'Put in we don't take chase girls and we don't take drugs and the whole tour has been financed from carrot sales on our commune in Epping.' -Sounds 12 February 1983

'Personally I'm just going for it. I want to see how much the human body can take. If I live through this, I'm going to settle down with a family and house.' - Sounds 4 June 1983

'To put feeling into rock and roll is the ultimate.' - Sounds 4 June 1983

'I don't stand a chance - out of my head before I've got my trousers on' - Melody Maker 9 June 1984

Presenter: They played their first gig in Toronto last Friday night at Larrys and they're here recording their new LP, with Bob Ezrin producing, so here's Rick 'n' Razzle.
Rick: Welcome to Toronto first of all. You guys haven't played here before have you?
Razzle: Nah, we haven't played over this side of the Atlantic at all. So we're gonna wind up the recording and then do a few shows about Canada, then down in New York and then we're gonna come back hopefully later on in the year and, you know, do a more in-depth tour.
Rick: Mmm yeah, everything seems to have been pretty much centered around Scandinavia first of all.
Razzle: Well that's where most of the band comes from - I'm the only English member. The rest of the guys are from Helsinki, although you wouldn't know it.
Rick: The rest of them are Finnish?
Razzle: Yeah, they are all Finnish, but you wouldn't know it - they all speak really good English.
Rick: Well, how did you get involved with that bunch because, I guess, they were more or less playing together in Finland...
Razzle: They'd been together for two years, had a couple of albums out, before I met 'em and I met 'Patel' (that's Andy's nickname) one night at a gig or somewhere. Him and Mike, yeah that's right, and we just got wrecked together...and then they had a bit of grief with their other drummer, booted him out...
Rick: So you were the right guy in the right place at the right time?
Razzle: Yeah, I was really lucky, and they'd done their groundwork and things were just taking off for 'em at the time when I joined the band and that was a year and a half ago.
Rick: Cos they'd been together since 1980 or so...
Razzle: Yeah, they've been together three or four years now.
Rick: So what was it like living in Finland for an Englishman?
Razzle: I went out there at first and I'd never been out of England before and they came over and got me and I went back with them and it was really strange - bloody cold place, you know.
Rick: Haha, colder than here even?!!
Razzle: Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure - last time we were over it was really cold.
Rick: What's the Finnish rock 'n' roll scene...
(section lost due to dodgy tape)
Razzle: ...have a bit of action and Helsinki's a bit dull man.
Rick: I guess you'd gone about as far as you could in the Scandinavian scene cos you were huge there...
Razzle: Yeah, we moved onto London, but it's still too cold. I'm looking for somewhere to move to, hopefully Los Angeles. If I can check it out and see...it's hot there, because that's what I want. Somewhere where the sun shines.
Rick: So you were glad to get out of Finland climate-wise then?
Razzle: Right, I haven't been in the sun for a year - everywhere where we've toured for the whole year, since last year when we were in Thailand, since then we've followed the cold weather around the world.
Rick: Have you found a real market for Hanoi Rocks in...Thailand?
Razzle: Nah, it's one of those places where bands play on the world tour circuit - stop off and play in a place like Thailand.
Rick: It seems kind of strange that the band were centered in Finland or the UK and going to places like Thailand, but has yet to really break in North America which is really the brass ring that everybody grabs for first.
Razzle: Well, we HAD to go out to Japan because it really took off for us in Japan and we had to go out there a year ago and those places are like nearby there and that's why we didn't really bother coming over this side of the Atlantic. We went over to India and THAT was great. We were the first ever band to play in New Delhi - western rock band to play in New Delhi. It was really good...
Rick: The Police played there as well...
Razzle: No, they played Bombay. We played the same place as they did. We had a big riot at the end with all the police onstage and everyone getting trampled and that.
Rick: They were saying it was great, because they didn't know the cliched rock 'n' roll things to do - they were just loving it enormously.
Razzle: Yeah, they were great. Most of them thought Mike was a woman. I was sat at the back on the drum kit and it was great, all their little faces - they were so delighted. Genuinely happy.
Rick: Well he does have that androgynous look. It seems that the looks of Hanoi Rocks are as important as the music, is that the truth?
Razzle: Nah, not at all.
Rick: Not even where Mike is concerned?
Razzle: Well, he's a poof, so he gets out of bed and puts on his make-up like any other woman.
Rick: I see - the Boy George of rock 'n' roll.
Razzle: Oh don't mention that, man, Boy George is taboo!
Rick: Well, has he always been...er "this way" - nothing personal here.
Razzle: I THINK he has!
Rick: Like when you first started going to see Hanoi Rocks, was he wearing the make-up heavy duty?
Razzle: He's been wearing it since he was 14 and, like, he looks good without it, he doesn't really, as a guy, need to wear anything like that, but he looks better with it and it kind of goes with the image and he does it naturally and it's great.
Rick: I was just thinking about the visual image and your success seems to have been centered around your live performances.
Razzle: Everyone in the band really likes dressing-up and it's NOT a conscious thing about image at all in our band, really. We can wear what we want and nobody gives us any grief, we just wear what we want. And that's the hardest thing in a band to get five people who can be together like that, who can get on, play together, have good thinking and dress alike. You always find that this is the major thing that lets bands down (I always think) - you've got three in the band that look good and you've just got two in the band who are just wasters, they're just cruising along or they can't be bothered to pull their weight in one form or another. So we're really happy in this band - it's a really happy sort of situation.
Rick: You're working here in Toronto with Bob Ezrin and I would presume that this is the shot that you're looking for to break you into North America and like you said, maybe get you based in Los Angeles, do you have any big plans - a major assault when the record is released - and, first of all, do you have any idea when it WILL be released here.
Razzle: No I haven't, I haven't got a clue - I don't know things like that.
Rick: Quality Records is handling Hanoi Rocks here in Canada, do you have an American deal yet -
Razzle: Well, the next album will be out on CBS, I guess, and Quality...they've got 'Mystery City' - our last album - they've got that out here now and I've been reading some reviews today.
Rick: OK well, Razzle, thanks a lot and good luck to you and I hope you enjoy your stay in Toronto and the next project with Mr. Ezrin goes okay. He was saying, in a New Music interview, that one of the reasons that he wanted to work with you guys was because it reminded him of his old days with Alice Cooper. Was the Alice Cooper Band one of the, I don't know, 'formative' influences on Hanoi Rocks?
Razzle: Yeah, it's one of the maybe half dozen bands where there's a common interest - where we don't argue and we absolutely love and early Alice Cooper is definitely one of them.
Rick: Well I can see the similarities, but like you say there are so many influences it's difficult to pin down, so thanks anyway.
Razzle: Yeah, thank you, alright.
Rick: Razzle, from Hanoi Rocks.
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Hard Rocks Volume #4 1985

December 8th, 1984 - That day a young guy ended his life of 24 years on a highway in Los Angeles, California. It was too early for him to climb up to the stairway to heaven. His name was Nicholas Charles Dingley - Yes, he was a drummer of Hanoi Rocks known as Razzle. People's death end all too soon. It is sure that there would be a shining future just like the seven colors of the rainbow for this young twenty-four year old guy. He was just about to flap his wings by showing his talents in knowing how to communicate with people around the world as a Hanoi Rocks drummer - Everything was gone in an instant because of DWI which we can't regret enough. It is too late to blame a driver, but how are we supposed to deal with this sadness?
June 9th, 1985, I got on a train which goes to Portsmouth from Waterloo station in London to visit Isle of Wight with two ladies, Atuko Shimama and Rei Mizuno who are well known journalists on this magazine. Razzle's soul would be there. We can't do anything, however, if we could just pray for him at the grave - with all these feelings we've decided to go to Isle of Wight. Being on a train about two hours, then we took a ferry from Portsmouth Harbor, and thirty minutes from there we saw a small but beautiful island with lots of greens and flowers, Isle of Wight. Blue shining ocean and white sandy beach, Razzle had spent his more than ten years of life in this fantastic place. We didn't know his parents' phone number beforehand, and we thought it would be impolite to visit the house suddenly, but we decided to do it anyway. We stopped at the information office near the station and asked how we could get to this address. The lady gave us a copy of map and told us that it was possible to walk there, but it would be quite far. So we took a taxi from the outside of the info office and told the driver to go to THIS PLACE. After ten minutes, our car entered the narrow road on a hill and stopped in a front of a small house which were surrounded by thick trees. There was a gray jaguar at the entrance. We saw a face of a gentle man over a car. We rang a bell at the door, then this man stopped his work and opened the door for us. We asked him, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Dingley!?" Then he nodded. Oh, this is Razzle's father. He invited us into the house. There were pictures of Razzle smiling with other members of Hanoi on the left shelf near the entrance. We entered the living room and sat down on a sofa by Mr. Dingley's offer. Then a lady showed up from the kitchen. Needless to say, it was Razzle's mother. In a kitchen, two Yorkshire Terrier (Sugar & Dinky) were barking because of wanting to come here, and it was really loud!! Also, they had a big gray parrot (Polly) in a cage in a living room. It was a big surprise for the bird to see us strangers. ( From watching this bird, Atuko remembered occupations of parents from the biography written by Razzle. It said "taking care of parrots" was one of their jobs.) We explained the reason why we came here, then they were very pleased with us. They told us that we were the first Japanese visitors with tears in their eyes and began to talk about Razzle by taking out his memorials. "I am from Coventry and my wife is from Yorkshire. I retired fifteen years ago and moved to this Isle of Wight. In Coventry, there were too many factories and cars, and we couldn't put up with exhaust gas. If we had lived there four or five more years, we would not be alive now...... Nicky (Razzle was called Nicky by his parents) was the only son who could inherit the name Dingley....."
"He had always been active and a naughty boy since he was a small kid. He had so many friends in our neighborhood, and he grew up free from all cares in a great environment. He was always up to some mischief. When he became a teenager, he and his friends began to have interests in rock, and he bought a drum set at the age of fourteen."
"At that time Nicky's favorite band was Queen."
"Yes, that's why he took the drum set to the garden and practiced it very often. The first band which he played with was called Thin Red Lines. This band wasn't professional, but the next band he got in, The Dark, released one album."
"However, Hanoi Rocks was the first worldwide band for him. Unfortunately, I've never seen Hanoi's gigs, but when Nicky came back here, he told us about tours and different countries he had visited with shining eyes. He seemed extremely happy."
"We can't still believe he is dead. When his dead body arrived here, I was not able to see the face, but my husband said it was a beautiful dead face....."
"When Nicky died, Cyndi Lauper, Twisted Sister, and many other fans and friends sent flowers and cards."
(Then father showed us a bunch of letters, however, they didn't receive any cards from Motley Crue. How ignorant!!)
Anyway we've decided to visit the grave, so we followed mother. We walked for a few minutes from the house and got to the old deserted church. We pushed the black iron fence in front and entered. "In the beginning, there were standing gravestones, but now they moved them to the window side and lined up the flat stones on a ground. It is a new idea." Mother was explaining the idea and suddenly she stopped in a front of a stone which was at the right side and inner part of trees. Oh, we've finally come to Razzle's grave....... Mother threw away the dead flowers from a vase and put new flowers. She cleaned around this small gravestone. When we looked at her, she was just about to cry, and her shoulders were shaking from sadness. We couldn't hold our tears, either. We all began to cry. Rei just said, "I feel like we came here to confirm Razzle's death." She was right. Until we saw this gravestone, we thought Razzle was still alive somewhere. "Under this stone, there is a small beautiful coffin of Nicky. It is made of woods, and his name is engraved in gold letters." Mother told us wiping tears from her face. It was really Too Young To Die, Razzle...........
After we went back home, his parents showed us Nicky's room and many articles left by the departed which they brought back from the flat in London where Razzle and Nasty used to share. There were Razzle's teddy bear, many dolls, a big Christmas card which Razzle had sent to parents, and the Japanese Sake shaped as a castle etc. Everything showed Razzle's warm, gentle personality.
"The last time Nicky came home was last October. Then he went to the American tour. If he didn't die from that accident, he was supposed to have a concert at Portsmouth on December 22nd....." Father said.
We saw a piece of Hanoi Rocks flyer in his favorite glass case, and there were too many Razzle's looks (photos?) in the house. When they drive a car, they always listen to Two Steps From The Move, they said. Parents even drove us to the place where they had a funeral.They loved their son very much, and it must have been very difficult to face the reality and overcome the deep sadness. Also, we didn't want to do these sad interviews anymore. Never again. Now we only want to pray for Razzle's soul being in peace and for his parents having peaceful lives. Times change and we with them but Razzle's so soul may in peace forever!!
(Special thanks to Yumiko for the translation)
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