Michael Monroe Tribute

Michael's firstsolo recording was "Nights Are So Long" (releasedonly in Scandinavia and Japan in 1987). Michael had moved toNew York at the end of 1985 after sharing a flat in London withStiv Bators (lead singer of Dead Boys and TheLords Of The New Church) for about a year following Razzle'spassing and the break up of Hanoi Rocks. Stiv and Michaelhad worked together on some stuff & done a few demo tracksin London and also did backing vocals together on Little Steven's"Sun City - Artists United Against Apartheid"record. They were flown over to New York for the "SunCity" video shoot to participate along with names likeBruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bono, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff,RUN DMC, Peter Wolf, Nona Hendryx & others. After theshoot Michael and Stiv stuck around in New York for a while andMichael then decided to move to Manhattan.

Michael washoping that Stiv would be able to produce "Nights AreSo Long" but as it turned out Michael ended-up co-producingit with Craig Goetsch, a sound engineer from New York.Using local musicians he recorded the album with an extremelylow budget.

This is thefirst time Michael wrote and recorded his own original songs,in addition to a few cover versions of some of his favorite artists.Two songs "It's A Lie" and the title track "NightsAre So Long" were written by Dead Boys guitaristJimmy Zero. Stiv had played Jimmy's demos to Michael andhe decided to record them since they had never been releasedanywhere. About a year or two later the Dead Boys gottogether for a reunion single EP and recorded "NightsAre So Long" on it amongst other songs. However Michael'sversion was the first one to be released. Ian Hunter (ex-leadsinger of Mott The Hoople) played piano on four songson it as well.

The album wasdedicated to Razzle and reflects the break up of Hanoi("Can't Go Home Again") and the tragic consequencesof such an enormous loss ("Too Rich To Be Good"/"YouCan't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", the latter oneof Razzle's favorites written by Johnny Thunders).

The album hasbeen out of print since the first pressings due to legal complicationsand was just recently re-released in Japan by Mercury Music.

This recordserved as an international demo and got Michael signed to a majorlabel for a world-wide deal.

When Michaelsinged to Polygram Records the plan was to re-record some of"Nights Are So Long" for a world-wide release.However there were possible legal complications and the recordingwas put on hold until everything would be sorted out. Consequentlyin the months that followed Michael wrote a new album "NotFakin' It" (released in 1989), his first world-widesolo release.

"NotFakin' It"got great reviews everywhere and was praised by many of his peersin the music world. Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) and Slashand Axl (Guns & Roses) were so impressed that theytracked him down and invited him to appear on special occasions- Steven Tyler called Michael to come and play saxophoneat an exclusive party for the legendary Les Paul's 75 thbirthday at the New York Hard Rock Café where Aerosmithplayed an extremely rare live set of blues and R'n'B. Michaelplayed saxophone on "Big Ten Inch Record". Boththe audience and the band loved it.

Axl Rose , who was a big fanof Hanoi Rocks crashed Michael's video shoot in New YorkCity to introduce himself to Michael and ended up doing a guestappearance in the video of "Dead, Jail Or Rock'n'Roll".Both Slash and Axl got up on stage with Michaelat the L.A. WHISKY-A-GO-GO where Michael played four consecutivesold out nights at the end of Michael's U.S. Tour -89. Slashalso came up to play with Michael in Chicago on the same tour.

In fact allthe original Guns & Roses members were very much intoHanoi Rocks, quoting them as one of their major influences.They released Hanoi's European back catalogue in America on theirUZI SUICIDE label.

New Year'sEve ´89 and New Year's Day '90 Michael played in Japanat The Tokyo Dome in front of about 70 000 people each day onthe same bill with (!) Don Henley, Bryan Adams and HueyLewis. This interesting combination of artists proceededto play Osaka and two other major cities in Japan.

In early 1990Michael toured the U.K. getting rave reviews in the press anda great response in general. However he found out that the record(Not Fakin' It) that he was touring on was not availablein the stores and could therefore not translate into sales.

At this pointMichael's video "Dead, Jail Or Rock'n'Roll"was being played regularly on MTV's "Headbanger's Ball"and his second video "Man With No Eyes" wason MTV's medium rotation.

After comingback from another tour of Japan in the spring '90 Monroe sawhimself on MTV being advertised as "The real thing that'snot faking it" and "the brains behind Hanoi Rocks"etc. (Hanoi Rocks had no brains! One of the best things aboutthem!!) Michael demanded the record company pull the MTV commercialoff the air which they did along with the remaining marketingcampaign. So be it. He would rather not become a huge mega-starunless his image was in tact and uncompromised. Apart from Polygram'smispresentation in exploiting him his manager at the time wasnow calling him a "prima donna" and badrapping himall over the place. Yet another relationship with a manager (or"a damager" as Michael would say!) that had to be terminated.Michael pulled out of sight for a while.

Soon afterthis Michael was approached by Steve Stevens (ex-BillyIdol guitarist) and they ended up trying a band project whichdid not work out. They made some promising demos over a periodof time. However when they went into the studio to record thealbum, the music started going into a completely different directionfrom what Michael had originally intended and what was the understandingbetween him and Stevens.

Polygram hadinsisted in using a "Big Name" producer at the time.This happened to be a German Heavy Metal producer MichaelWagener who had just done some pretty successful work withOzzy Osbourne, Skid Row and others. At this point timeMonroe became extremely concerned about the record going toomuch into Heavy Metal direction. The backing tracks took muchlonger to do than Monroe had ever spent on an entire album andthe songs were being rearranged and further complicated in thestudio in Wisconsin. He was then informed that much against hiswishes he was being sent to Los Angeles to record vocals andguitars for two weeks. He decided to finish the vocals whilestill in Wisconsin. What then was supposed to be 1 - 2 weeksof finishing the guitar overdubs turned out to be about threemonths of Guitar Hell in Los Angeles.

The situationhad now become disasterous and Monroe did everything in his powerto stop the recording in order to prevent the album from beingreleased. Unfortunately he had no support from anyone else involvedand eventually was left holding a bag a shit, so to speak.

Even thoughit was totally against Michael's wishes and needs, Polygram tookwhat they considered to be a finished Master and released itas it was under the name Jerusalem Slim. They of coursehad to make the enormous amount of money spent on the projectback as soon as possible - whether it was going to seriouslydamage Michael's career or not.

Now the onlything left for Michael to do was to try and get dropped fromthe label as soon as possible, so that he could start gettinghis life and career somewhat back on track. It took another yearbefore Polygram finally let him go.

In the fallof 1992 Michael did an "Anti-Promotional" Tour in Japan,not playing anything from the Jerusalem Slim album thathad just been released there, also telling people sincerely inall honesty not to waste their money on the new record that reallyshould not have been released in the first place.

His band onthat tour consisted of guitarist Phil Grande (played onthe "Nights Are So Long" and "Not Fakin'It" albums + co-wrote a few songs with Michael as wellon "Not Fakin' It"), Thommy Price (ex-BillyIdol, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts + played on "NotFakin' It") on drums and for the first time togetheron stage since Hanoi Rocks broke up were Nasty Suicideand Sami Yaffa with Michael.

The followingsummer 1993 Nasty and Sami also worked together in the studiowith Michael recording two songs in England for the JohnnyThunders Tribute Album "I Only Wrote This Song For You".Monroe's tracks were "Disappointed In You" and"So Alone" along with other artist friends ofJohnny's, each interpreting one of Johnny's songs in their ownway (David Johansen, Willy De Ville, The Ramones, SylvainSylvain, Arthur Kane, Wayne Kramer, Los Lobos to mentiona few). Thunders was always one of Hanoi's favorites and a goodfriend, especially to Michael. In the spring 1985 Johnny stayedin Michael's flat in Portobello, London. Johnny was recordinghis "Que Sera, Sera" solo album and had Michaelto play saxophone and harmonica on most of the songs. Johnny'spassing was a huge loss.

About a yearbefore Johnny another dear friend of Michael's, Stiv Batorshad passed away after being hit by a car in Paris. Guns &Roses had flown Michael over to L.A. to play saxophone andharmonica on a song of the "Use Your Illusion"album called "Bad Obsession". The later to bereleased "Spaghetti Incident" was also thenmostly recorded. Michael had brought a tape of Stiv's originalband the Dead Boys for Axl to hear since he wasn't apparentlythat familiar with their music. They were hanging out in Hollywoodthe first night Michael was there, listening to the tape in acar. When Axl heard the song "Ain't It Fun"he decided that it absolutely had to be recorded on the "SpaghettiIncident" record. And that it would be a duet with Axlhimself and Michael as a tribute to Stiv Bators' memory.

Axl got theband together and the song turned out magical. Michael and Axltraded every other line on the verses starting with Axl on thefirst, Michael on the second verse, singing the choruses together.In places they both sound so much like Stiv it's almost eerie."Ain't It Fun" was the first single off the"Spaghetti Incident" album and it made the TOPTEN in the U.K. charts

Another collaborationbetween Guns & Roses and Michael happened in earlyJune 1993. Slash called Michael to sing on a song he wasto record for the movie soundtrack of the "Coneheads"comedy film. He had chosen to do a cover version of the old Steppenwolfsong "Magic Carpet Ride". In the studio in LondonMichael suggested a different type of arrangement idea for thesong which he worked on with Slash. They ended up doing two versionsof the song, first one pretty close to the original version andthe other with the new arrangement idea that Michael had suggestedin order to make it fresh and add something new to it. Both versionssounded really great and were sent to the movie company. Theyliked them both too but decided to go with the new arrangementwith Michael for the movie.

Around thesame couple of days Guns & Roses were playing at theMilton-Keynes Festival outside London. They asked Michaelto come and play harmonica on "Knockin' On Heavens Door"and to join with Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones)to play "Honky Tonk Women" at the end of theirset playing to about 70 or 80 000 people. They had flown Ronniein with his family as well as Michael since it was going to betheir last show for a while and there was a feeling of somethingmagical in the air. Izzy Stradlin was also then in theband sitting in for Gilby Clark who had had a hand injuryand could not play.

Another guestappearance from around that time Michael did on one his favoritenew bands from New York Warrior Soul's record "Chillpill".Monroe plays saxophone on one track and harmonica on another.

In 1993 Michaelstarted looking to put together something more like a permanentband and was planning to record a new solo album with his longtime friend Little Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen& The E Street Band) as the producer. Michael had wantedLittle Steven to produce him for a long time but Polygramrecords for some reason had never allowed it. Steven was alsohelping Michael trying to find a guitar player and a drummer.

One day Michaelhappened to be talking to Rat Scabies (drummer for theDamned) to London. When he heard that Michael was lookingfor a drummer he offered to come over to New York the next day.And so he did. Michael and Hanoi Rocks had always beenbig fans of the Damned, especially Razzle. Michaelhad already gotten ex-Hanoi Sami Yaffa on bass for theband. Rat Scabies stayed in New York for about a weekand had a great time playing with Sami, Michael and LittleSteven (at this point sitting in on guitar). However theyall mutually decided that it didn't quite work musically, eventhough it was a lot of fun.

Soon they foundJimmy Clark (ex-Blondie, Scandal + toured withThe Ramones) to be the drummer and Jay Hening froma short lived New York band "Star Star" on guitar.

At the endof summer 1993 Michael got a residency at The Grand Club (former"Cat Club") on 13th street in Manhattan every Mondaynight featuring surprise guests. They called it the "Glam,Trash, Punk" -night with rare vintage videos showing allnight by bands like MC 5, The New York Dolls, Iggy & TheStooges, early Alice Cooper, Slade, Sweet, T-Rex, SexPistols, The Ramones, Clash etc... At midnight the band (MichaelMonroe) would come on and Rock The House. They held 10 consecutiveMonday nights always managing to bring on a surprise guest atthe end of each show; Joey Ramone to do some Ramonestunes, Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople), SebastianBach from Skid Row, Kory Clarke from Warrior Soul(the best New York band for ages), Walter Lure (ex-JohnnyThunders & The Heartbreakers guitarist), Little Stevenetc. The last few shows Warrior Soul opened up for Michael.So Michael Monroe made some noise in New York and a greattime was had by everyone lucky enough to be present.

Later thatyear Michael went into the studio with the band with LittleSteven producing. The album was recorded and mixed in twoweeks at the Powerstation Studios in New York City. During therecording Michael decided to have a name for the band insteadof having it be his solo album which it really was. The nameof the BAND as well as the album was Demolition 23. Michaelwanted to see one more time if he could still be just the singerin a band that would stay together and grow.

In the beginningof the year 1994 the album was to come out in Japan and Demolition23 were to start playing live again soon. But then guitaristJay Hening got hit by a car and had to recover almostuntil the beginning of the summer. So the band had to wait tilJay got well enough to play. They started doing showsin New York area in the summer and a tour of Japan & Europewas in the works. However it turned out Jay had some troublewith his passport and could not leave the country. At the lastminute Michael got Nasty Suicide to sit in for Jay. SinceNasty lived in London, the guys flew in a day earlier to haveone rehearsal before the first gig also in London. The show turnedout real great and Michael, Sami and Nasty reallyenjoyed playing together again.

They continuedto play in Finland before going on to Japan. During a press conferencein Finland Nasty surprised everybody by saying that he wouldbe a permanent member of the band. Michael wasn't going to sayno either. However after touring in Japan and Scandinavia asthey were planning a UK tour (which was important since the recordhad been at the top of the Indie Record Charts and had also gottengreat reviews in England), Nasty all of a sudden announced thathe would be leaving the band since he had decided to stop playingaltogether and to start studying. This was too much of a setback for Michael after all the struggles it had taken to getto the point he was at with the band, just when things were startingto finally look up. There was nobody to replace Nasty in suchshort notice. Yet again everything came to a complete standstill.Disappointed and disillusioned Michael disbanded Demolition23.

Sadly, at theend of April 1997 Jay Hening took his own life in his home stateof Virginia U.S.A.

By 1995 Michaelhad become quite fed up with the scene in the States. Too manypeople had come and swindled his money while further settinghim back and damaging his career. Music had no business in themusic business. New York had become draining instead of energizingand inspiring like it used to be for Michael as a working environment.

He decidedthat some kind of major change was in order. At first he considereda move to London but then decided to go all the way to the otherextreme; from east 3rd street in Manhattan to his native Finland,out to the countryside to be surrounded by nature, clean airand a deafening silence. Defying the merciless Finnish winterhe started writing what was to be his next solo album "PeaceOf Mind". He found the new environment very refreshingand inspiring, also being able to work anytime of day or nightnot having any neighbours complaining about the noise and such.As a sort of therapy and to recharge himself he built giant snowmenoutside, some of which can be seen on the pages of the CD-bookletof "Peace Of Mind". It was released in Finlandand Scandinavia in the beginning of the summer 1996 and in Japana few months later. In 1999 it was officially released in Europewith 2 Xtra Trax featuring Stiv Bator. Michael co-wrote mostof the songs with his long time friend, collaborator and backgroundsinger Jude Wilder. She now also acts as Michael's manager,the only person he could trust anymore at this point.

Recording thealbum was more of a challenge to Michael than any other recordhe had done before. This time he was not only singing and playingsaxophone & harmonica, but was also the producer and playedall the bass and guitars (apart from a couple of 2nd rhythm guitartracks played by Olli Hilden, Michael's childhood friendin Finland, then part or his live band). He flew Jimmy Clark(Demolition 23) in from the States to play drums. The resultsounds like a full membered, loud & raunchy live Rock&Rollband with a great vibe, feel and chemistry. One would never knowwithout reading the credits that it is mostly only a "twoman band". Especially impressive is how well Michael handlesthe guitars and production on the record. The general concensusis that "Peace Of Mind" was his best album yet.

In the summer1996 Michael performed on three major Festivals in Finland andgot a great response.

In February1997 Michael did a club tour in Finland ending up at Helsinki'slegendary Tavastia Club on March 1st. The show was completelysold out and as quoted in the press, the only place to be onthat night in Finland. Consequently so many were turned awayat the door that a second show was added for March 6th.

In the summer 1997 he playedat the Tavastia Club on July 19th once again to a packed house.On 3rd August he did the "Ankkarock" (Duckrock) SummerFestival near Helsinki. About 40 000 people turned up which wasa record breaker for the Festival. Michael did an exceptionalperformance, totally in a league of his own, getting rave reviewsin the press. Amongst others he was quoted as "the mostathletic (not to mention energetic) performer of the day",at one moment hanging upside down from the top of the PA towerwhile singing, at another throwing himself on the hands of theaudience...

The rest of the year Michaelconcentrated mainly on writing new songs and making demos ofthem.

At the end of the year on December17th he did a "X-mas Show" live at the Tavastia Club.He came out to do the first encore wearing a Santa Claus maskand hat with a bag full of rolled up autographed "PeaceOf Mind" posters throwing them to the audience. Greatfun was had by all.

On X-mas eve Michael was aon national TV music program called "The Right X-mas".He played acoustic guitar and sang, with Jude Wilder on backingvocals, John Lennon's "Happy X-mas (War Is Over)"accompanied by two of the biggest singers in the Finnish mainstream;Aki Sirkesalo and Sami Saari. They also played guitars and sangback up. This program was watched by most of the Finnish population.

In the beginning of 1998 inJanuary Michael was approached by the Swedish band BackyardBabies to be a guest DJ at the release party for their newalbum "Total 13", replacing Joey Ramone whocouldn't make it due to illness. They also asked Michael to playsaxophone on a track they had left off the new album. So he flewto Stockholm the day before the release party and worked allnight in the studio with the guys. He ended up doing an entirehorn section plus harmonica on the song, and as it turned out,after rewriting the lyrics with Nicke and Dregen, Michael alsosang, sharing the lead vocals with Nicke. The song is called"Rocker" and it was released on Backyard Babies'CD called "Highlights".

Around the same time Michaelwas asked to do another guest DJ gig at the Phoenix Club in Toronto,also replacing originally scheduled Joey Ramone (!). He acceptedand also did a short acoustic set at the Phoenix Club that night.

While in Toronto, Michael quickly puttogether a band with some local players. They rehearsed a coupleof days and did a show at Toronto's Velvet Underground Club.This was the first time Michael performed in Canada since 1986.The show was great and got a great response too. A few days laterMichael played in New York City with the same band at the ClubLife (ex-Village Gate) on Bleecker Street, downtown Manhattan.This was the first time Michael played in his "hometown"New York since he moved out of there in the fall of 1995. Peopleat the show thought it was his best performance ever and thathe definitely came and took back New York.

After this he mainly concentratedon working on new material, apart from few guest appearanceshere and there. For example with the Backyard Babies in Londonand Nottingham on their U.K. tour.

Also the following summer Michaelwas flown to Japan to guest again with the Backyard Babies atthe "Out Of Hell" Festival of about 10 000 - 15 000people at the foot of the "Fuji" mountain. Michael'sperformance was impressive, aggressive, energetic and wild. Hisfaithful Japanese fans have not forgotten him and he gained himselfa new generation of younger fans for sure.

The winter of 1999 was veryrough for Michael. While doing yet another guest performancewith the Backyard Babies in Helsinki, Michael broke his ankleduring the last song. He had a cast up to his knee and had tobe on crutches for almost 2 months. Living in a remote countryhouse that could only be heated by chopping and burning woodis not easy in the middle of a freezing Finnish winter with 10feet of snow to plough, hopping on one leg. Later in the springhe was also forced to move for the second time because of a moldproblem in his house, which seems to be increasingly common inFinland. However some good news was that Jude Wilder had gottenMichael a record deal with SPV Records in Germany. And so, whilemoving from his old house he had to start making a record, whichthis time was almost completely written by Michael and Jude Wilder;12 brand new originals plus only one cover song. One must acknowledgethat whatever trials and suffering Michael has gone through,he only comes back so much stronger. I can't imagine a bettershow of strength than Michael Monroe's newest album - LifeGets You Dirty (1999). Absolutely a Rock'n'Roll masterpieceof our time.

In February of 2000 Michael relocated himself in the city of Turku, the former capital of Finland, after having had more than enough of troublesome country life. Having grown up and lived all his life in the city, he found himself quite comfortable once again living in the middle of a city; not too small and not too big; in a ?very special and private flat? he was blessed with.

The rest of the year Michael did gigs and toured to promote ?Life Gets You Dirty?. Amongst others he played for the first time ever in Spain in Badalona and connected with the Spanish fans. This lead to a Spanish tour at the end of October the same year. Also in the beginning of September he toured in Germany opening up for Iggy Pop, which was a success and generally thought of as a great combination as both Michael and Iggy have a similar type of energy about their live performance while still having their ?own thing?.

In the summer of 2000 Monroe was asked to be ?executive producer? for a Japanese tribute album for Hanoi Rocks named ?Bloody Knuckles & Lipstick?. Not having anything whatsoever to do with the recording, he agreed to have his name be used as ?the executive producer? towards ?a cash payment?. However, the Record Label in question, flew Michael over to Tokyo to promote the tribute record and since his own label was not doing the same for ?Life Gets You Dirty?, this way Michael got a chance to promote it anyway at the same time. And as it turned out, most of the interviews ended up being about ?Life Gets You Dirty?.
The tribute album was interesting to say the least: a bunch of local very punkish bands interpreting Hanoi songs with total disregard to the original versions, which Michael found refreshing after all, as opposed to attempts of copying the quite inimitable perfectly flawed original Hanoi material. A concert at a Tokyo club was arranged with all the tribute bands doing short performances ending up with Michael doing a bunch of Hanoi tunes backed by ?The Voodoo Hawaiians? ? one of the bands on the tribute album. All in good fun?

Michael did an outstanding live performance in the beginning of July at the Ruisrock-festival in (his now ?hometown?) Turku, Finland ? following a 1 minute silence for the casualties of the disaster at Roskilde as the sad news had just gotten heard.

At the end of July he made a surprising trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina agreeing to do 2 nights at a local club backed by a local band. Always up for a new adventure Michael had a so called ?blind date? with a band called ?Zero?, who luckily turned out to be much more up to the challenge than their name had suggested, and Michael spent a week doing promotion while having rehearsals in Buenos Aires. At the end of it he delivered two killer performances backed by the band & Jude Wilder singing background vocals of course.

In August there was a Swedish festival and the Finnish annual Ankkarock, that Michael performed at giving his usual 150 %, though feeling extremely sick and nauseous as he had caught a vicious summer flu.

At the Spanish date in Badalona in May Michael had run into an old friend from New York named Pink Gibson (formerly Adam Bomb), who ended up coming to Finland for some gigs. While in Finland the guys ended started writing some material for Michael?s next solo album. Michael recruited Pink to play guitar in his solo band, which he did at Michaels?s New Year?s Eve gig at a Club in Turku, Finland.

On February 22 nd , 2001 there was a release party for a Hanoi Rocks 4-CD Box-set where Michael met Andy McCoy after they had not seen each other for quite a while and they started getting along nicer than expected. Later that night they got up on stage in Turku, Michael?s hometown backed by a local band doing 3 Hanoi songs; Tragedy, Taxidriver and Up Around The Bend ? making history as the crowd went nuts.
After having so much fun playing together they started keeping in closer touch from then on and started talking about doing a one off concert of just Hanoi Rocks songs for fun. As it turned out, the following summer they did two big festivals in Finland as ? Hanoi Revisited?playing a killer set of the best Hanoi Rocks tunes. However, devastatingly before this Michael had to face the worst tragedy of his life:
Michael?s wife of 15 years, best friend, collaborator and personal manager Jude Wilder passed away unexpectedly from a haemorrhage in the brain on June 19 th , 2001.

Despite this tragedy Michael still went on to do the Hanoi Revisited concerts that were now sadly dedicated to Jude Wilder?s memory.

In his grief Michael decided to try and work as much as possible to be preoccupied in order to get his mind off the overwhelming sorrow. He started writing more new material with Andy McCoy. ? Hanoi Revisited? also did a short tour of Finland in the Fall.

At the beginning of 2002 Michael and Andy went into the studio to see what would happen if they laid down some of the new songs they had written. The result was so impressive to both of them that they seriously started thinking of what to call this thing that clearly had a certain kind of magic in it, sparked by both guys working together.

The two of them had started Hanoi Rocks and had the name & stuff all figured out before the other guys were recruited, so after giving it some very serious thought they decided to go for the unimaginable.
Not would they ever do a sort of ?re-union? for a quick buck with old members hating each other for one tour and never meeting again etc. But as this was more of a ?rebirth? of something more lasting in terms of the future, they decided to call it Hanoi Rocks. And rightfully so. The rest of the band consists of Michael?s rhythm section of a few years in his solo band, Lacu on drums and Timpa on bass plus the other guitarist Costello.

And so it came to pass that in the year 2002 Hanoi Rocks was reborn.

In the spring Hanoi released a single called ?People Like Me? in Scandinavia which went straight to number one in Finland and sold gold.

On April 24 th , exclusively for Japan a Michael Monroe EP of 6 songs was released (2 new studio tracks & 4 live, recorded over a year before in Helsinki) called ?Take Them And Break Them?, which got great reviews and is of course guaranteed Michael Monroe top quality. This record ended up being the last one that Jude Wilder sang her backing vocals on and is dedicated to her lovely memory...

Since Michael has mainly concentrated on Hanoi Rocks, playing gigs in Sweden, Japan, Spain as well as finishing the Hanoi Rocks album named ?13 Shots On The Rocks?.

However, Michael has also recorded a new solo album called ?Whatcha Want? soon to be released on SPV (Germany) in Europe and Japan. Those who have heard it claim it?s ?his best one yet? and definitely worth looking for.