Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock’s Nothin’ But a Good Time tracks the decadent rise and fall of the much derided 80s hard rock / hair metal scene. It weaves a narrative from Van Halen and early incarnations of Quiet Riot, through the dizzying success of Mötley Crüe and Poison and the birth of Guns N’ Roses, to the scene’s implosion with all the look-alike sound alikes power ballading their way onto Dial MTV.
After a revealing introduction from Slipknot’s Corey Taylor (!) professing his love for the 80s glam scene, music journalists Beaujour and Bienstock create an oral history through old and new interviews and quotes from a broad selection of players from L.A. and beyond. It’s the words of those involved that paint a vivid picture of the scene and its shenanigans, whether it’s A&R wizards like Tom Zutaut, producers like Tom Werner, the bands themselves, the publicists, stylists or even the odd groupie spilling the tea.
It was clearly a wild time marked by rampant misogyny and unbridled excess, and the book takes us behind the scenes into the rivalries and ridiculousness to reveal the last hurrah of a tribal music scene before grunge changed the mood, the internet permanently altered life as we know it, and phones replaced lighters. Love it or hate it, there is no denying that it was hard rock’s most vibrant period, and, despite the scene eventually disappearing up it’s own backside and having its coffin nailed shut by the Seattle bands, it produced a lot of surprisingly enjoyable, good, old-fashioned rock n roll, as well as a bunch of stuff that’s probably best forgotten.
The book reveals all kinds of insights, from Slash’s audition for Poison to Sebastian Bach’s performance alongside Zakk Wylde at a wedding that led to him getting the Skid Row gig, via Jon Bon Jovi’s parents of course! There are all kinds of interesting backstories, but the one big shocker is that some of these bands worked really hard to achieve what they did, living in abject poverty and dedicating absolutely every waking hour to making it big.
The book can come across as a little he-said-she-said gossipy at times, but that’s hardly surprising given the overriding High School Musical vibe of the scene. Still, for those who grew up with an HR/HM soundtrack, this book provides a delightful romp down memory lane in a no-holds-barred exposé of the misadventures of the time. It has also been distilled down into a three part docuseries on Paramount+ that is equally good fun, featuring said interviews from a number of the key players.
Now that there is some distance from the time, it is clear that despite eventually becoming a parody of itself, a lot of great songs came out of the melee. So, check out the Spotify playlist that I’ve curated to more or less chronologically reflect the book’s narrative.
There aren’t too many surprises on the ‘Prayers for the Damned Vol. 1’, the new album from Sixx:A.M., but hey, if it ain’t broke, why try to fix it? Nikki Sixx and co have hit upon a formula for their killer brand of hard rock that works; there’s massive choruses, massive guitars, massive bass lines and massive harmonies that all make for a massive sound on this loosely biblical album of pop metal.
Pop metal? Yep. When your lead singer is a man who writes hits for the likes of Kelly Clarkson and has an ear for a melody Katy Perry would kill for, if you took out the totally badass guitaring of the superb DJ Ashba and Sixx’s penchant for a bit of twisted darkness, make no bones about it, you’d be left with radio friendly, commercially appealing, uber positive pop.
From the word go on the first single ‘Rise’ we get everything this power trio holds dear; a hard rock groove from the low slung guitar, a hook filled chorus that flies ever higher as it progresses, a killer solo and Nikki’s bass bubbling away in the background. Damn it, there’s even the a ‘capella line before the grand finale. It ticks all the formula songwriting boxes, but when your band is this tight and your production this slick, you can’t fail to deliver.
How do you follow that? With another swaggering riff straight from Sunset Strip of course! It’s a thin disguise though, You Have Come To The Right Place is about as perfect a piece of hard driving pop as you can get. I’m Sick starts out as more of a slow boiler, but soon picks up to continue in pretty much the same vein, but what the hell, I love a bit of radio friendly rock as much as the next man, like they say in the song: “I’m sick, gimme some more of it!. There’s a particularly awesome solo though, as the song gathers pace for the climax.
The middle section of the album takes on a more serious tone with a more measured pace, the Sixx:A.M. brand of self help delving into issues of making amends, finding hope out of the darkness and turning to God. Better Man possesses an undercurrent of melancholy to the atmospheric guitar lines and James Michael’s vocal is a little more understated, while ‘Prayers for the Damned’ and ‘When We Were Gods’ have a particularly epic feel to the uplift as they push the religious imagery, the latter mixing things up a little arrangement wise with an unexpected twist towards the end.
Sandwiched between is ‘Can’t Stop’ with its marching vibe, but there’s an air of filler to it, although it is sure to work better in the live arena. ‘Belly of the Beast’ pricked my ears up a little further though, it really showcases what Michael can do vocally when he leaves his comfort zone and it’s a cool switch up.
There’s more than a hint of Motley Crüe in the opening chords to ‘Everything Went To Hell’ but the comparison ends there and it turns into something of a vehicle showcasing Ashba’s playing. DJ has to be one of the most underrated guitarists in the game and his playing throughout this album is nothing short of stunning, the killer riffing and sublime soloing a constant, adding another dimension to otherwise ordinary tracks like ‘The Last Time (My Heart Will Hit The Ground).
Album closer ‘Rise of the Melancholy Empire’ rounds things off in predictably epic style, though the delicate piano and atmospheric guitar lines add a touch of class. It is a quality way to end Volume 1, with the second half of this double album project set to drop later in the year.
This is probably Sixx:A.M’s strongest record since ‘Heroin Diaries’, pretty much every track has a winning hook, the playing is first rate and the production superb. Ok, so they like a pop melody and know how to deliver a chorus, but it’s not like they have art rock aspirations and what they do is done in style. There is a massive market for this kind of music, so when a band are writing songs with a message and turning in such great performances, superstardom is pretty much a given, not bad for what started as a side project.
In the current musical climate it takes something special to pull off Hard Rock without it sounding like a lukewarm version of the 1980s. Thankfully, the combined talents of Motley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, Guns n Roses guitarist DJ Ashba and multi-platinum producer/engineer/songwriter James Michael not only pull it off, but also add a modern twist, experimenting with a variety of sounds over the band’s three powerful records.
Originally formed back in 2007 for the soundtrack project to Nikki’s brutal ‘Heroin Diaries’ book, Sixx A.M. were never even meant to tour, but public demand soon changed that and the busy schedules of the individual members had to be put on hold. The tour led to a second record, also accompanying a book, Nikki’s photography project, ‘This is Gonna Hurt’, which inevitably led to more touring, more recording and the release of 2014’s ‘Modern Vintage’. All three albums are jam packed with hard rocking hook filled tunes, but they also include an array of interesting touches, from catchy pop, through industrial to music hall and the theatrical.
There’s a kind of freshness and instant likeability to the creative hotbed that is Sixx A.M.; Michael knows how to deliver a good old fashioned radio-friendly hook, yet their heavy assed tracks are glued together by Ashba’s powerful riffing and soaring solos, all underscored by Sixx’s rumbling bass. As well as covering the hard-hitting subject of addiction and recovery, there’s plenty more substance to the lyrical content in their accessible take on modern life. As Nikki says:
“A big part of our message is, and will always be, finding hope in dark subject matters, taking universal messages and rendering them in a way which people can ascribe their own meanings to and relate to their own life experiences. That is something that resonates with our crowd and gives us the strength of connection we do.”
Now that the final nail has gone into the Motley Crüe coffin and that Slash has (temporarily) made up with Axl, it looks like Nikki and Dj might have a bit of extra time on their hands to dedicate to this intriguing project which keeps serving up killer tunes. With Michael making space in his prolific songwriting and production schedule, the coming release of their fourth album Prayers for the Damned Vol 1.’ and the possibility of Vol.2 also following in 2016, should see the band making serious waves; there are already a number of top festival dates confirmed. In the meantime, ‘Rise’, the killer first track from the new record, has already dropped and the album is set to follow in late April, so as a taster, here are six(x) of their best…
‘Relief’ from ‘Modern Vintage’
This starts out like an urgent hard rocker, but soon takes on a darker feel with a more restrained vocal, before the annoyingly catchy chorus. Although a little less epic than some of their work, the frantic feel gives it a vibrant energy that makes for a killer tune.
‘Stars’ from ‘Modern Vintage’
For high quality slickly delivered melodic hard rock, it don’t get much better than this.
‘Lies of the Beautiful People’ from ‘This is Gonna Hurt’
Despite being seriously hooky and possessing a touch of uplift to the chorus, this is actually one of their darkest tracks and features some great work from DJ Ashba.
‘Life Is Beautiful’ from ‘THe Heroin Diaries Soundtrack’
Although ‘This is Gonna Hurt’ has some great moments it’s the ‘Heroin Diaries’ that is all killer and ‘Life is Beautiful’ showcases pretty much everything that rocks about this band – great chorus, banging riff – good, straight forward, hard-rocking tune.
‘Van Nuys’ from ‘THe Heroin Diaries Soundtrack’
They manage to include a killer hook and put a commercial spin on this claustrophobic track about Nikki’s addiction. It also features some lovely touches in the instrumentation as well as James Michael’s most versatile vocal performance; superb.
‘The Girl With Golden Eyes’ from ‘THe Heroin Diaries Soundtrack’
There are so many great tracks on ‘Heroin Diaries’ that it’s actually difficult to pin-point a favourite; I love ‘Courtesy Call’, ‘Pray For Me’ rocks and ‘Dead Man’s Ballet’ is one of the most innovative tracks they’ve done, but there’s something about this song that I love – maybe it’s the brutal honesty of the track, the building intensity or just its atmosphere – whatever, it’s a great track.
The first weekend of Rock in Rio’s nostalgia fest came and went in fairly spectacular fashion, with Queen and One Republic camping up the Friday night, Motley Crue and Metallica the Saturday and Rod Stewart and Elton John the Sunday. Judging by the euphoric reactions of the crowds in the crush at the front of the stage and the outpourings on social media, a good time was had by all.
On the Friday, a highly competent performance from One Republic was followed by the improbable combination of Queen & Adam Lambert, which was surprisingly spectacular with some truly spine tingling moments; notably those with video footage of Freddie, although Adam proved himself more than up to the task. In fact, hats off to the former Idol contestant for being one of the bravest men in rock, not only is he one of the few openly gay performers around, he has had the courage to step into the biggest gay shoes ever, and rather than it turning into a crass imitation of a hero, Adam has put his own identity onto the band, whilst maintaining respect for the past. Ok, so maybe to some it doesn’t feel quite right hearing another singer do Freddie’s songs, but they were well sung, and interestingly, Adam’s youth brings a freshness to the performance that other older acts, particularly Elton, were seriously missing.
It would be easy to critisize Roger Taylor and Brian May for continuing Queen as a band; I mean they took the easy way out and John Deacon wanted no part of it, but when you have the material and the possibility of playing to enormous crowds at the drop of a hat, the temptation must have been too great. Sure, it would’ve been far more admirable for the trio to continue with a new singer, in a new band, under a different name, with new material, but maybe they just didn’t feel up to it creatively; it must be difficult to conjure up that kind of hunger; but by getting a much younger singer involved it has given the project a little more vibrance than the previous incarnation with Paul Rogers, and in the meantime, Adam Lambert is taking the opportunity to get himself known worldwide; they even showcased one of his own tracks, the hard rocking ‘Ghost Town’, which slipped in effortlessly alongside Queen’s own material. Obviously, haters gonna hate, but he’s setting himself up for future stardom, so fair play.
Saturday was the first of the three metal days and Korn certainly rocked the Sunset Stage with a fine performance. The British duo of Royal Blood came, saw, and though they didn’t exactly conquer, put on a quality show to win over some new fans, their closing song including an off the cuff ‘Paranoid’ riff that got the crowd going.
Motley Crüe brought their R.I.P tour to South America for their first and last show in Brazil and, musically speaking, nailed it. They worked the stage like pros with plenty of movement and some entertaining pyrotechnics; Nikki and Tommy were as tight as a rhythm section can get and the walking cadaver that is Mick Mars was nothing short of superb. Mötley Crüe really are underrated, their image often overshadowing their technical abilities and their songwriting skills; that most of these songs are from the height of hair metal yet still stand up is testament to their talent. However, Vince Neil sadly let the side down. At first I thought it was down to a poor mix, the vocal being almost inaudible, but once it was sorted it was apparent that he wasn’t actually singing all the words; he’d skip prepositions, or kinda mumble more difficult sections, or just not even try, leaving it to the back up girls. Sorry, but it is definitely time for the band to call it a day, that way Nikki can concentrate on the exciting Sixx A.M project and Mick can finally get some rest – I love Crüe, but it’s time to let them go.
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Metallica, last time they were here they were pushing ‘Through the Never’, so we got brand Metallica, this time round though, thankfully it was band Metallica. They gave a high quality well honed performance and rocked the Palco Mundo hard! There was plenty of power on display and you could sense their enthusiasm, although now and again they do come across as a little too contrived; kinda scripted. For instance, when James screams “Please God, help me!” in the middle of ‘One’ it’s like he’s doing it because that is what he’s supposed to say at that point, perhaps some new material will help keep them fresh, otherwise they are in danger of going down the Elton John road.
Unfortunately, Elton and many other performers are precisely that, performers, like actors reciting their lines, they are showmen delivering precisely what the crowd expect, which is perfectly ok, the crowd go home happy and Elton and co. get the adulation they so rightly deserve, as well as the pay check, obviously. What is seriously lacking though is that bit of fire that adds some real emotion to the show; there’s no hunger, no conviction. Put it like this, Elton’s drummer is a smiley white haired gentleman in a suit and tie; highly competent he may well be, but he sure as hell ain’t hungry for this. I don’t blame Elton and his more than able band, people want to see them, so they play and everyone has a good time; but as a casual observer, the only thing sending shivers down my spine was my A/C. I watched 10m of John Legend, who I don’t even like, and got goosebumps 3 times. Elton delivered the line “rolling like thunder under the covers” in such lukewarm fashion all I could imagine was the thunder as his gargantuan frame creaks the springs as David rolls him over to stop the snoring, not quite the intended sentiment me thinks.
Thank god then for Rod, surrounded by the young and eager and still pretty sprightly himself, his show was fun, energetic and well worth watching. He managed to breathe some life into old material, he gave space to showcase the talent around him and he worked the stage ceaselessly. Just goes to show that the highly lucrative nostalgia circuit needn’t be stale, as Rod and Queen proved, with a bit of young blood and a rethink of how things are done there’s life in the old dogs yet.
The sixth edition of Rock in Rio kicks off this Friday for its now biannual shindig since coming back to home turf in 2011 and there’s plenty for the discerning rock fan to look forward to, or totally avoid(!), during its seven days spread over two weekends.
The Rock in Rio franchise is now one of the biggest and most successful shows on the festival circuit with editions in places as diverse as Lisbon and Las Vegas, but it’s the Rio edition which holds all the kudos. There’s a kind of nostalgic charm about it that never fails to capture the imagination of the Brazilian public, even though São Paulo’s Lollapolooza may be better organised and consistently puts together a far superior line-up.
RiR is Brazil’s Woodstock; with previous, often chaotic, editions talked about with an air of mythical awe, it has become a kind of rite of passage for the youth of today, if only for them to be able to say “Eu fui” – the trade mark T-shirt which announces to the world that you were there. I’ve got mine from 2001. But it’s not just for the youth, the often old fashioned bill also attracts a somewhat older festival goer maybe aiming to recapture a bit of that inexplicable nostalgic feel. Why else would they pay through the nose to get to the arse end of Rio on a freighted bus (no cars allowed) to stand under the burning Rio sun to watch bands as diverse as A-ha and Lamb of God? Because it’s Rock in fucking Rio baby!!!
Anyway this year the organisers have outdone themselves in the nostalgia stakes, there’s Queen, Rod, Elton, the aforementioned A-ha, Faith no More and Metallica, for the third consecutive edition, just in case you missed their merciless self promotion last time round when the plugging of ‘Through the Never’ was at fever pitch. You can’t help but feel the organizer are short changing the Brazilian public just a little. Even so, the festival does actually give a chance to more recent successes like Slipknot, System of a Down and One Republic, while pop icons like Katy Perry, Rhianna and Sam Smith also get their shot. There is also the occasional younger band like The Script or Royal Blood, but they are gonna have to work their asses off because more often than not the crowd are there to go mad for their heroes or just for the occasion, it’s not the same hardcore indie crowd of Lolla; throw in the local obsession for constant cell phone use, the banning of selfie sticks notwithstanding, and the scalding heat and you have a recipe for early evening apathy. Royal Blood in particular will have their work cut out this Saturday, people won’t have heard of them and basically everyone will be there to see Metallica, so even Motley Crüe will need to be on top form, especially with Korn likely to pull a big crowd over to the second stage.
So after Queen, One Republic and The Script kick things off tonight, it’s full on metal on Saturday, with Metallica’s repeat performance likely to take all the spoils, before Sunday’s very British, very old line up of Seal, Elton John and Rod Stewart on the main stage, while John Legend and Magic, who just might steal everybody’s thunder, take on the Sunset stage. More to follow…
Hard Pressed 