Motley Pin-Ups #2

Here are some more random Motley pin-ups and images from my childhood collection. Check out the wear and tear on a few of these, ha ha. In the 1980s, Motley Crue pictures from magazines would sometimes pass into several hands before they found a home in fans like me or, more often, thrown in the garbage!
Here's Pin-Ups Part 1

 

The Sleaze Patrol Teen Bedroom, 1991

The walls of the Sleaze Patrol Files Blog have been decorated with vintage Motley pin-ups, posters, shirts, mirrors and assorted memorabilia since the mid 1980s. Here we are in the year 2020 with the original members all still alive and with a recently postponed tour (until summer 2021). It seems unreal. No one thought the Crue would be alive let alone performing and recording music this late in the game. 2021 is their 40th anniversary! Here is a video of the Sleaze Patrol Files headquarters back in the year 1991 when the Motleys were still in their original Decade Of Decadence heyday and before Vince would leave in 1992.

Rock Power Magazine, Summer 1991

 

Mr. Sixx graces the cover of the British publication Rock Power Magazine in mid 1991.

Here is all the Crue content present in this issue including a gossip item about Vince going into rehab to deal with a drinking problem said to have been partly due the failure of his marriage with Sharise Ruddell. Motley's personal woes were always news in the Rock media of the day.

Tommy took part in the charity baseball game for the T. J. Martell Foundation in 1991. Lee and other Rock celebrities raised money for Lukemia research.

Nikki talks about the soon-to-be-released Decade of Decadence and the upcoming UK Monsters of Rock Festival performances. The next Motley record is discussed and is promised to be a more experimental Crue.

Crue Pin-Ups and Posters Home Video, 1991

Waaaayyy back in February of 1991 I made a three minute video showing many of my Motley pin-ups and posters from Rock magazines. I was fifteen years old. Back in those days, if I met a fellow Crue fan who said they didn't like the tune "Save Our Souls" from 1985's THEATRE OF PAIN, I thought they were jokers.
Enjoy!

School Notebook Crue Art and 2019's "The Dirt"

Going through some boxes at my folks' place recently I stumbled upon these old English and Math class notebook duo-tangs from the early 1990s. Tagging your school books with your favourite bands was a busy pastime for us old-school Metal Heads. I'm glad I went to public school where no one told me I couldn't graffiti my books! Looks like I was listening to Faith No More and Nazareth at the time, too. 

While we're here we thought we'd share the trailer for the Crue bio coming to Netflix on March 22nd, 2019. "The Dirt" is based on the 2001 Motley autobiography of the same same. Looks a little on the cheap side but hope it's entertaining.

They wrote three new tunes and covered Madonna's "Like A Virgin" for the soundtrack. They've released the tune "The Dirt." It's actually not as bad as I expected and grows on you.

Vintage Motley Posters #2

Local record stores and even Canadian department stores like Towers and Zellers would sometime sell Crue posters in the 1980s. The 1991 Decade of Decadence era poster above show the Crue following the current trend of alternative, faux-punk, pre-grunge style. This was possibly their last big photo session before they would disband the original lineup in February, 1992.

The Theatre Of Pain era is a controversial and bitter-sweet one for old-school Crue fans. It was the end of their intense, two record debut explosion as a blood-thirsty metal-pop band. Theatre happened after that all crashed and burned with Vince's vehicular manslaughter charge. This was when the Crue got complicated and the music suffered. The band actually changed from here on in. They became more of a Hard Rock act in a classic 70s mold with a 1980s update.

The Theatre Of Pain style is so particular to 1985-1986. Glam Metal was born with Theatre no matter if others did it first: it was Motley's about-face in style that spoke to other Rock bands and you soon saw the emergence of a whole genre of music called Glam Metal and, later, Hair Metal. I got two copies of the poster above and below. This 1930s gangster session and theme was one of the more colourful and effective themed shoots. Every album or "look" has a series of photo sessions that Crueheads identify with the era. I remember when some of these images were first released to the public and I still closely identify these albums and years with the pin-ups and posters of the same eras.

This second copy of the poster has some Hostess Chips Motley stickers from 1987 decorating the bottom left-hand side.

Even more vintage Crue posters to come at the Sleaze Patrol Files!!

I've been inactive for years now but I still have more vintage Crue articles and images and collectibles to share and perhaps the Netflix movie of "The Dirt" will create more interest in the Crue in the oncoming years. I hope to post more in 2019.


Vintage Motley Posters #1 can be seen HERE

Mick Mars Part 4: Popular Unpopular, 1991

This is a great interview with Mick conducted by RIP Magazine's Editor-In-Chief, Lonn M. Friend in August 1991 when the Motley's were in England for the Monsters of Rock Festival.

Mick is a funny guy & displays a lot of the special charm he has through some (rare) interviews back in the day. He's also, clearly, a misanthrope & displays a general dislike for the human race! He's especially honest here with longtime friend, Friend, & talks about his co-members with a welcomed candor. He talks shop & tells us how some of his most classic riffs were written ('Girls, Girls, Girls': drunk as shit), details on how he & the Crue sobered up, his working relationship with then-wife & Nasty Habit, Emi Canyn & the future of Motley.

Crue Cards & the Motley Universe in Early 1991

At Paul Miles' Chronological Crue we see this entry for January of 1991:

16/1/91
Dr. Feelgood becomes Mötley’s highest selling album, now reaching quadruple-Platinum status. Brokum release a series of trading cards called RockCards, featuring Mötley Crüe and other popular hard rock bands.

The Motleys had wrapped up their successful Dr. Feelgood tour in the Fall of 1990. In early 1991 Nikki had his first son, Gunner, with his then wife Brandi Brandt. [At the time of this writing (Sept 2014), Brandi Brandt has been convicted of charges of smuggling cocaine & has been sentenced to  prison time.] Motley also won an American Music Award in January 1991:

Tommy played drums on pop singer Richard Marx's tune 'Streets Of Pain' after the two met at an L. A. Kings game in February:

The boys were nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammys in February but lost to then Rock Critic darlings, Living Colour [go to 5:40]:

Nikki Sixx Part 7: Mid-Life Decadence, 1991

 

Nikki Sixx was a changed man in 1991. He had experienced 10 years of steadily increasing fame and success marked by brushes with death and drug addiction. Rock N’ Roll was experiencing a revolution as well. Motley’s ten year retrospective, Decade Of Decadence, was released at the first of October, 1991, a week after Nirvana’s seminal album Nevermind debuted. As early as 1988 Nikki was voicing a desire to take the Motley sound into new & more creative territories. Dr. Feelgood was mostly comprised of high-geared, hook-laden, Power Rock in a traditional & even cliché mode. After it’s unprecedented success Nikki’s reaction seems to have been to turn the Motley formula on its ear & match the breed of new ‘Alternative Rock’ & Metal bands in their creativity & intensity. He could sniff the stale formula of the Hair Metal bands that Motley epitomized in 1989 & wanted to take it to another place.

Nikki discusses the videos for ‘Primal Scream’ & ‘Anarchy In the U.K.’ ‘Primal’ is Motley at their anthemic best, a powerhouse groovy tune with a great video. The ‘Anarchy’ video is comprised of live clips from Motley’s sets at the 1991 Monsters Of Rock festival shows in Europe. The song is a misstep, in my opinion, an obvious & misguided attempt by the Crue to appear Punky & Hardcore. They play it fine, but who the fuck did they think they were covering the Pistols?!

Pamela Shaw of Hit Parader chats with Nikki a few weeks after the release of DOD & has him talking about the new music he’s writing with Mick Mars & the influence of bands like AC/DC, Pantera, Chili Peppers & Metallica. Aggressive, uncompromising, radio-unfriendly, Nikki continues to promise the Crue fans a new phase in the Motley sound. Some of this music found its way onto the 1994 Motley Crue record with vocalist John Corabi & in 1997 when Vince returned with Generation Swine. Nikki’s domestic life with newborn Gunner & wife Brandi Brandt is broached & we find out that Nikki had probably never changed his son’s diapers.

Another Hit Parader article from this period has the Sixxster sharing some interesting anecdotes. In the post’s first article Nikki discussed writing & recording with Alice Cooper for his Hey Stoopid record. In ‘A Look To The Future’ Nikki reveals that he & Mick were reluctant to work with Alice because of the involvement of pop-Hard Rock songwriter Jim Vallance whom Nikki regarded as a hack. There’s a sense that Nikki was trying to distance himself from the ‘Hair Metal’ scene. He compares some of the riffs he & Mick are writing to Slayer! [Motley Crue signed a $35 Million deal, NOT a $335 Million one as stated in the piece] .

Nikki is on a rant in the above Rip Magazine article written by Judy Weider. He explains the current writing process:

‘We’re not completing songs. We’re not completing lyrical ideas. What we’re doing is taking a bunch of riffs & figuring out how to hodgepodge them together & somehow make a vocal work. We want to be a lot more aggressive.’

Guitar Magazine gets a nice interview from Nikki who discusses his songwriting methods (he was using a Mac program in 1991) & his lyric writing process. Nikki also explains he & the Crue parted ways with producer Tom Werman after failing to record ‘Powerful Stuff’ for the Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail. [The tune was then picked up by The Fabulous Thunderbirds & they released it to some success]. I wonder where the Motley version is?!

More Sikki Nixx to come at The Sleaze Patrol Files!!