In 1982 they moved to London, where the hugely influential British music press, mired in the gloom of post-punk and the earnest grimaces and greasy hair of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, quickly and enthusiastically embraced these loud cowboy peacocks. Hanoi Rocks formed in Helsinki, Finland, in 1980, releasing their first album in 1981. There it was, live onstage: the ultimate pink pop cartoon and the greatest gut-grabbing rock & roll dream, everything you had ever wanted the boogying electric rooster to be, in all its supreme and silly erotic terror! If you saw Hanoi Rocks in 1983 or 1984, you witnessed a certain kind of god. True, they most obviously resembled The New York Dolls, but Hanoi Rocks almost completely discarded the R&B aspect of the Dolls while retaining their sleazy, rolling, doo-wop-abilly 1/4/5 churn. Uniquely, Hanoi Rocks found a way to wrap a punk-rock frame around the fleetest, fastest and most fist-pounding splices of Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Alice Cooper and James Gang. It wasn’t just the look it was the sound, too. From the singers with the serpentine hips to the skipping, swirling guitar players wearing attitudinal hats to the too-cool, vested rhythm guitarists, it all had its roots in Hanoi Rocks. The whole platinum, spiky and rouged middle of the decade looked like them. without hitting a group that were created in this one band's image. Heck, in the mid and late 1980s, you couldn’t throw a drink ticket in L.A.
As Guns N’ Roses prepare for their upcoming shows at Staples Center and the Forum, let's take a moment to remember that the leviathans of Sunset Strip rock owe almost their entire existence to one single artist.
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