Circus Collector's Issue, 1994 (1984 Crue Article)

This Circus Magazine Collector's Issue was published in early 1994 and features classic interviews from the 1960s to the 1990s. Motley joins such illustrious company as Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix. This would have been published before the band released their self-titled record with new vocalist John Corabi. The table of contents blurb says

"Til death do they party. It's 1984 and the gates of hell have opened siccing Nikki, Vince and their pack of wacks on a shocked music scene."

Richard Hogan's article, "Motley Crue: Glad To Be Bad," begins by telling us that everyone (except the Rock magazines) seem to be putting the Crue down. Hogan says that MTV Host J. J. Jackson recently reported that Vince punched out a female patron at The Rainbow Bar and Grill when she objected to his Marine outfit (Paul Miles' Chronological Crue page has this happening at The Troubadour in January of 1982). Jackson drops the script and surmises to the camera that Vince may not have been so tough if the objector was an actual Marine!

J. J. Jackson

This video of Nikki and Vince on MTV talking to host Martha Quinn comes from January-February 1984, after the Shout at The Devil album and the premier video "Looks That Kill" had been released. At around three minutes and thirty seconds Martha says that just a few weeks back Vince was in the news regarding the assault. Vince says that it was a man he hit, not a woman  ("You know, everyone in Hollywood looks like a woman  . . . I hit somebody but it wasn't a girl"). This is one of the many stories that never made it to "The Dirt" book or movie.

The Circus interview is likely from December, 1983 when the Crue were in Massachusetts rehearsing for their opening slot on the Ozzy Osbourne Bark At The Moon tour in 1984. Nikki and Vince illustrate their violent and wild temperaments with stories of a recent (Nikki) car crash and a (Vince) Halloween incarceration. "We are extremists," explains Nikki. The band members and their current ages are shared as well as the circumstances of the making of their independently-released Too Fast For Love back in 1981. 

Motley were going out of their way to gain notoriety in these years and the Metal magazines ate it up and shared the debauched details. The above video clip also shows that the band was singled out by the PMRC. Nikki's x-rated groupie stories in the pages of the magazines would land the band in hot water soon after this interview and 1984 would end with the death of Razzle Dingley of the group Hanoi Rocks at the hands of drunk driver, Vince Neil.

The Motley Crue drama played out in real time in these years. Fans devoured these popular rags to hear news of their Rock God heroes and to get images for their teenybopper shrines. Circus Magazine almost exclusively featured live shots of the bands on tour. The mixture of video channels, Rock magazines with articles and posters and LPs or cassettes blaring the music was a heady mixture.



Above is the Classified page (for some more flavour of the age) and an ad that reminds us when this Circus was published: 1994. Motley were about to release the self-titled album with new singer John Corabi and Vince was a semi-successful solo artist. This back page ad for Gibson Guitars shows Mr. Neil with two members of his band. He is still playing solo shows today. Vince would get back with Motley by 1996-1997 when the magic of the 1984 years was long gone. That a movie biography of the band would be released in 2019 is a testament to the strength of the music and the allure of the notoriety of the group in the 1980s.

More Rock Magazines to come at The Sleaze Patrol Files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Sleaze Patrol Files Blog Origin Story

2019 marks NINE years of The Sleaze Patrol Files Blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This collection spans the years 1981 to the early 1990s. I was growing out of Motley in the 1990s and the bulk of this collection is from the Girls, Girls, Girls era of 1987 to the Decade of Decadence era of 1991-1992. Stray pieces made their way into the collection in the ensuing years, but not much at all.

The Corabi years were partly intriguing. I bought that record. I did not purchase 1997's Generation Swine as I had fully moved on from the band and it was awkward, overwrought music. I kinda like the record, now, but this is in the cool light of hindsight. In 1997, I was more interested in The Velvet Underground.

My Crue collection was retired to a series of tubs in my parents' basement. I graduated High School, attended University and did the grown up boogie.

Around fifteen years later, some time in the late 2000s, I returned from my adventures and rediscovered these tubs nestled among my mother's Holiday decorations and bags of old clothes and keepsakes. There were my beloved childhood folders of Motley Metal Edge pin-ups; my Circus articles and T-Shirts and VHS and Buttons and Cassettes and LPs and Door Posters and mirrors and magazines and scrapbooks and flags and original Crue art from school chums . . . a mid-sized, intense little collection of the Crue by an uber-fan in the years when the Crue walked tallest and most brazenly on Mother Earth.

As I compared what I had with the then burgeoning online fan culture I could see a difference: where most were collectors who purchased identifiable "collectibles" and expensive rarities from the Motley memorabilia universe, mine was a period teeny-bopper type gathering of all things available in the popular culture of the time. So pin-ups and posters and memorabilia purchased at convenience stores or at carnivals or from other kids at school; or scrapbooks and drawings; T-shirts purchased at now-defunct Malls and retailers like Zellers and many long-gone record shops. When I opened these tubs in the late 2000s it felt like I was stepping back into my youth of the 1980s and early 1990s.

And my home video VHS collection survived in boxes under the stairwell. I taped a lot of Crue content in the early 1990s and it appears I got some rare content from Canadian music video channels because a decade after sharing it online I've never seen any other copies?!

And so I've continued to keep it mostly all intact (even after a couple close calls where I almost sold off the whole collection due to disinterest) to share with the Crue Heads from around the world.

There is more to share. I still have articles and magazines and scrapbooks and video and etc that I haven't posted so The Sleaze Patrol Files should be sharing new content for at least a few more years. I have another Crue blog that I don't post at much but it highlights rare Motley film and video:

https://cruetube.blogspot.com/

For old fans who get a buzz from this stuff in recognizing images and feelings from their childhood or young adult days, to the new fans who maybe have just jumped on board since the release of the 2019 Motley biopic "The Dirt" . . . The Sleaze Patrol Files is here for you to time-travel and enjoy the band in their most successful and meaningful years: 1981-1991.

Motley Drawings, Part II: Not-So-Good Kid Art

In my first post sharing my childhood Motley Crue art from school friends there were some really cool images. In today's post? Not so much. Some friends were better artists than others. Some of these were drawn by really young kids and look like it but I was always happy to receive some Crue art from a friend. Enjoy these pieces from the 1980s to the early 1990s.

 

 

Bullwinkle

Here is a video featuring a woman who may or may not be Bullwinkle.

Tommy and the Crue, Summer 1987

This article written by Arlett Vereecke for BLAST! Magazine details an interview with Tommy in the summer of 1987. It is a candid piece; the Motleys stumble into their Burbank rehearsal space to play tunes and do press. Mick and Nikki and Tommy are hungover following a night of merriment after an evening photo session. Vince is sober and ready to play! Their back and forth is transcribed for a few columns ["Mars Aide", Puma-donated sweat pants, Tommy and Nikki's proposed production company "Unlimited Funz"]. This is a slice of a busy afternoon of the band about to depart on a reckless and dangerous tour that would be cancelled before the year was out.


Arlett corners Tommy and they chat. Tommy talks about how he started playing drums and his important role in the Crue. Arlett criticizes the sound of the live "Jailhouse Rock" on the new Girls, Girls, Girls album and Tommy shares the details of its recording. He then expresses excitement to soon go back on tour and regret in having to leave his bride, Heather Locklear, at home. Ha ha. Tommy would often talk about touring and being married in these years. 

Tommy shares what the new tour stage show will look like including his drum solo and new back-up singers. The interview ends with Tommy and band heading into the rehearsal room to work up the 1987 set-list. New tunes like "Wild Side", "Girls, Girls, Girls", "Dancin' On Glass" and "All In the Name of Rock N Roll" would join already-classics like "Live Wire", "Shout At The Devil" and "Home Sweet Home".