Dirty Looks (band)

Dirty Looks
Henrik Ostergaard performing in 2009
Background information
Origin	San Francisco, California, United States
Genres	Hard rock,hair metal
Years active	1984–1996, 2007-2011
Labels	Atlantic, FNA Records, Sony/Rockworld, Mirror Records, BH Records, Shrapnel Records, Sticky Records, Perris Records
Associated acts	Scarecrow, Jack Starr's Burning Starr, Dangerous Toys, Burning Orange, Crossfire
Website	http://www.dirtylooksmusic.com/
Past members	Henrik Ostergaard Paul Lidel Brian Perry See all Past members

Dirty Looks was an American hard rock band from San Francisco, California.

Originally from the Erie, Pennsylvania cover-band Crossfire, the Danish born vocalist/guitarist Henrik Ostergaard and fellow Crossfire band-mate and bassist Jimmy Chartley traveled to San Francisco to form Dirty Looks in 1984. Fellow Crossfire bandmate Boyd Baker joined them a year later.

While in California and upon their return home to Philadelphia, the group had a revolving door membership, yet released an EP and three independent albums before Atlantic Records offered them a recording contract. For their major label debut, Dirty Looks consisted of Paul Lidel (guitar), Jack Pyers (bass) and Gene Barnett (drums). The resulting album, Cool From The Wire in 1988, entered the Billboard chart, while getting substantial airplay on MTV for their video for the song "Oh Ruby". Produced by Max Norman (Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, Lynch Mob), it is still regarded by many as one of the best hard rock albums of all time. Twenty five years later, Cool From The Wire continues to sell online and in record stores all across the globe.

For the follow-up album in 1989, there were conflicts with their original record producer Beau Hill, and the original recordings for Turn Of The Screw were scrapped, but the re-worked album would be the group's most successful release reaching higher on the Billboard chart. The President of Atlantic Records and the higher-ups of their new management team Hard To Handle (AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Emerson Lake and Palmer) thought that it would benefit the band if they hired a producer who had current albums on the Billboard charts. Beau Hill (Ratt, Warrant, Winger) was hired to record the album but the band felt that he wasn't capturing the street sound that they were looking for. The Hill sessions were scrapped and John Jansen (Britny Fox, Faster Pussycat, Cinderella) was brought in to produce Turn Of The Screw, which was released in 1989. After the album dropped, the band hit the road on another vigorous tour.