Biography
"The rock band that changed the course of rock."
That's something very few bands can claim to their name. Maybe Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath... and of course, HANOI ROCKS.
Back in 1980, when the band took its early steps in Finland and Sweden, they already were something else. Loud and proud, flamboyant and full of attitude, they quickly gained fame outside of Scandinavia, first in the UK, then in Asia, continental Europe and finally in the US.
HANOI ROCKS played anytime, anyplace and with anybody daring enough to share the stage with them and built their following a bit more, gig by gig. Alongside their gruelling live schedule they managed to record five albums and with each release gained new ground until the final breakthrough was looming ahead.
HANOI ROCKS had just released their major label debut on CBS, the now legendary "Two Steps From The Move", and were in L.A. to tour the US for real for the first time. Already having a following in the United States, HANOI ROCKS had gained momentum of such scale that a
breakthrough as a result of not more than a year of touring was imminent.
But then tragedy struck the band: Razzle, the drummer was killed in a car crash in California on December 9th 1984.
The death of a friend was a devastating blow to the band and it never recovered. The rest of the US tour was cancelled and consequently the bass player Sam Yaffa quit the band. Eventually early 1985 HANOI ROCKS threw in the towel and disbanded. The fruits of their
labour were to be picked by bands heavily influenced by HANOI ROCKS, both musically and visually, like Guns N' Roses for example.
The years that followed saw the ex -members of HANOI ROCKS launching solo careers and new bands and it seemed like it was all over as far as HANOI ROCKS was concerned. And so thought the guys themselves. Until things changed with the Millennium.
Having not really been in any contact with each other for some time, the founding members Andy and Michael met at a release party for a HANOI ROCKS 4-cd box set in early spring 2001. After having fun that night, jamming at a club together, the two started keeping in contact again and eventually ended up playing a couple of festival gigs together under the moniker Hanoi Revisited. Since the summer shows were fun and the old energy was back, the pair booked some studio time and tried their hand at writing together after an over 15 year break. From the word go it was obvious the magic was still there. The stuff they'd recorded was too good not to be released and after a lot of pondering and since any other moniker under which to release it would have been pretentious and just plain stupid, the EP "People Like Me" was released by HANOI ROCKS. The legend was reborn.
After the EP, HANOI ROCKS released "12 Shots On The Rocks" an album which went gold in their native Finland and opened a lot of doors all
over the world. After having undergone some changes in their personnel, HANOI ROCKS in the spring 2005 not only presented a
new album "Another Hostile Takeover" but also the new guitarist Conny Bloom and the new bass player "A.C." Christell. Along with the drummer Lacu the band's chemistry had now finally locked perfectly into place.
To promote the release of the new record in Finland the band made a special historical Live appearance on Friday, April 15th, 2005 in the middle of Helsinki City during rush hour, stopping all traffic and jam-packing the City center with about 15 000 people.
Since then the band has toured extensively in Europe and Japan and have definitely tightened up into one of the hardest rockin' live bands on the planet. Eventually they'll head for the States in order to "finish what was started" back in 1984. Currently HANOI ROCKS is working on fresh material for their new album to be released later this year.
Sounding better than ever, HANOI ROCKS is more than ready to rock the world in 2007!
Do not miss an opportunity to see them live, as they are still one of the "best kept secrets in Rock'n'Roll"...
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