Michael Monroe

Michael's first solo recording was "Nights Are So Long" (released only in Scandinavia and Japan in 1987). Michael had moved to New York at the end of 1985 after sharing a flat in London with Stiv Bators (lead singer of Dead Boys and The Lords Of The New Church) for about a year following Razzle's passing and the break up of Hanoi Rocks. Stiv and Michael had worked together on some stuff & done a few demo tracks in 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 "Sun City" video shoot to participate along with names like Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Bono, Joey Ramone, Jimmy Cliff, RUN DMC, Peter Wolf, Nona Hendryx & others. After the shoot Michael and Stiv stuck around in New York for a while and Michael then decided to move to Manhattan.Michael was hoping that Stiv would be able to produce "Nights Are So Long" but as it turned out Michael ended-up co-producing it with Craig Goetsch, a sound engineer from New York. Using local musicians he recorded the album with an extremely low budget.This is the first 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 "Nights Are So Long" were written by Dead Boys guitarist Jimmy Zero. Stiv had played Jimmy's demos to Michael and he decided to record them since they had never been released anywhere. About a year or two later the Dead Boys got together for a reunion single EP and recorded "Nights Are So Long" on it amongst other songs. However Michael's version was the first one to be released. Ian Hunter (ex-lead singer of Mott The Hoople) played piano on four songs on it as well.The album was dedicated to Razzle and reflects the break up of Hanoi ("Can't Go Home Again") and the tragic consequences of such an enormous loss ("Too Rich To Be Good"/"You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory", the latter one of Razzle's favorites written by Johnny Thunders).The album has been out of print since the first pressings due to legal complications and was just recently re-released in Japan by Mercury Music.This record served as an international demo and got Michael signed to a major label for a world-wide deal.When Michael singed 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 recording was put on hold until everything would be sorted out. Consequently in the months that followed Michael wrote a new album "Not Fakin' It" (released in 1989), his first world-wide solo release."Not Fakin' It" got great reviews everywhere and was praised by many of his peers in the music world. Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) and Slash and Axl (Guns & Roses) were so impressed that they tracked him down and invited him to appear on special occasions - Steven Tyler called Michael to come and play saxophone at an exclusive party for the legendary Les Paul's 75th birthday at the New York Hard Rock Café where Aerosmith played an extremely rare live set of blues and R'n'B. Michael played saxophone on "Big Ten Inch Record". Both the audience and the band loved it.Axl Rose, who was a big fan of Hanoi Rocks crashed Michael's video shoot in New York City to introduce himself to Michael and ended up doing a guest appearance in the video of "Dead, Jail Or Rock'n'Roll". Both Slash and Axl got up on stage with Michael at the L.A. WHISKY-A-GO-GO where Michael played four consecutive sold out nights at the end of Michael's U.S. Tour -89. Slash also came up to play with Michael in Chicago on the same tour.In fact all the original Guns & Roses members were very much into Hanoi Rocks, quoting them as one of their major influences. They released Hanoi's European back catalogue in America on their UZI SUICIDE label.New Year's Eve ´89 and New Year's Day '90 Michael played in Japan at The Tokyo Dome in front of about 70 000 people each day on the same bill with (!) Don Henley, Bryan Adams and Huey Lewis. This interesting combination of artists proceeded to play Osaka and two other major cities in Japan.In early 1990 Michael toured the U.K. getting rave reviews in the press and a great response in general. However he found out that the record (Not Fakin' It) that he was touring on was not available in the stores and could therefore not translate into sales.At this point Michael'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" was on MTV's medium rotation.After coming back from another tour of Japan in the spring '90 Monroe saw himself on MTV being advertised as "The real thing that's not faking it" and "the brains behind Hanoi Rocks" etc. (Hanoi Rocks had no brains! One of the best things about them!!) Michael demanded the record company pull the MTV commercial off the air which they did along with the remaining marketing campaign. So be it. He would rather not become a huge mega-star unless his image was in tact and uncompromised. Apart from Polygram's mispresentation in exploiting him his manager at the time was now calling him a "prima donna" and badrapping him all 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 after this Michael was approached by Steve Stevens (ex-Billy Idol guitarist) and they ended up trying a band project which did not work out. They made some promising demos over a period of time. However when they went into the studio to record the album, the music started going into a completely different direction from what Michael had originally intended and what was the understanding between him and Stevens.Polygram had insisted in using a "Big Name" producer at the time. This happened to be a German Heavy Metal producer Michael Wagener who had just done some pretty successful work with Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row and others. At this point time Monroe became extremely concerned about the record going too much into Heavy Metal direction. The backing tracks took much longer to do than Monroe had ever spent on an entire album and the songs were being rearranged and further complicated in the studio in Wisconsin. He was then informed that much against his wishes he was being sent to Los Angeles to record vocals and guitars for two weeks. He decided to finish the vocals while still in Wisconsin. What then was supposed to be 1 - 2 weeks of finishing the guitar overdubs turned out to be about three months of Guitar Hell in Los Angeles.The situation had now become disasterous and Monroe did everything in his power to stop the recording in order to prevent the album from being released. Unfortunately he had no support from anyone else involved and eventually was left holding a bag a shit, so to speak.Even though it was totally against Michael's wishes and needs, Polygram took what they considered to be a finished Master and released it as it was under the name Jerusalem Slim. They of course had to make the enormous amount of money spent on the project back as soon as possible - whether it was going to seriously damage Michael's career or not.Now the only thing left for Michael to do was to try and get dropped from the label as soon as possible, so that he could start getting his life and career somewhat back on track. It took another year before Polygram finally let him go.In the fall of 1992 Michael did an "Anti-Promotional" Tour in Japan, not playing anything from the Jerusalem Slim album that had just been released there, also telling people sincerely in all honesty not to waste their money on the new record that really should not have been released in the first place.His band on that tour consisted of guitarist Phil Grande (played on the "Nights Are So Long" and "Not Fakin' It" albums + co-wrote a few songs with Michael as well on "Not Fakin' It"), Thommy Price (ex-Billy Idol, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts + played on "Not Fakin' It") on drums and for the first time together on stage since Hanoi Rocks broke up were Nasty Suicide and Sami Yaffa with Michael.The following summer 1993 Nasty and Sami also worked together in the studio with Michael recording two songs in England for the Johnny Thunders Tribute Album "I Only Wrote This Song For You". Monroe's tracks were "Disappointed In You" and "So Alone" along with other artist friends of Johnny's, each interpreting one of Johnny's songs in their own way (David Johansen, Willy De Ville, The Ramones, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane, Wayne Kramer, Los Lobos to mention a few). Thunders was always one of Hanoi's favorites and a good friend, especially to Michael. In the spring 1985 Johnny stayed in Michael's flat in Portobello, London. Johnny was recording his "Que Sera, Sera" solo album and had Michael to play saxophone and harmonica on most of the songs. Johnny's passing was a huge loss.About a year before Johnny another dear friend of Michael's, Stiv Bators had passed away after being hit by a car in Paris. Guns & Roses had flown Michael over to L.A. to play saxophone and harmonica on a song of the "Use Your Illusion" album called "Bad Obsession". The later to be released "Spaghetti Incident" was also then mostly recorded. Michael had brought a tape of Stiv's original band the Dead Boys for Axl to hear since he wasn't apparently that familiar with their music. They were hanging out in Hollywood the first night Michael was there, listening to the tape in a car. When Axl heard the song "Ain't It Fun" he decided that it absolutely had to be recorded on the "Spaghetti Incident" record. And that it would be a duet with Axl himself and Michael as a tribute to Stiv Bators' memory.Axl got the band together and the song turned out magical. Michael and Axl traded every other line on the verses starting with Axl on the first, 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 TOP TEN in the U.K. chartsAnother collaboration between Guns & Roses and Michael happened in early June 1993. Slash called Michael to sing on a song he was to record for the movie soundtrack of the "Coneheads" comedy film. He had chosen to do a cover version of the old Steppenwolf song "Magic Carpet Ride". In the studio in London Michael suggested a different type of arrangement idea for the song which he worked on with Slash. They ended up doing two versions of the song, first one pretty close to the original version and the other with the new arrangement idea that Michael had suggested in order to make it fresh and add something new to it. Both versions sounded really great and were sent to the movie company. They liked them both too but decided to go with the new arrangement with Michael for the movie.Around the same couple of days Guns & Roses were playing at the Milton-Keynes Festival outside London. They asked Michael to 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 their set playing to about 70 or 80 000 people. They had flown Ronnie in with his family as well as Michael since it was going to be their last show for a while and there was a feeling of something magical in the air. Izzy Stradlin was also then in the band sitting in for Gilby Clark who had had a hand injury and could not play.Another guest appearance from around that time Michael did on one his favorite new bands from New York Warrior Soul's record "Chillpill". Monroe plays saxophone on one track and harmonica on another.In 1993 Michael started looking to put together something more like a permanent band and was planning to record a new solo album with his long time friend Little Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band) as the producer. Michael had wanted Little Steven to produce him for a long time but Polygram records for some reason had never allowed it. Steven was also helping Michael trying to find a guitar player and a drummer.One day Michael happened to be talking to Rat Scabies (drummer for the Damned) to London. When he heard that Michael was looking for a drummer he offered to come over to New York the next day. And so he did. Michael and Hanoi Rocks had always been big fans of the Damned, especially Razzle. Michael had already gotten ex-Hanoi Sami Yaffa on bass for the band. Rat Scabies stayed in New York for about a week and had a great time playing with Sami, Michael and Little Steven (at this point sitting in on guitar). However they all mutually decided that it didn't quite work musically, even though it was a lot of fun.Soon they found Jimmy Clark (ex-Blondie, Scandal + toured with The Ramones) to be the drummer and Jay Hening from a short lived New York band "Star Star" on guitar.At the end of summer 1993 Michael got a residency at The Grand Club (former "Cat Club") on 13th street in Manhattan every Monday night featuring surprise guests. They called it the "Glam, Trash, Punk" -night with rare vintage videos showing all night by bands like MC 5, The New York Dolls, Iggy & The Stooges, early Alice Cooper, Slade, Sweet, T-Rex, Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Clash etc... At midnight the band (Michael Monroe) would come on and Rock The House. They held 10 consecutive Monday nights always managing to bring on a surprise guest at the end of each show; Joey Ramone to do some Ramones tunes, Ian Hunter (ex-Mott The Hoople), Sebastian Bach from Skid Row, Kory Clarke from Warrior Soul (the best New York band for ages), Walter Lure (ex-Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers guitarist), Little Steven etc. The last few shows Warrior Soul opened up for Michael. So Michael Monroe made some noise in New York and a great time was had by everyone lucky enough to be present.Later that year Michael went into the studio with the band with Little Steven producing. The album was recorded and mixed in two weeks at the Powerstation Studios in New York City. During the recording Michael decided to have a name for the band instead of having it be his solo album which it really was. The name of the BAND as well as the album was Demolition 23. Michael wanted to see one more time if he could still be just the singer in a band that would stay together and grow.In the beginning of the year 1994 the album was to come out in Japan and Demolition 23 were to start playing live again soon. But then guitarist Jay Hening got hit by a car and had to recover almost until the beginning of the summer. So the band had to wait til Jay got well enough to play. They started doing shows in New York area in the summer and a tour of Japan & Europe was in the works. However it turned out Jay had some trouble with his passport and could not leave the country. At the last minute Michael got Nasty Suicide to sit in for Jay. Since Nasty lived in London, the guys flew in a day earlier to have one rehearsal before the first gig also in London. The show turned out real great and Michael, Sami and Nasty really enjoyed playing together again.They continued to play in Finland before going on to Japan. During a press conference in Finland Nasty surprised everybody by saying that he would be a permanent member of the band. Michael wasn't going to say no either. However after touring in Japan and Scandinavia as they were planning a UK tour (which was important since the record had been at the top of the Indie Record Charts and had also gotten great reviews in England), Nasty all of a sudden announced that he would be leaving the band since he had decided to stop playing altogether and to start studying. This was too much of a set back for Michael after all the struggles it had taken to get to the point he was at with the band, just when things were starting to finally look up. There was nobody to replace Nasty in such short notice. Yet again everything came to a complete standstill. Disappointed and disillusioned Michael disbanded Demolition 23.Sadly, at the end of April 1997 Jay Hening took his own life in his home state of Virginia U.S.A.By 1995 Michael had become quite fed up with the scene in the States. Too many people had come and swindled his money while further setting him back and damaging his career. Music had no business in the music business. New York had become draining instead of energizing and inspiring like it used to be for Michael as a working environment.He decided that some kind of major change was in order. At first he considered a move to London but then decided to go all the way to the other extreme; from east 3rd street in Manhattan to his native Finland, out to the countryside to be surrounded by nature, clean air and a deafening silence. Defying the merciless Finnish winter he started writing what was to be his next solo album "Peace Of Mind". He found the new environment very refreshing and inspiring, also being able to work anytime of day or night not having any neighbours complaining about the noise and such. As a sort of therapy and to recharge himself he built giant snowmen outside, some of which can be seen on the pages of the CD-booklet of "Peace Of Mind". It was released in Finland and Scandinavia in the beginning of the summer 1996 and in Japan a few months later. In 1999 it was officially released in Europe with 2 Xtra Trax featuring Stiv Bator. Michael co-wrote most of the songs with his long time friend, collaborator and background singer Jude Wilder. She now also acts as Michael's manager, the only person he could trust anymore at this point.Recording the album was more of a challenge to Michael than any other record he had done before. This time he was not only singing and playing saxophone & harmonica, but was also the producer and played all the bass and guitars (apart from a couple of 2nd rhythm guitar tracks played by Olli Hilden, Michael's childhood friend in Finland, then part or his live band). He flew Jimmy Clark (Demolition 23) in from the States to play drums. The result sounds like a full membered, loud & raunchy live Rock&Roll band with a great vibe, feel and chemistry. One would never know without reading the credits that it is mostly only a "two man band". Especially impressive is how well Michael handles the guitars and production on the record. The general concensus is that "Peace Of Mind" was his best album yet.In the summer 1996 Michael performed on three major Festivals in Finland and got a great response.In February 1997 Michael did a club tour in Finland ending up at Helsinki's legendary Tavastia Club on March 1st. The show was completely sold out and as quoted in the press, the only place to be on that night in Finland. Consequently so many were turned away at the door that a second show was added for March 6th.In the summer 1997 he played at the Tavastia Club on July 19th once again to a packed house. On 3rd August he did the "Ankkarock" (Duckrock) Summer Festival near Helsinki. About 40 000 people turned up which was a record breaker for the Festival. Michael did an exceptional performance, totally in a league of his own, getting rave reviews in the press. Amongst others he was quoted as "the most athletic (not to mention energetic) performer of the day", at one moment hanging upside down from the top of the PA tower while singing, at another throwing himself on the hands of the audience...The rest of the year Michael concentrated mainly on writing new songs and making demos of them.At the end of the year on December 17th he did a "X-mas Show" live at the Tavastia Club. He came out to do the first encore wearing a Santa Claus mask and hat with a bag full of rolled up autographed "Peace Of Mind" posters throwing them to the audience. Great fun was had by all.On X-mas eve Michael was a on national TV music program called "The Right X-mas". He played acoustic guitar and sang, with Jude Wilder on backing vocals, 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 sang back up. This program was watched by most of the Finnish population.In the beginning of 1998 in January Michael was approached by the Swedish band Backyard Babies to be a guest DJ at the release party for their new album "Total 13", replacing Joey Ramone who couldn't make it due to illness. They also asked Michael to play saxophone on a track they had left off the new album. So he flew to Stockholm the day before the release party and worked all night in the studio with the guys. He ended up doing an entire horn section plus harmonica on the song, and as it turned out, after rewriting the lyrics with Nicke and Dregen, Michael also sang, 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 Michael was asked to do another guest DJ gig at the Phoenix Club in Toronto, also replacing originally scheduled Joey Ramone (!). He accepted and also did a short acoustic set at the Phoenix Club that night.While in Toronto, Michael quickly put together a band with some local players. They rehearsed a couple of 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 later Michael played in New York City with the same band at the Club Life (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. People at the show thought it was his best performance ever and that he definitely came and took back New York.After this he mainly concentrated on working on new material, apart from few guest appearances here and there. For example with the Backyard Babies in London and Nottingham on their U.K. tour.Also the following summer Michael was flown to Japan to guest again with the Backyard Babies at the "Out Of Hell" Festival of about 10 000 - 15 000 people at the foot of the "Fuji" mountain. Michael's performance was impressive, aggressive, energetic and wild. His faithful Japanese fans have not forgotten him and he gained himself a new generation of younger fans for sure.The winter of 1999 was very rough for Michael. While doing yet another guest performance with the Backyard Babies in Helsinki, Michael broke his ankle during the last song. He had a cast up to his knee and had to be on crutches for almost 2 months. Living in a remote country house that could only be heated by chopping and burning wood is not easy in the middle of a freezing Finnish winter with 10 feet of snow to plough, hopping on one leg. Later in the spring he was also forced to move for the second time because of a mold problem in his house, which seems to be increasingly common in Finland. However some good news was that Jude Wilder had gotten Michael a record deal with SPV Records in Germany. And so, while moving from his old house he had to start making a record, which this time was almost completely written by Michael and Jude Wilder; 12 brand new originals plus only one cover song. One must acknowledge that whatever trials and suffering Michael has gone through, he only comes back so much stronger. I can't imagine a better show of strength than Michael Monroe's newest album - Life Gets You Dirty (1999). Absolutely a Rock'n'Roll masterpiece of 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 22nd, 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 19th, 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 24th, 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.