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.

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