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| Back to Mystery City is, quite simply, a Web Site for celebrating the greatest Rock and Roll band of all time: Hanoi Rocks. I was fortunate enough to see Hanoi several times between 1983 - 1984 and their concerts still remain the most life enhancing, adrenaline fueled, Blitzkrieg Rock and Roll events that I have ever witnessed. Once in a lifetime such truly great bands emerge, and for our generation it was/is Hanoi Rocks. |
| In league with Johnny Thunders renaissance and The Lords of The New Church, Hanoi set fire to, defined and influenced their times and raised the standard to which any Rock and Roll band should aspire. At once made up of the sum of their influences, and simultaneously transcending them, the spirit of pure Rock and Roll was encapsulated within them, and their light did indeed shine so brightly as to illuminate all of the lives of everyone that was touched by the band. |
| Their story is well known, with the first phase of their career sadly ending in 1985. There have been many dark times since, although thankfully many bands rose to the challenge posed by Hanoi and have done their best to keep the Rock and Roll flame alive until the band were reborn in the 21st century. The new chapter is still being written, and is excellently documented on an ever-expanding multitude of Sites. This site therefore shall primarily (although not exclusively) endeavour to document their formative years, primarily focussing on their London/UK years, as this was the era I experienced first hand. |
| Mighty Oaks do truly grow from little acorns, and this period was exceptionally fertile, culminating, in my opinion, in the greatest Hanoi Rocks record of them all - Back to Mystery City. It encapsulated everything that Hanoi had been working towards thus far and each track is a living example of the uniqueness of the Hanoi approach and sound. Every other Hanoi album is of course deserving of its place in the Holy pantheon of pure, killer Rock and Roll, and rightly so, but Back to Mystery City for me is their highest achievement. |
| A popular live song at the time, and one from an earlier album, but which reached it's fullest potential in this period is '11th Street Kids', containing the immortal lyric that so many of us felt/still feel: 'Remember all those nights we wrote it on the wall 'Punks Never Die'. Hanoi truly were a 24/7 lifestyle band, both for members of the band and audience alike, and with the subsequent sad demise of Razzle , Stiv Bators and Johnny Thunders, Hanoi today are the last ones left from this era. So, indeed it is time to go Back to Mystery City! |
| S.P. |
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