Antti Hulkko (born 11 October 1962), better known as Andy McCoy, is a Finnish musician. He is best known for his role as the lead guitarist and main songwriter of the rock band Hanoi Rocks, but has also played with Iggy Pop and a variety of other groups. McCoy's works cover a wide range of music genres, including rock 'n' roll, punk rock, flamenco, glam punk, glam rock, blues rock and hard rock. He is also an avid painter.
Biography
Hanoi Rocks (1979–1985, 2001–2009)
Before Hanoi Rocks, McCoy had become well known in his home country, Finland, due to his work in the punk rock band Pelle Miljoona Oy. During this time McCoy was talking with Matti Fagerholm (better known as Michael Monroe) to start a band of their own, but because McCoy was currently in Pelle Miljoona Oy, he told Monroe to start the band without him in 1979. After McCoy left Pelle Miljoona Oy, he joined Monroe in Hanoi Rocks, with another former-Pelle Miljoona Oy member, Sam Yaffa. At this point, the Hanoi Rocks line-up consisted of Michael Monroe (lead vocals), Andy McCoy (lead guitar), Nasty Suicide (rhythm guitar), Sam Yaffa (bass) and Swedish Gyp Casino (drums).
Hanoi Rocks released their first album in 1981 titled Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks, with nine out of ten tracks written by McCoy. The album was produced by Andy McCoy and Michael Monroe who were known as "The Muddy Twins". In 1982 Hanoi Rocks recorded and released their second studio album Oriental Beat in London. The original cover's back side featured Andy McCoy's then girlfriend Anna's naked breasts painted blue and red with "Hanoi Roxx" written across it. After the album's release, the band moved to London the same year, and subsequently fired drummer Gyp Casino before hiring Hanoi Rocks fan Nicholas Dingley, better known as Razzle, as drummer. The line-up with Razzle is considered the definitive version of Hanoi Rocks. Later that year the band released Self Destruction Blues, which had Razzle on the cover, but he didn't play on the album, because it was actually a compilation of old singles. The tour for the album took the band to Asia for the first time. The next year 1983, the band released Back to Mystery City and after that, in 1984, the band worked with producer Bob Ezrin, and released Two Steps from the Move. Before this, McCoy had written most of the songs by himself, but for this album Bob Ezrin helped McCoy with the writing, along with Monroe. He also got some help with the lyrics from legendary Ian Hunter (of Mott The Hoople). After Razzle's death, Sam Yaffa left the band due to personal differences with McCoy (amongst other reasons he was now engaged to Anna, McCoy's former girlfriend known from the Oriental Beat cover). The band tried out new members (amongst them The Clash ex-drummer Terry Chimes and bassist René Berg), but things didn't work out, so the band disbanded in 1985.
In 2001 McCoy and Michael Monroe started working together again and decided to reform Hanoi Rocks with two new members on guitar and bass, with Michael Monroe's solo career drummer, Lacu. They released Twelve Shots on the Rocks that same year. In 2005 they released Another Hostile Takeover with new members Andy Christell on bass and Conny Bloom on guitar (both formerly of the Electric Boys). In 2007 the band released the album Street Poetry. In 2008 Andy McCoy and Michael Monroe stated that they had taken the band as far as they could and so they decided to end the band. Hanoi Rocks played 8 sold out farewell gigs in 6 days at Tavastia Club, Helsinki. The original guitarist Nasty Suicide appeared as a special guest on three of the last gigs.
Other work (1985–1999, 2009–2019)
After Hanoi Rocks' break-up in 1985, McCoy continued with his next project "The Cherry Bombz" which featured the last Hanoi line-up (except Michael Monroe), which consisted of Nasty Suicide, drummer Terry Chimes, bass player Timo Kaltio and vocalist Anita Chellemah of Toto Coelo fame (previously scoring a hit with "I Eat Cannibals"). The band was perceived as being the next stage of Hanoi Rocks. The music of The Cherry Bombz was actually very similar to that of Hanoi Rocks. The band played a handful of shows in Europe and in the United States in 1985 and 1986 and released two EPs and a live album and video, but never a full-length studio album. In 1986, Timo Kaltio was replaced by bassist Dave Tregunna (Sham 69, Lords of the New Church), but the group broke up the next year.