Re: New York Dolls
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:01 am
The Dolls made Gary Glitter look presentable. Wearing dishevelled wigs , smudged lipstick, stilted platforms, painfully tight lurex pants and crimpoline dresses they combined Iggy's anarchy, Lou Reeds brutality and street sense and invoked the three minute pop song with the excitement it was originally conceived. With this sort of attitude they raised hackles everywhere.
Formed in 1972 they quickly made an impact .They may have had a fat lipped jagger look-alike and a junked up guitarist and all the while the band looking like brickies in drag but nothing could compare to the mascara massacre of Bad Girl, Frankenstein and the spiteful Vietnamese Baby. The Dolls were outrageous. Thunders falling off stage, shooting up when shoved back on stage, Sylvain Sylvain toppling off his stack heels, Johanson gobbing at the audience before spit was taken as a complimentary greeting. Their first drummer died from an overdose in London in 72 after one too many night of excess leaving Jerry Nolan to step on drums and later punk history with The Heartbreakers. As like so many USA bands we took them to heart with them playing at Wembley Stadium with The Faces and appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test music programme to the obvious distaste of it presenter Bob Harris.
Courted by the record companies but unsure of their salability outside New York they in all reality imploded and their second album Too Much Too Soon is aptly titled. By 74 they had nowhere to go. However they met up with an old friend whose shop in London they visited when they came over to England in 72 to buy clothes who went by the name of Malcolm McClaren. Somehow he took over managing the band and dressed them in red leather and communist chic which in reactionary conservative America killed them stone dead. If that didn't then what did was the realization that here was a band with two strung out junkies which meant they couldn't play too far from their dealers !! They split up but not before Malcolm headed back to England with a head full of ideas and Sylvain's magical white Gibson Les Paul*. The scene was set though not to be realised for a couple of years.
The Heartbreakers were 100% rock'n'roll and combined the best and worst of that epithet. A killer live band but a band awash with drugs and excess.
With living guitar legend Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, ex of The New York Dolls, they had the link with a glorious glam punk past not hurt by Richard Hells sojourn in the band for a short while. Ignored by the American scene they hopped onto the ill fated Anarchy Tour with the Sex Pistols. By the time they hit the UK they were ready to rumble and the nascent punk rock scene opened up to a band with attitude, history and a killer live act.
Signed to Track records they released the classic album Like A Mother Fucker and two singles Chinese Rocks & Get Off The Phone. None were successful and this and the drugs did for the band who split up. Sadly drugs really did do for the band as both Nolan and Thunders later died drug related deaths.
*Guitar used by Steve Jones in The Sex Pistols.
Formed in 1972 they quickly made an impact .They may have had a fat lipped jagger look-alike and a junked up guitarist and all the while the band looking like brickies in drag but nothing could compare to the mascara massacre of Bad Girl, Frankenstein and the spiteful Vietnamese Baby. The Dolls were outrageous. Thunders falling off stage, shooting up when shoved back on stage, Sylvain Sylvain toppling off his stack heels, Johanson gobbing at the audience before spit was taken as a complimentary greeting. Their first drummer died from an overdose in London in 72 after one too many night of excess leaving Jerry Nolan to step on drums and later punk history with The Heartbreakers. As like so many USA bands we took them to heart with them playing at Wembley Stadium with The Faces and appearing on the Old Grey Whistle Test music programme to the obvious distaste of it presenter Bob Harris.
Courted by the record companies but unsure of their salability outside New York they in all reality imploded and their second album Too Much Too Soon is aptly titled. By 74 they had nowhere to go. However they met up with an old friend whose shop in London they visited when they came over to England in 72 to buy clothes who went by the name of Malcolm McClaren. Somehow he took over managing the band and dressed them in red leather and communist chic which in reactionary conservative America killed them stone dead. If that didn't then what did was the realization that here was a band with two strung out junkies which meant they couldn't play too far from their dealers !! They split up but not before Malcolm headed back to England with a head full of ideas and Sylvain's magical white Gibson Les Paul*. The scene was set though not to be realised for a couple of years.
The Heartbreakers were 100% rock'n'roll and combined the best and worst of that epithet. A killer live band but a band awash with drugs and excess.
With living guitar legend Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan, ex of The New York Dolls, they had the link with a glorious glam punk past not hurt by Richard Hells sojourn in the band for a short while. Ignored by the American scene they hopped onto the ill fated Anarchy Tour with the Sex Pistols. By the time they hit the UK they were ready to rumble and the nascent punk rock scene opened up to a band with attitude, history and a killer live act.
Signed to Track records they released the classic album Like A Mother Fucker and two singles Chinese Rocks & Get Off The Phone. None were successful and this and the drugs did for the band who split up. Sadly drugs really did do for the band as both Nolan and Thunders later died drug related deaths.
*Guitar used by Steve Jones in The Sex Pistols.