The Motorcycle Boy

The origins of the Motorcycle Boy go back to Scotland 1985 when a band named after a Fire Engines b-side were formed - Meat Whiplash. They signed to Creation Records releasing one single for that label (which was produced by The Jesus & Mary Chain). In 1987 the band recruited vocalist Alex Taylor from The Shop Assistants and changed their name to The Motorcycle Boy (from a character in the movie Rumblefish). They signed to Rough Trade releasing one single for that label before signing to Chrysalis releasing two singles. An album titled Scarlet was recorded but was never released and after the band were dumped by Chrysalis they moved onto Nymphaea Pink Sensation releasing another couple of singles before calling it a day in 1990. This band and Motorcycle Boy seem to be lumped together so here is the info on the Los Angeles underground kings: So there was this impeccably stylish, incorrigible rogue named FRANCOIS, right? He had THE BEST HAIR IN ROCK'N'ROLL. A haircut that killed, man. He spent years charming the drinks off every girl in L.A., and he had this really cool, stripped-down kinda punkabilly band called MOTORCYCLE BOY. They specialized in these very rudimentary, but energetic, Bo-Diddley derivative glam romps, sorta like THE JONESES, without the death-trip. They were alot of fun and covered Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" and they were always nattily adorned in Cuban heels and sharkskin suit jackets and they wrote dumb Ramonesey songs about what a girl magnet their drummer, Kenney Toye was. All the girls loved Eden, too, but FRANCOIS' hair was always the real star of the show. Everybody loved them, even though they lacked a certain technical ability. These guys weren't musicians, these guys were PERSONALITIES. They played big, hollow-body guitars! They had perfect haircuts! They were stars! They had PRESENCE! You know those goggles that Nikki Sixx wore on his head in the "Dr.Feelgood" video? He copped that whole vibe off FRANCOIS! Francois just oozes panache. The phrase "Personality King" was first coined to describe Francois. Enter MISTER RATBOY: a Thunders-style guitar virtuoso from Switzerland, who'd grown up loving 70's prog-rock bands like Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator. After a month long "audition" that Ratboy once described as being more like a drinking contest, with Francois asking all the local foxes if they thought Ratboy was "cute enough". All the local foxes and Francois' unstoppable hair-do finally agreed that Mister Ratboy had what it takes to be a MOTORCYCLE BOY! Then, former N.Y. DOLL, SYLVAIN SYLVAIN, came into the picture, producing their highly anticipated debut for Triple X Records. In between the usual Motorcycle Boy life-style hijinks and sending Syl out for more cheeseburgers and onion rings, the world famous Mister Ratboy managed to somehow harness all that FRANCOIS personality long enough to capture a brand new, sleeker, high-performance, MOTORCYCLE BOY model. Most of the songs stayed short and sweet, catchy and upbeat- like "SUICIDE" ("If you love me, it's like suicide") and "THAT'S WHAT SHE WANTS". The theme to most of these songs seemed to be summed up best by the simple line, "She's tired of me sleepin' all over town." The trials and tribulations of playing the wicked rogue'. Apparently, it ain't all roses. Every song smokes! Each tune's a classic in it's own way, even the throwaways "Swamp Stomp" and "Honolulu Baby" (club days Van Halen title) were contagiously fun.At some point during the making of this album, however, egos flared. FRANCOIS' HAIRCUT kinda havin' a showdown with RATBOY'S RIFF. (Cue: N.Y. DOLLS "SHOWDOWN").FRANCOIS immediately replaced Ratboy with some guy that just wasn't very good, and charmed the record label into reshooting the album cover with the new guy. When the record was released, Ratboy was merely listed as one of several "additional musicians", in spite of nearly single-handedly master-minding the entire winning formula- from bringing all the hooks to the table, to "helping" Syl produce, to conceptualizing the same photos that were later reshot without him. "POPSICLE" remains one of the most enduringly listenable, and highly influential, rock'n'roll albums of the past 15 years. Today, you can most vividly hear the impact MOTORCYCLE BOY had on current bands like the STAR SPANGLES. Various artists, such as the New Bomb Turks, the Dishes, and Bebe Buell have all covered their unforgettable songs. from http://sonsofthedolls.blogspot.com/2007/11/motorcycle-boy.html Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.