Shooting Gallery - S/T (Mercury,
1992)
Current
Gemm Price: $4.61 - $45.50
By: Pepsi
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Bolero hat and concho strap laden guitar-slinger, STEVE VON SAINT (ANGELS IN VAIN,
ENDORFIENDS, COOKOO JIVES) was out of a job when the REAL McCOY showed
up to snatch away half of his KILL CITY DRAGONS, replacing DANNY FURY (ex
STIV BATORS drummer) with PAUL GARISTO (IGGY POP,
PSYCHEDELIC FURS) and
forming his own FLASH METAL SUICIDE rockgroup, co-starring ex-
KCD's vocalist BILLY G. BANG and bassist DAVE TREGUNNA (SHAM 69,LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH, CHERRY BOMBS) and called it (hardly, har-har!)
SHOOTING GALLERY! If ya get 'im wound up, man, lookout, cos
ANDY McCOY can pile on the layers of
vocals and guitar overdubs like he does his jewelry, scarves and concho
straps. This was Andy's flash metal disaster, his very own JERUSALEM SLIM,
if you will; but it doesn't seem like half the catastrophe now that it did
back when it first came out, when Andy's devoted, but demanding fanbase were
still expecting the magic of HANOI ROCKS, in spite of his and Dave's prior
visits to the HOUSE OF ECSTASY! (Whoa oh oh do do do do da doo do do do,Whoa
oh oh do do do do da do da do...) Talk aboutcher junkie glam super bands-the
record company bio trumpeted, "if you scraped away all the filth, there'd be
nothing left" and marketed the band to the Sunset Strip crowd
by emphasizing the fact that four outta five members had done jail-time. JO
DOG from the DOGS D'AMOUR joined SHOOTING GALLERY in time to tour with
KISS,
but the shit had already hit the fan(s) when they reportedly had already
been in knockdown drag out fisticuffs during the recording sessions with
notorious Sleaze-merchant producer, RIC BROWDE. ROLLING STONES sideman
NICKY
HOPKINS played piano, and in retrospect, it does have some finer moments.
ANDY was apparently proud enough of some of his SHOOTING GALLERY
compositions, to include six of them on his recently released double CD
retrospective, "MEMORABILIA", alongside some of his more beloved solo work
and Suicide Twins tunes, etc. HANOI ROCKS fans were "SLEAZED" but not
necessarily, all that "PLEAZED" by BILLY G. BANG's cock-rock rendition of
"DON'T EVER LEAVE ME" but when you're ANDY McCOY, you do whatever the fuck
you want-even if that means letting a strung-out junkie-screecher growl his
way through a FLASH METAL version of VAN MORRISON'S "BROWN EYED GIRL", if
the mood suits you.
ANDY McCOY has achieved some kinda beautiful kinda lawless sovereignty,
a grace in the gutter, ala his hero, KEEF RICHARDS, and like he wrote in
"Tooting Bec Wreck": "Well I do anything whenever I want, and I want to do
it hear and now/I'm a one way street, I can't retreat cos my mind and I play
hide and seek." ...How can you NOT just love this cat?
SHOOTING GALLERY was obviously a ramshackle day parade from the start,
ANDY must've gotten bummed out by all the press some cut-rate clone was gettin' by stealin' his act, so he just moseys on in, takes who he wants,
and throws this band of gypsies together overnight-recutting the KILL CITY
DRAGONS fix, "DEVIL CALLING" and whatever fresh originals he has layin'
around, cuttin' the whole thing with at least half the band already in a
debauched drug haze ,at Cherokee Studios in L.A., probably scarin' the
bejeezus out of all those poseur GUNS 'N' ROSES wanna-beez who plagued the
strip in those years. "I MESS AROUND" was included on the "Harley Davidson & The Marlboro Man"
soundtrack. Other "high"-lights included "RESTLESS"
,"STRIPTEASE", "NATURE OF MY BUSINESS" and "DANDELION". The main problem
with SHOOTING GALLERY was unfortunately, the vocals. Anybody who ever had
the misguided audacity to suggest that Michael Monroe was anything other
than a technically awesome singer, was beggin' for more "FUTURAMA", after
sitting through three or four BILLY G. BANG songs. BILLY looked cool, and
wisely did what ANDY told him-except, sadly, when it came to shunning the
heavy narcotics. The HANOI ROCKS FAMILY were upset by recent rumours that
BILLY G. BANG was still immersed in the junkie lifestyle, or had already o.d.'d somewhere, and
BILLY, if you're reading this, PLEASE CONTACT ANDY & ANGELA or
DAVE TREGUNNA. They're really worried about you. BILLY got to
briefly flirt with real rock stardom- recording with all these living
underground legends, and touring with KISS, and appearing in all the
FLASH
METAL magazines of the day from "KERRANG!" to "READY TO SNAP!", and all my
old girlfriends with the Johnny Thunders tattoos seemed to find him
attractive. After drug abuse caused ANDY to disband his "SHOOTING
GALLERY", singer BILLY G. BANG became BILLY DRAGON and formed a short-lived
group called THE SLUM LORDS with Dave and Paul and the guitarist from
CATS
IN BOOTS, TAKASHI O'HASHI, who released an e.p., possibly available on
E-BAY, for a Japanese label, Har-De-Har-Har.
ANDY McCOY went on to write a book, stars in his own reality show in "Funland",
filmed the must-see "Real McCoy" documentary, and recorded and performed
lots more brilliant music--touring with IGGY in the "Cold Metal" days, and
steadily releasing his extraordinary albums, "TOO MUCH AIN'T ENOUGH" and
"BUILDING ON TRADITION", and has recently, reformed HANOI ROCKS, of course!
PAUL GARISTO plays in NY groups alongside cats like former D-GENERATION
vocalist, Jesse Malin (makes you wistful for a singer like Billy Bang!) and
RYAN ADAMS. DAVE TREGUNNA plays in THE LORDS OF THE NU CHURCH. Dunno where
JO DOG is right this minute. STEVE VON SAINT apparently became a real estate
salesman in England.
BILLY, CONTACT ANGELA & ANDY:
WWW.HANOIROCKS.COM
WWW.ANDYMCCOY.COM
KILL CITY DRAGONS DISCOGRAPHY
www.angelsinexile.i12.com/lord...ons/dragons.htm
MORE LINKS:
"KILL CITY DRAGONS, PO Box 1258, London, SW6 6RY, England."
http://www.ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?c...oto_startpagina
http://www.doubleimage.co.uk/photos.htm
www.mts.net/~crea/bands/shootinggallery.html
www.lastbandit.com/dogstyla.html
-Pepsi Sheen
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