Simon RushworthFaster Pussycat – Babylon: The Elektra Years (1987-1992)
When Guns N’ Roses hit the UK in the autumn of 1987 there was already a buzz about the new kings of the Sunset Strip.
But the jury was out when Axl Rose and co. landed on British soil for a five-date headline stretch.
And it stayed out.
Many British fans were underwhelmed by the soon-to-be ‘most dangerous band in the world’.
By all accounts it wasn’t the fast-rising LA crew’s finest hour as they sought to hit their stride and live up to the hype.
And the Gunners’ decidedly flat UK showcase wasn’t helped by the appearance of febrile support Faster Pussycat.
Taime Downe and co. had rushed out their self-titled debut two weeks before Appetite For Destruction hit stores.
And it seemed the Hollywood favourites were one step ahead of their hosts at every turn during a brief but eye-catching trek through England’s rock and roll heartlands.
Perhaps it was thanks to Faster Pussycat’s show-stealing sets on this side of the Pond that Guns N’ Roses regrouped, reset and went on to become the biggest rock band on the planet.
Because for a time towards the back end of 1987 there was only one band blazing a trail for made for MTV sleazy glam metal.
And that band was Faster Pussycat.
Faster Pussycat Taimed And Ready
A month after that infamous Guns N’ Roses tour — which kicked off in Newcastle and wrapped up in London — Faster Pussycat were the cover stars of the very first Scream Magazine.
The band had already stolen the show during the filming of landmark documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization Pt. 2 .
Live versions of minor MTV hit Bathroom Wall and Cat House went down a storm with wide-eyed director Penelope Spheeris.
And huge US tours with Alice Cooper, David Lee Roth and Motörhead suggested Faster Pussycat’s star would only rise.
The band’s devilish debut mixed punk attitude, straight down the middle sleaze and enough of an edge to cut through the congested Sunset Strip scene.
Babylon’s ‘Joan Jett meets the Beastie Boys’ garage rock/rap fusion is typical of Down’e no-holds-barred approach to making his play for the big time.
In twin axe attack Greg Steele and Brent Muscat, Faster Pussycat’s charismatic frontman boasted the perfect foil for his glamtastic drawl.
Ship Rolls In could have been penned by the Quireboys and Bottle In Front Of Me is another brilliantly conceived example of Faces-inspired rock n roll.
Bathroom Wall’s raw, in-your-face, party-starting groove evokes images of the Rainbow Bar and Grill’s sleazy late 80s underbelly.
And it’s easy to understand why Spheeris wanted Faster Pussycat up front and centre as she sought to capture another culturally significant moment in time.
House Of Pain Is A Faster Pussycat Pleasure
Wake Me When It’s Over — released in 1989 — went gold in the US and peaked at number 35 in the album charts.
And it’s peak Pussycat.
Cocksure, crazy and yet tighter than Taime’s favourite all-in-one Spandex.
Amy Canyon adds kickass backing vocals on the wonderfully brash opener Where There’s A Whip, There’s A Way.
And there’s another nod to the Quireboys as Kevin Savigar adds honky tonk keys to Poison Ivy before Downe goes full-on Dogs D’Amour on the band’s biggest hit House Of Pain.
More than 30 years down the line and Wake Me When It’s Over sounds more and more like the perfect snapshot of a wildly excessive scene.
It’s the sound of pretty boys partying hard and the sound of hair metal enjoying one final hurrah.
There are the fist-pumping arena-ready anthems, corny power ballads and fashion-conscious grand creative gestures guaranteed to tickle the fancy of MTV’s famously fickle execs.
There’s punk, sleaze, funk and pop all rolled into one giant-sized Faster Pussycat reefer.
Gonna Walk must have piqued the interest of Extreme, Love/Hate, Lenny Kravitz et all.
It’s a fast-paced, rhythmic rock and rollercoaster ride showcasing the very best of main man’s Downe’s ear for an earworm.
And on an album that’s all killer and no filler it still stands out.
Wake Me When It’s Over could — and surely should — have been the career defining, reputation cementing record that Faster Pussycat deserved.
It’s a genre classic but it wasn’t enough. For Downe and co. that wake-up call was coming.
Thanks to the imminent onset of grunge it would be over sooner, rather than later.
Whipped! Into A Faster Pussycat Frenzy
By the time Faster Pussycat rolled out 1992’s Whipped! the majority of hair metal’s happy-go-lucky flag bearers were finding it tough.
Downe, at least, recognised the sands shifting beneath the feet of those who’d religiously beaten a path to the door of the Sunset Strip’s most infamous hostelries.
And on Faster Pussycat’s third album there was a tentative move towards something based more on substance than style.
Downe would, of course, go on to reinvent his band as a harder-edged metal act a decade down the line.
But Whipped! never went that far. Thank goodness.
And if it did represent a necessary evolution then its roots were still very much in Faster Pussycat’s adrenaline-fuelled past.
Lead single Nonstop To Nowhere dipped inside the top 40 of the US rock charts at a time when hair metal was about as fashionable as a Rubik’s Cube.
Subsequent singles bombed and, despite sell-out shows across the US and in Japan, some of Faster Pussycat’s finest work was overlooked and undervalued.
The quirky Madam Ruby’s Love Boutique, Maid In Wonderland and the prophetic set closer Out With A Bang suggested Downe was still having a blast.
And a supporting cast featuring sax star Jimmy Z and the Pasadena Boys Choir made for another eclectic, electrifying record.
Carly Simon cover You’re So Vain features as one of the four bonus tracks on this box set edition of Whipped!.
But true Pussycat fans will gravitate towards disc three of this quality career retrospective: Live And Rare.
It’s a six-track treat revealing the many faces of a brilliant band: check out the Bathroom Wall remix and House Of Pain edit.
