![]() ![]() ![]() They all had their crosses, and I was like, okay, what are these guys about? Then I got their records and started learning English from the lyrics printed on the cover of Master Of Reality. ![]() ![]() Going nuts on stage with long hair, wild and free, they sounded like freedom and they were mysterious. A massive sound like nothing I’d ever heard and the singer was crazy. Your rock epiphany came watching Black Sabbath on TV when you were eight years old. At first Andy was going to be Andy Monroe. And Monroe, I was born the summer she died, always thought she was classy, beautiful and cool, and Michael Monroe sounded good. So when we decided to change our names for Hanoi Rocks, I thought Mike was cool but Michael better. A Venezuelan keyboard player called me Mike. My birth name was Matti, but since I was eight I was given the nickname Makke. The name change was because nobody could pronounce our Finnish names. I was always proud of him – he never overshadowed me, nor me him. Me being a rocker and him being the straight people’s favourite was a cool contradiction. Was pursuing a musical career and changing your name a way of claiming your own personality, to be judged as your own man rather than as a famous father’s son? He was always very supportive and proud of me. At first I was known as the son of Pentti Fagerholm, the radio announcer, then it turned around so that he was Michael Monroe’s dad. He had an exceptionally soft-sounding voice, and for a lot of lonely old people, his voice was the only company they had at night, so he was very much loved. Radio announcers had to speak properly and have integrity, and my father was one of the last of that generation. When I was a kid there were only three radio channels, one in Swedish, two in Finnish. It didn’t affect me that much, but pretty much everybody in Finland knew who he was. How famous was your dad and what effect did his celebrity have on you when you were growing up? Suzi went nuts: ‘Let those people be, they’re just having a good time.’ She was great. At the Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, people stood up to dance and the bouncers tried to make them sit down. I saw Suzi Quatro three times in Finland. I snuck in for nothing because I was so tiny, and was blown away. My second show was The Sweet, right after the Sweet Fanny Adams album. The acoustics were horrible, they played so loud I couldn’t hear for two days, but it was great. I’ve got older brothers so I went with them. The first band I saw live was Slade in 1972. I was born in sixty-two, the same year as the Rolling Stones and two months after Marilyn Monroe died. What events happened in your formative years that most influenced your career choice? While certain members of the band have performed together since their '80s split, this will be the first performance of this lineup of the group since 1982.įind out more about Michael Monroe's 60th anniversary concert with Hanoi Rocks and Demolition 23 here.McCoy and Monroe, from the shoot for Hanoi’s 1984 picture disc single Don’t You Ever Leave Me The group suffered a tragic loss with the death of drummer Razzle in December 1984, with a band breakup coming the following year after some shuffling of the group's lineup. Hanoi Rocks had a prolific start to their career, releasing five studio albums between 1981-1984. Monroe clarified, "This is not a Hanoi Rocks reunion, but a unique part of the anniversary concert." The concert will feature performances by other musicians, including Monroe's other band Demolition 23 - who haven't performed together since 1995. The Hanoi Rock frontman originally planned to keep the concert a secret, "but after giving it some more thought, I realized that it wouldn't be fair, especially to the fans, not to make this public in advance and that everybody should have the chance to be there." "This is the only appropriate time and place for all five original members of Hanoi Rocks to get onstage to play together after a break of over 40 years," says Monroe. There have been countless requests for the band to get back together and perform, and now over 40 years later, it's actually happening. This particular Hanoi Rocks lineup last took the stage together on Jat Helsinki's Tavastia. ![]()
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