So it wasn’t too difficult to find never seen before photos, or other things that haven’t been online before? Michael put a lot of effort into both the Finnish and the English version. He also commented on the text, made corrections and gave me many in-depth interviews. Monroe went through his vast archives and found a lot of interesting photos, documents and other stuff that we could use. A British Hanoi fan named Xan sent me her whole huge Hanoi Rocks articles collection, of which I’m eternally grateful.
#ALL THOSE WASTED YEARS HANOI ROCKS TV#
So, to answer your question, the book is based on interviews, but also on all kinds of other materials, like print articles, recordings, TV appearances… whatever I found interesting. To name a few, I spoke with Michael, Andy, Nasty Suicide, Gyp Casino, Bob Ezrin, Tyla, Ginger Wildheart, Dee Snider, Duff McKagan, Overend Watts… I had a job in a music paper back then, which made it easy to reach people in the music business. Then I continued writing and started doing interviews with band members and people who were there when the magic happened. He liked what I had written, and we got a publishing deal for a official Hanoi Rocks biography. When I had the first version of the manuscript ready, I showed it to Michael and told him what I was up to. I wrote it all by myself, but the book project was a co-operation. You co-wrote the book with Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy, how did it all happen? How did you do it, was it based on interviews? He is a musician himself, a good writer and he even saw Hanoi live back in the day, so he was really on the case. The book was translated by my English friend Andy Stowe. The Strange Boys Box liner notes are excerpts from the book. Then one thing led to another, and suddenly me and Michael were working on the English version of “All Those Wasted Years” with Cleopatra. He asked if I’d write the liner notes for it, since I knew the story. He told me that his friends at Cleopatra Records were putting together a Hanoi Rocks vinyl box called Strange Boys Box. One day I got an e-mail from Jyrki 69 of The 69 Eyes, whom I know a bit from work. Finally, the Finnish version was released in April 2009.Ĭan you tell us about the American release of the book? I worked on it for a few years before I told anybody. It was such a fantastic story with all kinds of adventures, and I was certain that soon someone would make a great book out of it. I was wondering why no-one had written a proper biography of Hanoi Rocks. I did a lot of work for music magazines, and writing a book was a dream of mine. Well, I became a music writer, and I always took writing seriously. How did you get the idea of a HANOÏ biography? I was always fascinated about Hanoi, but unfortunately too young to catch them live.
They’d tour wherever they could, Finland, Japan, the US, the UK, India… They were a wild bunch, strange boys, and I’m sure many didn’t know what to make of them, but they also had a lot of devoted fans. I don’t think they even saw themselves as being a Nordic band or whatever. Unlike their Finnish peers, they were international. I used to read “Michael’s Adventures”, a column he wrote for a Finnish teen magazine. To us Finnish kids they were real rock stars, and they looked and sounded the part. What do you remember about them from those days? Were they considered as a famous band there? Growing up in Scandinavia must have been quite different from the rest of the world when it comes to HANOÏ ROCKS. But then I heard my parents were acquainted with Andy McCoy’s dad and that our neighbours were related to him, so I had to believe it. Unlike most of the bands from my country at the time, they looked cool. I think I saw the video on TV in 1984, when I was ten.
Hmmm… The first song I remember hearing was “Up Around the Bend”. He also tells us about his everlasting love for one of the best rock’n’roll bands ever!
We thought it would be interesting to ask author Ari Väntänen a few questions about the book and how it all came up together. HANOÏ ROCKS’ biography All Those Wasted Years is finally available in English.
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