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 Illustrated Shout At The Devil Liner Notes-Part 1!

Let's take an in-depth look at Shout At The Devil by playing close attention to the liner notes.

If you want to view more images of the LP & cassette artwork, go HERE & click through.

Nikki gets top billing. His place as Mr. Motley Crue secured early on. He plays bass & sings back-up, it says, & 'bass pedals'. As a kid I've always wondered what that meant & it's like a bass keyboard you use with your feet!

 

 Mick & Vince get their appropriate credits & we see in Tommy's list something called 'Simmons Drums' which are early electronic drums. You can see them on his kit during the Theatre Of Pain tour & in a lot of videos from the 1980s.

 

Allister Fiend is listed as the narrator for the album's introduction, 'In The Beginning'. This is the first we hear of Motley's 1980s mascot who would appear on a lot of Motley merchandise starting in 1982-3 up until the Dr. Feelgood era. Band cartoon 'mascots' were big in the '80s with Iron Maiden's 'Eddie' being the most famous & iconic one of the bunch.

Now of course we know that cartoon characters can't talk but our Allister does . . . & he's British! We'll be doing a post dedicated entirely to Allister at some point but to give the credit where it's due, Mr. Fiend is actually Engineer, Geoff Workman. Geoff composed the eerie sounds & recited Nikki's poem for 'In The Beginning'. He also engineered & mixed the album! His contribution to Shout At The Devil is significant.

Nikki Sixx Part 9 - Too Wild To Tame, 1984-1985

Nikki retells the Motley legend/biography to Steve Gett of Hit Parader Magazine during the writing or recording of Theatre Of Pain, so late 1984 or early 1985. Nothing new here but another example of the media going down Motley memory lane early on. There are no Theatre pics to share so we get some Shout era doozys. Nikki shows an early instance of hyperbole for whatever new product he is peddling by saying that Theatre of Pain's songs will be as good OR BETTER! than Shout At the Devil's.

I like the following quote from the intro to the article. I didn't hear many other Rock stars, especially in the Hard rock world, discuss their band or music quite like Nikki did of Motley Crue in the 1980s. Although he would have never suggested that Motley were capital 'A' Artists, it becomes quite clear through reading through the evidence that he had a developed sense of his music & its place in the scheme of things. Motley's many style & musical changes throughout their 35+ career can be seen less as an outcast band chasing success & relevance & more a chaotic group of misfits with a savvy & creative Captain Hook at the helm. I don't overly like a lot of post 1991 Motley music but I'm beginning to appreciate the creativity they've shown all these years.

"I wanted a real honest Rock N Roll band. I didn't want anything fake or pseudo. Whatever it was it was going to be true Art."

Nikki Sixx, 1984

The Motliest Of All The Crues!!

Super Teen Special-Motley & Other Metal Masters (1985)- Part 2 (With Video & Links!)

 

Mick stands guard & warns, ‘Ye who wish to enter here! Woe to he who does not avail himself of the former chapter of our duple-act playlet through the following hyperlink.’

Above are a couple shots from the LOOKS THAT KILL video set.

So Motley didn’t do a single thing to mark the 30 year anniversary of Shout At The Devil, too bad. An updated anniversary edition audio release & some cool archival video footage would have been nice. There is a surprising lack of live video footage from the era with the amateur, single shot June 5th, 1984 Quebec City concert the only known existing full show from the Shout era excepting the 1983 US Festival set. Pretty disappointing. A few clips from the European Monsters Of Rock sets & that’s pretty much all there is.