They should have been bigger!

Since no live shows in LA, I’ve been hitting the web to discover/rediscover some cool bands that gave it a shot, but for whatever reason, didn’t hit the mark.

ROSE TATTOO– A great band from Australia that broke in the early 1980’s, with a bluesy hard rock that was heavy on slide guitar, and the band members were heavy on tattoos and denim. These guys were a dirtier version of Guns N Roses before they existed. GNR covered one of their songs, and AC/DC was never this sleazy. Very good stuff if you dig loud grimy hard rock.

GIRL– This British band spanned Phil Lewis from LA Guns and Phil Collen from Def Leppard. Before that, they were part of this Punk Glam Hard Rock band on Don Arden’s Jet records. They released two albums that are NWOBHM classics in a very different way than most of those bands. They were raw in more of a Stooges/Ramones way and not so much metal. They redid a Kiss song and toured with UFO and the like, but I always dug them for their raw and punky attitude, all tarted up with makeup.

Smashed Gladys– Canadian band by way of NYC, these guys had a rough female lead vocalist, and they tore up the local scene with some raunchy bluesy hard rock with a dark glam image. I just recently got into these guys when I stumbled onto them on YouTube. They put out a couple of good major label releases, and were similar to Hanoi Rocks and any of the Andy McCoy led bands that came after. They used to rule the NYC Limelight scene and had a lot of hip supporters in that scene.

Electric Angels– From the ashes of Candy out of LA, came these gypsy glam NYC transplants. They recorded their major label record with super glam producer Tony Visconti and made a video with Cristina Applegate, but were unable to set the US on fire. Singer Shane had all that it took to become a superstar, timing and luck was not on their side. Guitarist Ryan Roxie now plays guitar with Alice Cooper and bassist Jonathan Daniel is a big time band manager now. My band Rebel Rebel was produced by Johnathan in the 80’s, as we were a cross of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Motley Crue, which he dug. He hooked us up with some heavyweights in the business but we had our own agenda and wouldn’t listen to anyone. The rest is history for all of us.

The Starfighters– Great band from England that featured Stevie Young, now in AC/DC and a singer that almost became the new singer for AC/DC after Bon Scott passed away. Again, a band I just recently rediscovered as when I was a kid they were too much like AC/DC, but now I can appreciate the songs and sound, which is bluesy Hard Rock, no frills and just straight ahead. They have been pumping me up at the gym, which says a lot if you know how much I love/hate the gym! LOL Check them out, the deserve a listen.

Zodiac Mindwarp– Another great loud and dirty band from England that was more of sleazy hard rock than metal. They had a mad max/biker image, which was cool in itself, but the music was catchy and cleaver. Prime Mover is my favorite track, but you should hear them all, worth a look and listen.

I was only able to see the Electric Angels live from this list, and that was before they got signed and moved from LA to NYC. But, there is plenty of live footage from most of these bands online, please check them out and keep good old fashioned hard rock alive.