Theatre Of Pain. Recorded against a backdrop of tragedy, an orgy of drugs, alcohol and women and quite possibly the worst album of Motley Crue's mid '80's heyday. So why is it here in a list of most influential albums. Take a look at the back cover!. Crue at their glammed up best. Vince Neil in pseudo super hero garb, suspender belt over pink lycra  trousers, Nikki Sixx cool as fuck in his war paint and Tommy Lee skinny as a rake and looking oh so pretty. Who cared about the music when they looked this good.

For the record City Boy Blues ain't too bad, neither is Use It Or Lose It but the rest is just generic Crue with non of the anger, passion or innocence that made Too Fast For Love, Dr Feelgood or Shout At The Devil far better albums. Of and then there's Home Sweet Home -  a goddamn awful song in hindsight, but the power ballad that started a trend. Without the MTV generated success of HSH would there have been an Every Rose Has It's Thorn, Heaven or even November Rain - I doubt it and hence it's got a lot to answer for

I'd actually seen Crue at Donington a year earlier in 1984 and, to be honest, they hadn't made much of an impression. I was there for AC/DC, Van Halen et al. But fast forward a year to a supermarket in Newcastle and I clocked the cover to Theatre Of Pain. This was in the days before electronic tills and I carefully swapped the price tags and picked it up for £1.99 - bargain. From that moment on, and despite a guilty love of classic rock, I was a glammy at heart and would remain so for the next eight years. L.A. was where I wanted to be. The Rainbow, the Roxy, Whiskey A Go-Go and if I couldn't be there I'd damn well look just as good in Newcastle. I got my ears pierced, my ever growing hair was teased higher, my trousers got tighter, my shirts silkier and of course I had the cowboy boots.

From Theatre Of Pain and Motley Crue the record collection expanded with albums from Ratt, L.A. Guns, Jetboy, D'Moll's, Sea Hags, Faster Pussycat, Poison, Shark Island and just about anybody Ray Zell championed in Kerrang! This was my era, my music and my time of life. That I had shit taste in make up was besides the point, that looking like an L.A. desperado in Lancaster when I headed off to University was rather daft meant nothing. As the song goes I was looking for nothing but a good time. I even headed off to London to stay with a friend in the summer of '85, bass guitar and amp in tow, swearing I was going to be a rock star. The fact that I couldn't play at all well didn't matter, neither could Nikki Sixx. It was only when my beat up yellow Renault 12 (with black vinyl roof) died a death and I realized I couldn't actually access my building society savings until aged eighteen without a parental signature that I headed home, bent but unbroken.

Despite the advancing years I still actually love the Crue, unlike so many other bands of the time. True they may still be dysfunctional but they were one of the instigators of an era rather than followers. As with any first love the memories remain fond, the years augmenting the good times, the bad memories quickly diminishing. Who cares that they cancelled a tour due to "too much snow on the roof" when I saw then slay Newcastle City Hall with anthem after anthem in February 1986. Who cares that Vince Neil and Tommy Lee hated each other when they left us with songs such as Livewire, Ten Seconds To Love and Wildside. Crue, for a long, long time were the real deal and they certainly took this reviewer along for one hell of a ride...