WHEN HANOI ROCKED!

Forty years ago — after moving to London to invent the movement that'd inspire a million L.A. bands — Finnish upstarts Hanoi Rocks self-destructed. Now Michael Monroe, Sami Yaffa and Andy McCoy tell all about rich girlfriends, glam looks and revolutionizing rock 'n' roll

- BY MARK MCSTEA

ARE HANOI ROCKS the most underrated rock band of all time? The Finnish rockers had everything — anthemic songs, an unrivaled live show and a killer guitarist in Andy McCoy. And then there was singer Michael Monroe, the most charismatic, photogenic frontperson, male or female, since Elvis Presley. Taking their cue from the New York Dolls and Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, cut through with the snotty attitude of classic U.K. punk, they distilled their own uniquely potent brand of sleaze-fueled, take-no-prisoners rock 'n' roll.

Hanoi Rocks' live show reminded you of why you got into music — the adrenaline rush of loud electric guitars through a wall of Marshalls set to stun, and a frontman who had the audience in the palm of his hands.

A Hanoi Rocks show was an event. No matter the size of the venue or the crowd, the band delivered every night as if their existence depended on it. Monroe was in perpetual motion, McCoy pulled off every move in the guitar-hero playbook, and rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide and bassist Sami Yaffa managed to hold their own. Drummer Razzle was so busy, he looked like a blur. Unfortunately, tragedy knocked the band sideways when Razzle was killed in a crash in 1984 while a passenger in Mötley Crüe vocalist Vince Neil's car. Although the band continued for a few months, relationships frayed and decayed until they finally fractured. The band split up the following year.

Monroe and McCoy each had firm ideas on what a band should be.

“Nothing I was doing prior to the band was really where I wanted to be musically,” Monroe says. “I didn't really have a musical partner who shared my vision until I met Andy. Once we met, we knew what sort of band we wanted to have, even before we formed Hanoi. It was a couple of years before we got together in the same band; I guess we shared a dream. He told me about Aerosmith, but I wasn't that familiar with them. I got