RAGDOLLS – Old Habits Die Hard (2018)

A full 30 years after they first got together, original Cardiff glammy hard rockers RAGDOLLS are releasing their debut album, “Old Habits Die Hard“.
5,000 miles East of Los Angeles, in Wales’ capital city of Cardiff, one such scene blossomed. Its focus was Bogeys Rock Club (later renamed New Bogiez, ‘cos everything was better in the ’80s when spelt with a ‘z’), Cardiff’s answer to the Whisky a Go Go, and Ragdolls were active part of it.

Before Ragdolls were forged in the Bogeys rock crucible, the members of the band had cut their teeth in a number of local outfits including China White and the unfortunately-monikered Rock Bottom. Ragdolls’ drummer, Jamie Kayne, had been an original member of Tigertailz, arguably the only band to emerge from the Cardiff scene at the time who achieved any measure of real success – their sophomore release, Bezerk, puncturing the UK’s Top 40 album chart in 1990.
Bass player Marc Kelly had rehearsed with Tigertailz as well as rhythm guitarist briefly so he and Jamie had a history. Jamie was putting a new band together with vocalist JJ Cruise and gave Marc a call. Marc to college-mate, guitarist Mike Dollz was asked to join, and so in the spring of 1988 Ragdolls were born.

After many gigs Ragdolls recorded in 1989 the Attitude With A Capital ‘A’ demos which were subsequently touted round UK record labels and management companies in the hope of securing the band a deal.
The band continued gigging around the country, playing London’s legendary Marquee Club and hosting a record label showcase at Nomis studios. They also appeared on MTV’s Headbangers Ball and recorded two new songs, ‘White Knuckle Ride’ and ‘Addicted’ for ITV’s Raw Power.

Grunge went on to sink the careers of many established and successful ‘80s good time bands and it seemed to the boys the the ’Dolls that whatever chances they may have had to break through had vanished by the turn of the decade.
The doors closed forever on the Ragdolls camp in November 1991.

Or so it seemed… Now 30 years after the band first formed, Ragdolls’ debut album, “Old Habits Die Hard is with us”. How, by all the High-Haired Gods of Glam, did that happen?
Both Jamie Kayne and Mike Dollz continued to play music in the years following Ragdolls’ demise, and it was Mike’s interest in preserving for posterity the music of Ragdolls that lead him to set up a My Space page for the band in 2008 and a Facebook page followed not long after.
That page came to the attention of FnA Records, a label specializing in unreleased and hard-to-find rock and metal music from the ‘80s and ’90s. FnA suggested the band might like to assemble an album’s worth of material made up of old demos and live recordings for the label to release.

Mike reached out to Marc Kelly who by this time was living in Los Angeles and together they trawled through the Ragdolls archives.It swiftly became apparent that what they found wasn’t worthy of an album release but it did excite the pair of them and the prospect of making new recordings was entertained.
It’s safe to say things snowballed wildly to the point where old songs were dusted off and brand new tunes written, with Marc contributing lyrics and bass from LA as Mike, Jamie and JJ recorded the rest of what would become “Old Habits Die Hard” at Studio 10 Music in Cardiff.

Despite the motivating interest shown by FnA, Ragdolls made the decision to record and release “Old Habits Die Hard” on their own label, creating Dai Hard Records for that purpose in order to maintain creative control of the music and how it would be presented.
When asked what, after all this time, motivated Ragdolls to reunite and release a debut album 30 years in the making, Marc Kelly replied, “If all that happens as a result of making this album is that a stripper in some Alabama trucker dive bar decides to take her clothes off to Doll House one night instead of Girls, Girls, Girls, then it was entirely worth it.”

That’s not to say they didn’t take the music seriously and had hammered a tight set of punk-tinged glam anthems (glamthems?) together in time for their live debut in June 1988 at Edwards No8 in Birmingham. Yes, Ragdolls first show was away from their home town and a partisan crowd. A wise move in hindsight, since it gave the band the opportunity to iron out the kinks before bringing their show home to the beloved Bogeys.

You can tell these song were composed in the ’80s, and while Ragdolls are compared with Tigertailz, musically are much more close to Poison than anything.
‘White Knuckle Ride’, ‘Bullet With Your Name On’, or ‘It Ain’t Pretty’ indeed sound like lost Poison songs, party rock n’ rollers not ‘heavy’ at all, including lots of cowbell and easy choruses.
However the band explore other sounds on ‘Doll House’ and ‘Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know’ adding a bluesy touch, and even go acoustic with the well execured ballad ‘Six Feet Under’.

Never it’s too late, and Ragdolls finally were able to put out their music, and by their own.
Feel good rockers, ‘glamthems’ are the core of “Old Habits Die Hard”, with an ’80s Sunset Strip smell in its more light, poppy metal side.
Well done guys!

01 – White Knuckle Ride
02 – True Grit
03 – Mad, Bad & Dangerous To Know
04 – Addiction
05 – Shine
06 – Do You Remember
07 – Doll House
08 – Siren Song
09 – Bullet With Your Name On
10 – Six Feet Under
11 – It Ain’t Pretty
12 – The Ugly Truth

J.J. Cruise – vocals
Marc Kelly – bass
Jamie Kayne – drums
Mike Dollz – guitar
Robin Guy – drums
Mark Squire – guitar

BUY IT !
www.ragdollsmusic.com/#nino-ohdh
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