It's Magic!!"). Other hits followed with Cockney Rebel and John Miles. Alan made three albums with Al Stewart, spawning the hit singles Year Of The Cat and Time Passages.

Along with songwriter/manager Eric Woolfson, Alan decided to begin creating his own thematic records and founded the Alan Parsons Project. Although he occasionally played keyboards and infrequently sang on his records, the Project was designed primarily as a forum for a revolving collection of vocalists and session players - among them Arthur Brown, ex-Zombie Colin Blunstone, Cockney Rebel's Steve Harley, the Hollies' Allan Clarke and guitarist Ian Bairnson -- to interpret and perform Parsons and Woolfson's conceptually-linked, lushly arranged and orchestrated music.

The Project debuted in 1976 with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, a collection inspired by the work of Edgar Allen Poe. Similarly, the science fiction of Isaac Asimov served as the raw material for 1977's follow-up I Robot. After the further success of Pyramid in 1978, he moved to Monaco to record Eve, acheiving a Number 1 in Germany and a Number 1 single with "Lucifer" in 1999. The Monaco residence clearly influenced The Turn of a Friendly Card, a meditation on gambling, recorded in Paris in 1980. The Alan Parsons Project scored two Top 20 hits from this album, Games People Play and Time. Having resettled back home in England, 1982's Eye in the Sky, was their most successful effort to date, and notched a Top Three hit with its title track. More successes followed - Ammonia Avenue (1984), Vulture Culture (1985), Stereotomy (1986) and Gaudi (1987). A brief venture into musical theatre resulted in Freudiana in 1990.The show ran for over a year in the historic Theater An Der Wien in Vienna, Austria.

Eric and Alan then went separate ways. Eric devoted his career to the musical theatre while Parsons felt the need to bring his music to the live concert stage and to continue to record conceptual symphonic rock music. With his long-standing previous collaborators, guitarist Ian Bairnson and drummer Stuart Elliott, Alan dropped the "Project" identity for Try Anything Once in 1994. The partnership continued for On Air in 1996 and The Time Machine in 1999. During this time the "Alan Parsons Live Project" toured to sell-out audiences throughout the globe. Alan has also played various live shows with Ringo Starr, Jon Anderson, Alice Cooper, John Entwistle and Ann Wilson.

One of the most familiar Project tracks is Sirius, perhaps best known as the Chicago Bulls theme and featured at countless NBA games. P.Diddy (Puff Daddy) also chose Sirius as the backbone for the title track of his most platinum-selling CD, The Saga Continues. In 2000, Sirius was featured in an IMAX documentary movie about Michael Jordan.

A long-standing fan of Alan's Music, Mike Myers as Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me decided to name his Dr Evil character's Death Ray "The Alan Parsons Project". Yeh Baby Yeh!!

Alan's music is now taking a new contemporary direction into the world of Electronica. His latest album features a number of notables in the genre including The Crystal Method, Shpongle, The Nortec Collective and Uberzone. The album also features a guest appearance by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. Alan says, "The industry is changing and I feel the need to capture a different kind of audience while still keeping my identity. Electronic music is the fastest growing music category right now and I'm enjoying working with new people and new technology". The album is now available on CD and will be released in DVD formats. The DVD will contain 5.1 surround mixes as well as new visual material.

Alan has written extensively for the Pro-Audio press and is an acknowledged expert in 5.1 Surround Sound recording. He has often lectured at Recording conferences and Schools of Recording and was the keynote speaker at The Audio Engineering Society convention in 1998.

Alan now lives in Santa Barbara, California with his wife Lisa and her two teenage daughters, Tabitha and Brittni, four cats, four Guinea pigs, a lop-eared rabbit and a giant Labrador called Harrow.

[The Watcher]

Born: 1977

Styles: Album Rock, Pop/Rock, Rock & Roll, Rock/Pop

Dire Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s, and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped down, they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct outgrowth of the roots revivalism of pub rock, but where pub rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy. Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan. As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' sixth album, Brothers in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band -- along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood -- become one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international success, they couldn't sustain their stardom, waiting a full six years to deliver a follow-up to Brothers in Arms, by which time their audience had shrunk significantly.

Knopfler (born August 12, 1949) was always the main force behind Dire Straits. The son of an architect, Knopfler studied English literature at Leeds University and worked briefly as a rock critic for the Yorkshire Evening Post while at college. He began teaching English after his graduation, leading a pub rock band called Brewer's Droop at night. By 1977, Mark was playing with his brother David (guitar) and his roommate John Illsley (bass). During the summer of 1977, the trio cut a demo with drummer Pick Withers. A London DJ named Charlie Gillett heard the demo and began playing "Sultans of Swing" on his BBC show Honky Tonkin'. Following a tour opening for Talking Heads, the band began recording their debut for Vertigo Records with producer Muff Winwood in early 1978. By the summer, they had signed with Warner in America, releasing their eponymous debut in the fall. Thanks to the Top Ten hit "Sultans of Swing," Dire Straits was a major success in both Britain and America, with the single and album climbing into the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic.

Dire Straits established Dire Straits as a major force on album-oriented radio in America, and their second album, Communique (1979), consolidated their audience, selling three million copies worldwide. As the group was recording its third album, Knopfler left the band to pursue a solo career; he was replaced by former Darling member Hal Lindes. Like its predecessor, Making Movies was a sizable hit in America and Britain, even though the band was criticized for musically treading water. Nevertheless, the record went gold on the strength of the radio and MTV hits "Romeo and Juliet" and "Skateaway." Dire Straits followed the album two years later with Love Over Gold, an album filled with long, experimental passages, plus the single "Private Investigations," which became a number two hit in the U.K. The album went gold in America and spent four weeks at number one in Britain. Shortly after the release of Love Over Gold, former Rockpile drummer Terry Williams replaced Withers.

During 1982, Knopfler began exploring musical avenues outside of Dire Straits, scoring the Bill Forsyth film Local Hero and playing on Van Morrison's Beautiful Vision. Apart from releasing the Twisting by the Pool EP early in 1983, Dire Straits were quiet for the majority of 1983 and 1984, as Knopfler produced Bob Dylan's Infidels, as well as Aztec Camera and Willy DeVille; he also wrote "Private Dancer for Tina Turner's comeback album. In the spring of 1984, the band released the double album Alchemy: Dire Straits Live and by the end of the year, they had begun recording their fifth studio album with their new keyboardist, Guy Fletcher. Released in the summer of 1985, Brothers in Arms was Dire Straits' breakthrough album, making the band international stars. Supported by the groundbreaking computer-animated video for "Money for Nothing," a song which mocked music videos, the album became a blockbuster, spending nine weeks at the top of the American charts and selling over nine million copies; in England, the album became the biggest-selling album of the '80s. "Walk of Life" and "So Far Away" kept Brothers in Arms in the charts through 1986, and Dire Straits played over 200 dates in support of the album. Once the tour was completed, Dire Straits went on hiatus for several years, as Knopfler produced records by Randy Newman and Joan Armatrading, scored films, toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded a duet album with Chet Atkins (Neck and Neck, 1990). In 1989, he formed the country-rock group Notting Hillbillies, whose sole album, Missing...Presumed Having a Good Time, became a British hit upon its spring 1990 release. During the extended time off, John Illsley recorded his second album; the first appeared in 1984.

In 1990, Knopfler reconvened Dire Straits, which now featured Illsley, Clark, Fletcher, and various session musicians. The band released On Every Street in the fall of 1991 to great anticipation. However, the album failed to meet expectations -- it only went platinum in America and it didn't crack the U.K. Top 40 -- and failed to generate a hit single. Similarly, the tour was a disappointment, with many tickets going unsold in both the U.S. and Europe. Once the tour was completed, the live album On the Night was released in the spring of 1993 and the band again went on hiatus. In 1996, Knopfler launched his solo career with Golden Heart.

[The Watcher]

Born: 1986

Styles: College Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Pop/Rock

So named in honor of a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe, Toad the Wet Sprocket's mellow, melodic folk-pop sound made them one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the early 1990s. Singer Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning (the nephew of '50s hitmaker Mark "Teen Angel" Dinning) and drummer Randy Guss formed the group in 1986 in their native Santa Barbara, California; after honing their skills in area bars, they entered a nearby studio in 1988 and recorded their debut LP, Bread and Circus, in just eight days at a cost of $650. Originally sold as a homemade cassette in Santa Barbara record stores, the album made its way to the Los Angeles offices of Columbia Records, which signed Toad only after agreeing to the band's request to reissue Bread and Circus in its original form, without any alterations or remixes. The somber Pale, produced by Marvin Etzioni, followed in 1990; after years of persistent touring, Toad the Wet Sprocket's commercial breakthrough followed with 1991's Fear, as the single "All I Want" -- quite nearly left off the album -- became a Top 20 hit. Another single from the LP, "Walk on the Ocean," was also a success. Three years later, Toad returned with Dulcinea, which generated another Top 40 hit with the single "Fall Down"; In Light Syrup, a collection of unreleased material, appeared in 1995. Coil, Toad the Wet Sprocket's fifth proper LP, followed in 1997. The group split in July 1998; their Greatest Hits collection was promised for later that year, but didn't appear. However, P.S.: A Toad Retrospective, did surface in 1999. ~

[The Watcher]

1974 Rush released their first album entitled "RUSH". It became the biggest selling debut LP that any Canadian band had ever released. The band spent years building their core audience by constant touring in North America doing as many as 200 dates a year.
1975 Rush win Juno for the "Most Promising Group of the Year".
1976 Marks their initial breakthrough into the American market with the release of "2112", their first million selling album.
1977 Rush release "A FAREWELL TO KINGS" which included their first internationally charted single, "CLOSER TO THE HEART".
1980 April- Rush and each individual member place in the top ten in every applicable category in Sounds and Melody Maker Polls in Britain.
1983 May- Rush tours the U.K., selling out Wembley Arena four consecutive nights.
1983 September- RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, New York City vibrates to RUSH for 5 sell out nights. The first Rock Act of its kind to perform a series of shows in the world famous venue.
1989 April- The concert video A Show Of Hands moves to #3 on Billboard's Top Music Videos' and #10 on Top Videocassette Sales Chart. The video has achieved platinum status in the United States and Canada (the first video by a Canadian band to ever achieve this level of sales).
1990 October- Chronicles, the video collection, is released. The video is shipped GOLD in the U.S. and is certified GOLD in Canada.
1990 November- Rush wins Group Of The Decade in Canada. They were voted the group who has made the most significant contributions to the Canadian music industry both domestically and internationally in the period 1980- to 1989.
1990 December- Rush wins Mayor's Award at the Toronto Music Awards. This award is the most revered of all the Toronto Music Awards.
1991 March- Rush wins JUNO Award for PRESTO as "Best Hard Rock/Metal Album Of the Year."
1992 October- Rush was honoured with the "Harold Moon Award" by the Society of Composers, Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). It is the most prestigious songwriter's award in Canada.

Rush has received two GRAMMY nominations for their instrumentals, "YYZ" from "MOVING PICTURES" (1982) and "WHERE'S MY THING" from "ROLL THE
BONES" (1992).

1993 October- Rush are chosen as recipient of the "Toronto Arts Award". The award, presented on behalf of the Arts Foundation of Toronto, recognizes the recipient's entire body of work through artistic excellence and contributions to the arts and culture of Toronto.
1993 May- Rush is inducted into the Harvard National Lampoon and named "Group of the Millennium".
1994 March- Rush was inducted into the JUNO "Hall Of Fame". They join fellow alumnus Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray and Oscar Peterson.
1996 September- Rush release their 21st gold album "Test For Echo". According to the Recording Industry Association (RIAA) this places them in a third place tie with Kiss. What makes this feat so remarkable is that it extends their consecutive gold certification streak to 21, their entire catalogue of albums.
1996 December- Performance magazine, a publication for the touring industry, nominated Rush as "Rock Act of the Year" for their 1996 Performance Readers Poll Awards.
1997 February- Each of the band's three members are recognized as "Officers of the Order Of Canada". This prestigious honour reflects the unique contribution to Canada, and indeed the world, that Rush have made since their very early origins in Toronto, and throughout their twenty-three year recording career. This is the first time the Order of Canada is given to a group rather than an individual.
1997 May- The Foundation Forum and F Musicfest have announced Rush this year's recipient of the "Concrete/Foundations Outstanding Contribution to Music Award". Rush joins a distinguished list of receipts including Van Halen, KISS, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper.
1999 May- Rush was inducted into Canada's Walk Of Fame in Toronto. The other inductees included that year are David Croneberg, Celine Dion, and Buffy Sainte- Marie.
2000 January- Rush has topped JAM! Music's online poll, which determines them "Best Canadian Musicians of All Time".
2004 April - Rush wins JUNO award for Best Music DVD - Rush In Rio.

[The Watcher]

Spanning three decades, Blue Öyster Cult has a long and storied history. The band got its start in the late ’60s on Long Island, New York, as the Soft White Underbelly, but each member had been involved in bands previously in high school and college, before ending up in the “right place at the right time” to create the beginnings of Blue Öyster Cult.

The threads that eventually wove together to create Blue Öyster Cult got their start in upstate New York.

Long Island native Donald Roeser and Albert Bouchard (of Watertown, New York) met at Clarkson College, in Potsdam, NY. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, Bruce Abbott (who later co-authored “Golden Age of Leather” with Donald). With Abbott and two other friends, they formed “The Disciples” and played college parties and local beer halls. The next year, the band reformed and played the same circuits as “Travesty” (named after the Blues Project album). Through all this, their studies fell by the wayside, and both Albert and Donald decided to quit college to concentrate on playing music full-time.

Eventually “Travesty” broke up, Donald and Albert took seperate paths for a while. Donald went back to Long Island, and Albert took a musical opportunity in Chicago. After moving there, though, the band fizzled, and Albert returned to NY and joined Donald. In the meantime, Donald had been jamming with local musicians, and had met a person that would become very influential in their future: Sandy Pearlman.

Sandy Pearlman became interested in rock music around the time of the British Invasion, and was a pioneering voice of rock criticism, opening a new field for creative writers like Lester Bangs. Both Pearlman and his friend Richard Meltzer were contributors for seminal magazine “Crawdaddy!,” the first magazine that dedicated itself to analysis of rock music and its culture.

Allen Lanier came into the fold by way of guitarist John Wiesenthal. Allen had accepted employment at a film company at which Wiesenthal was also an employee. After becoming acquainted, Wiesenthal invited Allen out to Long Island to meet and jam with the loose group of musicians he played with, and Allen began to regularly jam with them.

An old house near Stony Brook College became ground zero for the formative band, and casual jams with whomever happened to be hanging around began to turn into rehearsals with a core band, which included Wiesenthal, Donald, Albert, Allen and Andrew Winters, a school friend of Donald. It was 1967.

Pearlman (along with Meltzer and Wiesenthal) had been a student at Stony Brook, and was becoming increasingly involved in the music scene. When he heard the formative combo, he instantly recognized the talent at work. He had an idea for a band, and thought that this group of musicians had the chops to put that idea into play. The musicians saw that Pearlman’s contacts and stature in the local (and increasingly national) scene could help them spawn a career as well, and an alliance was formed.

Drummer, singer, guitarist and songwriter Albert Bouchard was a founding member of Blue Öyster Cult and a driving force through the band's first decade.

Albert's songwriting was always very present in the band, and he was always experimenting and working with different collaborators. His songs run the gamut from the hard and heavy "Career of Evil" to the very pop "Debbie Denise."

In 1981 Albert left Blue Öyster Cult and began work on the music that would become the Imaginos record. In the late 80s, Albert performed with The Mamas & The Papas, Peter Noone (Herman's Hermits) and the Spencer Davis Group (Joe Bouchard was also a part of this). Albert has also played on records for Mike Watt (fIREHOSE, Minutemen) and Ritchie Stotts (Plasmatics) and produced records for amongst others Gumball, Heads Up and David Roter.

Albert's creative drumming sets him apart from most other rock drummers. Never predictable and always entertaining, Albert's mastery of rhythm and dynamics is always a treat to hear.

In the last few years, Albert's main musical project has been as The Brain Surgeons, with whom he has released several CDs on his own Cellsum Records label. Cellsum has grown to host a number of other artists, including Les Vegas, The X Brothers, David Roter and Helen Wheels.

[The Watcher]

BORN TO PUNK
The first punk rock single ever made in Finland was recorded by a band called Briard which was formed by only fourteen years old Andy McCoy & Pete "Räkä” Malmi in 1976. Briard released four singles during the next three years and one album few years afterwards. The most famous Briard songs were the first single I Really Hate Ya, and the second one Fuck The Army. On the Briard's last year Andy's schoolmate and principal's son Nasty Suicide joined the band. Nasty's first appearance on a record was Briard's Rockin' On The Beach single's b-side Miss World.

Andy had met Michael Monroe as early as 1977 but they didn't co-operate yet. Although Andy liked Michael's style very much: "His hair almost covered his whole arse and even in winter he wore t-shirts.” Before Hanoi Rocks Michael had played saxophone with Maukka Perusjätkä on their gigs and could be seen playing sax in one Finnish Broadcasting Company's tv-show. Unfortunately that material is hardly available anymore. Other Michael's bands were Pelle Miljoona, Madness (not that UK group), Bolin, Easy Living, Black Magic and Ralf Örn Pop. With those groups Michael played only gigs so there are no recordings. On occasion, Andy played in Maukka's and Ralf's bands as well. Andy also played on several Maukka Perusjätkä's recordings.

THE BEGINNING


The first Hanoi Rocks was born in the spring of 1980 in Helsinki. At the time the line-up was Michael, Nasty, Stefan Piesnack, Peki Sirola and Nedi. They did few gigs in Finland and once they were booked to perform in Tavastia Club by Seppo Vesterinen.

In February 1980 Andy and 17-years old Sam Yaffa, who had earlier played with punk band Suopo (which did few gigs in late 1970's but no recordings), joined the most popular Finnish band at those days. According to a legend Andy had a vision of a band which could be a huge success worldwide and had asked from Love Records executive Atte Blom in which band he could make enough money to make his dream come true. The right choice was Pelle Miljoona Oy. Andy and Sam played on Pelle Miljoona Oy's most succesful album Moottoritie On Kuuma. On the eve of Pelle Miljoona Oy's important Finnish tour Andy decided to leave the band and took Sammy with him. Michael, Andy, Sam and Nasty moved to Stockholm where Gyp joined them.

ROUGH TIMES IN STOCKHOLM


The early days in Stockholm very quite rough for the boys. They hardly had money for food or any other necessities and they had to sleep in corridors and subway stations. Now and then Michael managed to pick up some local girl so that the whole band could have something proper to eat but mainly their daily meal was cucumber with butter on it. One of the many stories from the days in Sweden tells that they earned money by cleaning toilets, picking up strawberries and even selling themselves. Obviously the last one is a joke probably made up by Andy. For him things were much better because he had Swedish girlfriend, Anna with whom he lived.

After a while Michael, Nasty and Sam managed to rent a department from Blåskulla, a suburb mainly resident by immigrants. The living conditions got better although they had some rats as subtenants in their apartment. In spite of the poor conditions Hanoi Rocks rehearsed harshly .

Seppo Vesterinen saw Hanoi Rocks in Stockholm couple of times and was assured that this could be a great success and decided to be band's manager. Later Seppo described his first imperssions: "Their attitude was something I hadn't seen before. They could have played at Madison Square Garden next day without shitting themselves.” Great deal of Hanoi Rocks' forthcoming success was result of Seppo's enthusiasm and hard work.

WEIRD BUNCH OF JUNKIES


The first tour in Finland began in 31.12.1980 from Virrat. During that tour they performed almost everywhere. Even the smallest villages witnessed Hanoi Rocks' energized and never before seen act. The guys looked so outrageous with their make-ups, dyed hair and colorful clothes that the local redneck audiences assumed Hanoi guys to be a weird bunch of homosexual junkies and fights between the band and the rednecks were quite common.

But anyway the success started to grow rapidly. Anything like this hadn't been seen or heard in Finland before. Good example of Hanoi's out of the ordinary image was a comment made by a vocalist of Eppu Normaali (one of the most famous Finnish bands in 1980's and 1990's) after he had seen Michael in a toilet: "Oh my god, that person has balls!”

"WE WILL BE BIGGER THAN ABBA”<br>

Finnish label Johanna Records signed them in November 1980 and the first single I Want You / Kill City Kills was released by Hanoi Rocks with Andy McCoy. The first interview was made by Jari Kauppinen and published in his Joukkohauta fanzine in August 1980. Hanoi Rocks Fan Club magazine published the same interview without a permission later and in 1985 it was re-released in Scandal magazine. The first album Bangkok Shocks Saigon Shakes Hanoi Rocks (originally called Some Like It Cut), produced by Michael & Andy or The Muddy Twins as they called themselves, was recorded in Stockholm and released in March 1981.

In October the Hanoi bunch went to England to do six club gigs as a supporting act for Wishbone Ash. Although Wishbone Ash's audience wasn't that keen on Hanoi Rocks´ performance the word of this new amazing band started spreading around the United Kingdom.

The next album was recorded in London. Oriental Beat (first titled as Second Attempt For Suicide) was produced by Pete Woolliscroft and the sessions were finished in no time. British music magazines like Melody Maker, Kerrang! and Sounds were excited of the new album and only NME disliked it because they found the cover exposing Andy's girlfriend's naked breast offensive. Sounds commented in June 1982: "Born to be superstars, there is no doubt that Hanoi Rocks will one day be as famous as Coca Cola and Big Macs.”

After the release Hanoi Rocks toured in UK and got lots of new fans. It seems that the guys didn't have lack of faith: "Yeah, we will be bigger than Abba because we are so natural. We are going to move to New York and we will be so fucking successful there.” (Andy McCoy in 1982).

LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG


Nicholas "Razzle” Dingley, born in Isle Of Wight, had seen Hanoi Rocks in ZigZag club and was very excited. After a gig at Marquee Club he met the Hanoi guys and told them that he wanted to join the band even if it means that he has to break Gyp's arms. At the time Gyp had problems with Andy and was exhausted of touring so he was sacked and Razzle took his place. Later Gyp's band Road Rats performed as supporting act for Hanoi Rocks in Finland.

Razzle who found his nickname from a British adult magazine was a huge Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fan and had earlier played in several bands and liked to have fun. Before joining Hanoi Rocks Razzle played with London based punk group The Dark. The only The Dark recording that he plays in is a minialbum The Living End recorded on the band's last gig at 100 Club. Razzle wasn't a technical virtuoso but his "live fast die young” way of life was just what made him a perfect member of Hanoi Rocks.

In March 1982 single Love's An Injection reached number one position in Finnish charts. At the same month Kerrang! published the first of its many Hanoi Rocks articles and the band signed with Japanese Nippon Phonogram.

TOOTING BEC WRECKED


After a couple of gigs in Finland Hanoi Rocks moved permanently in London. They lived in Tooting Bec and in spite of the record deal they weren't getting rich. Years later Michael described their current situation: "We didn't have any money and occasionally we had to steal food.”

In September they toured in Finland to finance their coming foreign operations. On that tour Nasty was hospitalized in Kajaani after having too much drugs and alcohol at the same time. Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat had big headlines about the matter: "ROCKSTAR ALMOST DIED!” Some of the gigs had to be done without Nasty.

HYSTERIA IN FAR EAST


The next step on the world conquest was Far East. Hanoi Rocks toured in India, Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. In India the guys were astonished by cheap drugs. Andy tells in his autobiography: "God sake! I gave him (the drug dealer) twenty pounds and we got 10 grams of hashish, 10 grams of opium, 5 grams of brown heroin and 5 grams of white heroin!” It seems that the whole band was quite stoned for the rest of the tour.


Another thing that surprised them was that the local bands used to play seven hour long concerts and a shorter gig would be out of question. So they played about every song they knew, long lasting drum and guitar solos and the gig came out four and half hours long and the audience was totally satisfied. After a concert in Bombay a riot between the audience and the police broke up and the local newspaper Times Of India headlined: "ROCK BAND CAUSES A RIOT!”<br>

[The Watcher]

Another Indian newspaper Bombay Daily wrote in January 1983: "The scandinavian punk metal rock'n'roll quintet gets to you with a pounding mixture of raw energy and pure genius as they transcend musical genres and deliver a set packed with the energy and aggression of the Damned, with latent sexuality and the sheer excess of star quality oozing from every pore."


Especially in Japan their success was huge. Fans were literally hysterical when they saw their idols alive. Hundreds of Japanese fans followed the band constantly during their stay in Japan. In a club in Tokyo David Coverdale (vocalist of Deep Purple and Whitesnake) lost all his groupies when the Hanoi guys arrived in and as a dude with a great sense of humour Razzle tried to set Coverdale's hair on fire.


British press monitored the tour closely and Sounds magazine published a front page article of the band. For Hanoi Rocks and the members afterwards Japan has always been the place to tour and sell albums. Later Michael said that it was their favourite place.


Around that time compilation album of singles, b-sides and out takes was released. Although Razzle appears on the cover of Self Destruction Blues the drums are played by Gyp Casino.

After the Far East tour Hanoi Rocks started to record their third album with ex-Mott The Hoople members Dale Griffin and Overend Watts. Also the keyboard player Morgan Fisher had been Mott The Hoople member. Before the release of Back To Mystery City they did few gigs in Israel. Melody Maker published a wide report about the colorful incidents of the tour. The story was titled as: Hanoi Rocks – Havoc In The Holy Land.

Back To Mystery City was released in May and the British press gave the best reviews so far. The best chart postition in U.K. was 87. The decent success of the third album led to the recording of a gig at the Marquee Club in December. All Those Wasted Years (on the first edition album's name was misspelled as All Those Waisted Years) album was released in coincide with the video of the same name. This was given an excellent review by Melody Maker in the issue of January 7, 1984.

THE SUCCESS


Now the major record companies were interested in making a deal with the band and quite soon Hanoi Rocks signed £150000 worldwide deal with CBS which included three albums.

Before heading for America Hanoi Rocks did a couple of gigs in Helsinki and Turku in January 1984. Recordings for the fourth album began in New York with Bob Ezrin who had worked with such names as Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd and Kiss. At first the producer was supposed to be ex-Mott The Hoople man Ian Hunter. After finishing the rhythm tracks at the Record Plant in New York the band moved to Phase One studio in Toronto to finish the recordings. Guys suffered of flu and high fewers but the studio sessions went just fine. During the sessions in Toronto Hanoi Rocks did its first North American concert and celebrated the end of recordings with two sold-out shows at New York's Danceteria at the end of March. CBS demanded that there should be a song with hit potential, basically they wanted a a cover tune. Creedence Clearwater Revival's Up Around The Bend was chosen.

After finishing the Two Steps From Move (originally called Silver Missiles and Nightingales) album Hanoi Rocks did their second tour in Japan which was even bigger success than the first one. In Sheriffi McCoy Andy says: "The second time in Japan was total hysteria. In matter of fact it was frightening. You couldn't leave the hotel room.... They (fans) didn't care at all that they did hurt us. They just wanted to rip pieces out of us. They ripped my hair, they ripped Michael's hair. At that time Hanoi Rocks was chosen to be the most popular foreign band in Japan.

In the following summer they toured in the UK and single Up Around The Bend climbed to chart position 61 and got lots of airplay in the US. The video of the song was on MTV's rotation. The new album was released and by a boost of a second UK tour in that year it made up to 28th.

DEAD BY X-MAS

After few gigs in Sweden they started the first headlining American tour from Buffalo on 14th November. In everyway it seemed that this tour could be the big break through because some concerts were sold out way in advance, MTV showed videos and the press wrote very positive reviews about the Two Steps From The Move album

During a concert in Syracuse, New York Michael stepped on a broken bottle and twisted his ankle so badly that the next gig in Atlanta had to be cancelled. From Atlanta they flew to Los Angeles where they had a party with Motley Crue members at Tommy Lee's house in Redondo Beach. On the 9th of December Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil and Razzle went for a ride in Neil's new sports car. Drunken Neil suddenly lost his control of the car and crossed into the northbound lanes and was struck by two other cars. Razzle was taken to the South Bay Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7.12 p.m. Neil wasn't injured.

Vince Neil Wharton was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter. He was soon released on $2,500 bail and in July 1985 he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and was fined to $2,6 million in compensation fees. According to Kerrang! editor Paul Elliot, Vince Neil got away "...with a blight on his reputation which he has done little to acknowledge as of yet.” For Hanoi Rocks, it spelled disaster. It seems that Vince Neil got away a lot more than Hanoi Rocks did.

Michael, Andy, Sam, Nasty and the crew members were totally shocked and overwhelmed with grief and the rest of the US tour as well as the Christmas gigs in the UK and the spring 1985 European tour were cancelled. Michael described their feelings afterwards: "One of us died and it was terrible. If we had any dreams that was the end of them.”

Later they decided to do two concerts in Helsinki at the House of Culture in January 3rd and 4th. Those concerts were dedicated to the memory of Razzle and were partly televised throughout Europe on a massive live show Europe-A-Go-Go for the International Youth Year. At first Tommy Lee had promised to play on the House of Culture gigs but for some reason it didn't work out. From London the remaining Hanoi Rocks members found ex-Clash drummer Terry Chimes who was in the band until the bitter end. Concerts in Helsinki were the last time Sam played with Hanoi Rocks. On the US tour Sam had told that he wanted to leave the band. Despite of their mourning the band put on what must remain one of their finest performances.

After Helsinki Andy went on a vacation with his new girlfriend and left Michael and Nasty in London to find a new bass player. They decided to hire the lead singer and guitarist of The Idle Flowers, René Berg who had occasionally played with Andy. Berg turned to be a lousy choice. As soon as Hanoi Rocks entered London's Greenhouse studios to record demos for the next album he started to give orders how the band should sound like.

At the beginning of April, the British fan club announced Berg's addition to the Hanoi ranks, and that his first outing with the band would be ten-date tour in Poland in May. On the Hanoi Rocks' last tour in Poland René Berg was ordered to wear black clothes, no stage lights were spotted on him, he was given the shortest possible bass wire so that he couldn't move around the stage and wasn't even introduced to the audience.

According to Andy's autobiography: "René couldn't get his guitar case open and asked me to help him. I managed to open it and lots of pills were flowing out: red, yellow, black and blue pills, pills in all colors and in all shapes. I thought, oh shit, we've got another junkie in the band.” The awful atmosphere can be also described by Michael's words on Rock'n'Roll Divorce live album: "....boring, fucking boring.” That album was recorded in front of 8000 people at the band's last gig at the Rockerina Festival on May 19th 1985. For a short period Berg was replaced by a crew member Timo Kaltio but it didn't make things any better. Soon Michael left the band and that was the end of Hanoi Rocks.

THE NEW BEGINNING

Hanoi Rocks broke up almost 20 years ago but their music lives on. They still have devoted following around the world and since the break up thousands of new fans have found their music. Several compilations and re-releases have seen the light of day since 1985 and bands like Guns'n'Roses, Skid Row, Poison and Backyard Babies acknowledge Hanoi Rocks as their major influence. Guns'n'Roses vocalist Axl Rose once said that: "If Hanoi Rocks would have reached the success they should have had, no-one would have ever heard of Guns'n'Roses.”<br>
In March 2001 Johanna Records released a four cd box set which included a great booklet with photos, discographies and stories behind the songs. In the summer 2001 Michael and Andy went back together after a long period of separation to do a tour in Finland under the name Michael Monroe & Andy McCoy - Hanoi Revisited.

On the 27th of March 2002 Michael & Andy announced that the long waited Hanoi Rocks comeback is true. New single People Like Me will be released in April and an album later this year. The new Hanoi Rocks members are guitarist Costello Hautamäki, Lacu and Timpa.

[The Watcher]

Birth name
William Michael Albert Broad

Height
5' 9" (1.75 m)


Born William Michael Albert Broad in Middlesex, England, in 1955, the first child of Bill and Joan Broad. When he was 2 his father moved the family to Long Island, New York in pursuit of the American dream. They returned 4 years later (now with a baby sister, Jane) to Dorking. America made a big impression on Billy, he loved the big cars and rock music. The family moved next to the Running Horses Public House in Mickleham until 1963 while their home in Goring, Sussex, was being built.

The time in Goring would be a happy period for the Broads. Billy enjoyed a fairly normal childhood, hanging out with his pals and getting up to the usual mischief strong-willed boys are wont to. The Broads were a religious family who regularly attended church, Billy joined the Boy Scouts in Goring, though was reputedly asked to leave after getting caught kissing a girl. Idol was a bright student and passed his 11 plus, but he was bored at school. When a teacher wrote `Billy is Idle' in the margin of one of his works, it stuck in his mind and later inspired his stage name. Nevertheless Billy progressed well and when the family moved to Bromley in Kent in 1971 he transferred to the Ravensbourne Grammar School.

The distractions of London, however, were not conducive to studying and he failed to achieve the requirements for university entrance. His disappointed parents arranged for him to retake his exams at Orpington College of further education. Idol enjoyed the more relaxed environment here and a year later had secured his place at Sussex University. He began his course in English and Philosophy in September 1975. This coincided with the explosion of punk rock, which captured the imagination of Idol far more than his studies. He started hanging out with a group of like-minded friends at the in venues in London, instantly recognizable by their Malcolm Mclaren SEX shop clothes and peg pants. They became known as the Bromley Contingent (the contingent included Susan Dallion, later of Siouxsie and the Banshees) and began following the anarchic Sex Pistols to every gig.

At this time Bill Broad changed his name to Billy Idol and decided he wanted to be a real part of the musical revolution. This meant dropping out of university and forming his first band, The Rockettes, with his classmate Steve Upstone. They played covers of various bands, The Animals, Beatles and Doors. They gigged in the campus cafeteria and did one gig outside the University at the local youth hall, though they never recorded. They also did an audition for famed music managers Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes who told Steve that he was the real star. This and his father's doubt and disapproval only served to make Billy more determined.

When Billy met Tony James, a fellow student, and became Chelsea then Generation X, they started to get noticed. The final Generation X lineup - Tony James on bass, John Towe on drums, Bob Andrews on guitar and Idol as lead vocals, played their first live show in November 1976 and began writing and recording original material. In 1977 Chrysalis Records offered them a contract. After 3 albums and with management problems, band discord and the decline of the punk movement, Billy decided it was time to go solo. He relocated to New York and hooked up with Kiss manager Bill Aucoin. In 1981 the EP 'Don't Stop' (comprising a cover of Tommy James' 60s hit 'Mony Mony' and a pair of remixed Generation X tracks including 'Dancing With Myself') landed him a solo deal with Chrysalis. He found the perfect collaborator and partner in guitarist Steve Stevens and released the self-titled 'Billy Idol' in 1982. Idol made full use of the MTV explosion - the hugely successful videos for `White Wedding' and `Dancing With Myself' showcased his peroxide spiky hair, sneer and leathers to great effect.

The stage was set for the hugely successful 'Rebel Yell' in 1984. These early years were wild with Billy's hell-raising antics generating as much (if not more) publicity than his music. An eight-track best-of, 'Vital Idol', was released in 1985 and the popularity of the live video of `Mony Mony' on MTV kept him in the spotlight. 1986 saw a new release, 'Whiplash Smile' - it sold well and saw him nominated for a second Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (the first was for 'Rebel Yell'), but some felt it failed to live up to expectations. Stevens left to form his own band shortly afterwards.

Idol was ready to try new things, moving to Los Angeles, taking on a new band and appearing in an all star stage version of 'The Who's' `Tommy'. In 1990 however, around the time of the release of new album `Charmed Life', Idol was involved in a serious motorcycle accident when he ran a stop sign on his Harley. He almost lost a leg and was confined to bed for 6 months. He battled back bravely - the video for the first single, `Cradle of Love', showed him from the waist up - at the time he was paralysed below. The album was a success, his fourth in a row to achieve at least platinum sales. Idol decided to take a break and try his hand at acting, making his screen debut in Oliver Stone's `The Doors' in 1991. His next appearances before the camera were less auspicious, after pleading guilty to punching companion Amber Nevel outside a West Hollywood restaurant in 1992 he paid $2700 in fines and was required to appear in a series of anti-drug commercials.

1993's 'Cyberpunk' saw a new-look Idol, he had changed his famous peroxide spikes to dreadlocks and his sound to synthesized techo beats. The album flopped and Idol sank into drug addiction. He had another brush with death in 1994 when he overdosed and had to be treated in a Los Angeles hospital. Upon his discharge he calmed down and began to focus more on fatherhood. Although he has never married, Idol has two children - a son from his long term relationship with former Hot Gossip Dancer Perri Lister, William Broad, born in June 1988 and a daughter, Bonnie Blue, from another relationship, born 1989. The next few years were quiet until 1998 when a cameo appearance in the hit movie `The Wedding Singer' began an Idol revival. In 1999 his recognition was confirmed with his second wax model opening in Las Vegas. He teamed up with Stevens once more and found the old magic was still there. A more extensive 'Greatest Hits' was released in 2001 and sold over half a million copies in the USA alone, 2002 saw two VH1 specials - Behind the Music and Storytellers.

Idol is currently working with Stevens on new material, some of which has featured in the most recent tours over the past four years. It may be some time since the hedonistic, hell-raising days but his unbridled passion for music and performing remain and the shows are still no holds barred. Despite his bad-boy image, offstage Idol is said to be quite gentle and sensitive, knowledgeable with a good sense of humour and vegetarian.

[The Watcher]

Blondie, America's greatest pop band, is back on the scene with an amazing new album "The Curse of Blondie." It's a monster in more ways than one. It's a real Blondie masterwork, with fourteen powerful new songs - probably the most musically varied and experimental album in the group's history. It's also a monster because giant hits seem to lurk within it, threatening to explode at any moment. And it's also a monster because it flirts with the noir world of horror flicks and carries the ironic title "The Curse of Blondie." It's tongue in cheek, but...

Consider the fact that the band took sixteen years off between their sixth and seventh albums. Consider the fact that dissension broke up the group at the peak of their enormous success. Consider that Chris, the group's guitarist and hit writer, almost died of a rare and mysterious disease. Consider the fact that many of the group's closest associates in the new wave and punk movements are now in the grave or living in Florida. Consider the fact that the new album was four years in the making. Maybe there's something to this title.

"It's been a standing joke for years," says Deborah Harry, the singer, songwriter and blondest member of the group. "Every time something weird would happen we would say, 'It's the Curse of Blondie.' A lot of people take it seriously, but it's silly. It's sort of a Vincent Price, horror movie type title. I think it's lucky."

"The title is about how much of a pain in the ass everything is always," philosophizes founding Blondie member Chris Stein. "Everything is a struggle. But I guess it's for the best. You can't argue with the results."

The Curse of Blondie? It adds to the mystique that as an actress Debbie has starred in creepy thrillers like Videodrome by director David Cronenbeg, and the scary "Six Ways to Sunday" with Norman Reedus. And that she was a muse of "Alien" designer H.R. Giger who created the cover of her first solo album. And that Chris is known to have a collection of occult artifacts from famed magicians that would scare the knickers off Harry Potter.

The curse was working on this record which was scheduled for release two years ago, except that strange things kept happening. At one point the tapes vanished. But the thing about the Curse of Blondie is that like zombies, vampires or dandruff, they keep coming back. But somehow, each time they do, they are refreshed, revitalized and inspired anew.

The Curse of Blondie is the band's eleventh album, including "best of" and live discs. It's the eighth studio album, and with fourteen new songs, it could be the most musically accomplished and suprising of their long and amazing career.

Blondie emerged as the great pop band of the New York New Wave Punk scene. But they always defied categorization because they did the music they loved. They scored the first major reggae, rock/disco and hip hop hits. They wrote great rock hooks and brilliant ironic lyrics. They had the hippest clothes and the coolest hair. Debbie went from the cover of Punk magazine to being on the cover of just about every magazine.

The original BLONDIE was formed in 1974 by art student/guitarist Chris Stein and ex-fokie, ex-Max's Kansas City waitress and Playboy bunny, vocalist Debbie Harry. Drummer Clem Burke and keyboard player Jimmy Destri joined in 1975. The band played in New York downtown circuit - CBGB's, Max's Kansas City and Mothers. They collected a big following and in 1976 they recorded their first album BLONDIE. It was released in 1977 and was well received. After a successful stint in L.A., the band toured in support of Iggy Pop and David Bowie.

In the summer of 1977 they released their second album. Plastic Letters, and toured Europe and Asia. In March of 1978 the single "Denis Denis" hit #2 in the UK. That summer the band worked with producer Mike Chapman to hone their radio sound and create the album Parallel Lines, The single "Picture This" made #12 in the UK and the follow-up "Hanging on the Telephone" hit #5. At the end of the year Debbie made her first film, Union City.

In 1979 BLONDIE had their first #1 US hit with "Heart Of Glass" which also sold over a million copies in the UK. The album sold over 20 million copies worldwide. The fourth single from Parallel Lines, "Sunday Girl" also hit #1 in the UK. In September 1979 the band's fourth album "Eat To The Beat" was released, along with the first ever album length video. Before the year's end BLONDIE had continued their chart presence in the UK with the #2 hit "Dreaming."

In February 1980 they hit #1 in England again with "Atomic." Two months later they hit #1 in the US a second time with "Call Me," from the film American Gigolo. Before the end of the year Eat to the Beat was certified platinum and Debbie was on "The Muppet Show."

The fifth BLONDIE album, Autoamerican was released in January and the first single "The Tide Is High" made #1 in the UK. The first reggae tinged hit, it was #1 in the U.S. by March. The band appeared on the popular TV show "Solid Gold," and soon the album was solid platinum. In August Debbie released her first solo album, "Koo Koo," produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of Chic and featuring a cover by H.R. Giger, the Academy Award winning sci-fi artist who created the Alien creature.

[The Watcher]

By 1982 there was dissension in the band, but they still managed to produce another album The Hunter. The single "Island of Lost Souls" was the band's last US hit. In the meantime Chris was felled by a rare and often fatal genetic disease, and the band fell apart.

Debbie went on to appear in numerous films and plays and to create music in various contexts. In recent years she has been the featured vocalist of the Jazz Passengers. Jimmy left music for a while to become a family man and contractor. Chris produced various bands in New York. Clem continued to record and tour with top acts. Sixteen years later the bandmember were used to being apart, but miraculously they were still talking. The friendships were still there. The doors were ajar. Responding to a request, they reformed to play a concert and had so much fun and found so much chemistry remaining that they decided to try to make some new music. That worked out so well that they reformed and made a new album. No Exit, the seventh Blondie studio album, was produced by Craig Leon, who had actually produced the band's first single, X-Offender, and worked on the first album assisting producer Richard Gottherer.

No Exit surprised many listeners because it sounded like the band had been together all along. It wasn't a typical, perfunctory, belabored comeback. It was a perfect, up-to-date evolution of Blondie - a great collection perfectly crafted pop songs. The trademark elements were still there: that perfect, propulsive beat; Debbie's unmistakable voice, seductive, soulful yet ironic; atmospheric keyboards, sometimes lush, sometimes eerie; and brilliantly articulated guitar lines. It was an auspicious return, highlighted by the hit "Maria" which went to #1 in 14 countries. The album sold more than two million units worldwide and, behind it, the band completed two tours of the U.S, the U.K. and Europe.

As powerful and fresh as it was, No Exit may have been just a warm up for The Curse of Blondie. The album starts off with "Shakedown", a state-of-the-art R & B hip hop gem penned by Debbie and Chris. It sounds like the best of what's on the urban radio except the lyrics are, perhaps, urbane. "The Rap is the best one Debbie has ever done," says Chris, which is saying something since she scored the first hip hop number one ever. The lyrics are brilliant and the delivery is as smooth as that other great blond rapper, the one from Michigan.

"I wanted to get a song on the Sopranos and I figured they'd like it if I did a pro-Jersey rap," says Debbie. "And I'm from New Jersey so I thought I might as well own up to it. I'm from Hawthorne."

The first single, "Good Boys," written by Kevin Griffin (Better Than Ezra) and Debbie, is a classic up-tempo Blondie-thon with hooks that grab like velcro. The video was created by Jonas Ackerlund, who directed Debbie in the edgy hit film Spun and there are rumors of remixes by the likes of Giorgio Moroder. The Curse of Blondie is an album of extraordinary richness and variety filled with strong songs, from major pop tunes like the infectious "Hello Joe" which is dedicated to Joey Ramone, to a variety of quirky and charming excursions - from a rewrite of traditional Okinawan folk song "Magic (Asadoya Yunta)" to a cosmic, free jazz-tinged ballad "Desire Brings Me Back" that is reminiscent of the Blondie standard "Cautious Lip." Another jazzy ballad, "Songs of Love," is a haunting tune that could be a dark horse hit.

Blondie still rocks. "Last One in the World," conjures up an apocalyptic metal mood that would make vintage Ozzy jealous, while "Rules for Living," written by Jimmy Destri, demonstrates once again Blondie's unmatched light touch on heaviness. There are also plenty of pretty things: the lilting "Background Melody" with Debbie floating a gorgeous lacy tune over a skanking dub groove. "The Tingler" a playful takeoff on the horror film of the same name is about an itch and then it goes on to demonstrate that nobody does "catchy" like Blondie. They make a tune absolutely contagious.

Digital technology allowed them to record it wherever they felt like working - often in the basement of Chris's loft - which may have contributed to the free, creative attitude. Like "No Exit," "The Curse of Blondie" was co-produced by Craig Leon. He may or may not have contributed to "the curse." "Definitely," says Chris. "Craig looks like a creature. He looks like Peter Lorre. He's fascinating. He should be studied scientifically."

The Curse of Blondie proves that the band hasn't lost a step. In fact the band has refined its chops and plays better than ever, but what's amazing is that they've kept totally current. Chris Stein says "It's in the groove of what's happening, but it still pushing the envelope."

The Curse of Blondie is the envelope. Debbie is rightfully proud of the band: "The guys have gotten really good at what they do. I mean they always were good players and songwriters, but I think now you could say they're accomplished."

Maybe the Curse of Blondie will finally prove to be a good luck charm. "I think this record is the best one yet," says Debbie, for once without a trace of irony in her voice.