Fresh from a sold out show in London at the Electric Ballroom and a headlining appearance at Planet Rockstock, globally renowned rock icon and founding member of Hanoi Rocks, Michael Monroe, returns to the UK in May 2025 for a series of headline shows.
In addition to headlining BEL-AOR Rocks in Belfast on May 24th and The Call of The Wild Festival in Lincoln on June 1st, Michael will also be playing 7 UK club shows, including a date at Concorde 2 in Brighton on Tuesday 27th May 2025 – Grab your Brighton gig tickets HERE or HERE.
The dates are as follows:
May
22 – Newcastle, University
23 – Glasgow, Slay
24 – BEL-AOR Rocks, Belfast
26 – Southampton, The 1865
27 – Brighton, Concorde 2
28 – Bristol, Thekla
30 – Swansea, Sin City
31 – Buckley, Tivoli
June
1 – Call of The Wild Festival, Lincoln
As always Michael will be joined by his incredible band – Sami Yaffa (bass), Rich Jones (Guitar), Steve Conte (Guitar) and Karl Rockfist (drums). The show will feature songs from throughout Michael’s career including Hanoi Rocks, Demolition 23 as well as his solo career.
Tickets are on sale now and can be found HERE.
Michael Monroe’s critically acclaimed album ‘I Live Too Fast To Die Young’ is out now on Silver Lining Music. Order/Listen to it HERE.
It’s been five years since we reviewed Michael Monroe and even that time it was in Southampton as there wasn’t a Brighton gig on that particular tour. So we headed Westward and so here’s our account of that night, just in case you haven’t yet decided to purchase tickets for this forthcoming 2025 tour…..
MICHAEL MONROE + ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK + SAINTS OF SIN – THE ENGINE ROOMS, SOUTHAMPTON 03.11.19
Michael Monroe‘s former band Hanoi Rocks, for me, single-handedly kicked off the whole glam/rock scene in the mid-eighties and nineties. While influencing not only the sound but the look of a generation of glam rock bands, everyone from Guns ‘n’ Roses to the Manic Street Preachers. There was a bit of Hanoi in everyone at the time it seemed.
After the demise of the band in 1985, Michael Monroe hasn’t stood still, with outings as ‘Jerusalem Slim’ and the superb ‘Demolition 23’ who put out a single killer album of the same name back in 1994, that is certainly well worth checking out! Then came the Hanoi Rocks rebirth in the noughties which spawned another three albums before their ultimate demise.
Roll on the years and with at least 10 solo albums now to his name, Monroe is still proving he’s not fakin’ it, as this year’s ‘One Man Gang’ album is an absolute belter and tonight the supporting tour hits the Engine Rooms in Southampton as concert 16 of 22 date UK and Europe tour. Sadly there was no Brighton gig, so we had to secure an away fixture this time around!
The band timings have been spot on tonight and bang on 9:30pm the intro tape kicks in before the arrival of Rich Jones, guitar (Amen, Black Halos and Ginger Wildheart Band), Steve Conte, guitar (New York Dolls, Steve Conte NYC and The Contes), Karl Rockfist, drums (Dregen) and of course Sami Yaffa, bass (Hanoi Rocks, Demolition 23, Mad Juana) swiftly followed by an extremely animated Michael Monroe. We are straight into ‘One Man Gang’ one of the first singles from the new album and what an opener it is, then bam! we’re into to another newbie the catchy as f**k ‘Last Train To Tokyo’ and it’s the perfect live track with a big fat chorus for the crowd to sing along.
We then get a further 3 tracks from the new platter, all which sit in perfectly with the live set notably ‘In The Tall Grass’ which has a real Hanoi feel to it. The rest of the night’s set sees Michael Monroe switch from vocal duties to Saxophone to blues harp more times than he changes hats and this man has a lot of hats! Every song is delivered with that trademark MM vocal style and backed tonight by one of the finest bands around with Jones and Conte delivering those big riffs and sweet solos backed up by the non-stop beat of Yaffa and Rockfist, and a big shout out to the sound in the Engine Rooms which is incredible tonight!
This band tonight absolutely nail it and we get scorching versions of Hanoi Rocks’ ‘Motorvatin’ and Don’t You Ever Leave Me’, which still to this day can make a grown man shed a tear. A rousing version of ‘Up Around the Bend’ and the main set finishes with a blistering version of ‘Dead Jail Or Rock n Roll’ which sounds as fresh as it did 30 years ago.
The gang return for the encore and for me it’s a belter, with outings of Demolition 23’s ‘Nothin’s Alright’ and ‘Hammersmith Palais’, both huge barnstorming anthems and finally no Michael Monroe performance would be complete without closing the show to the Stooges classic ‘I Feel Alright’, which they’ve taken as one of their own and nurtured its growth to the rockin’ monster it is tonight.
Michael Monroe proves once again he’s still at the top of his game and age has not tamed him one damn bit, bringing an energy that singers half his age don’t even possess. Michael Monroe is 110% rock n roll and there is no substitute.
Monroe certainly had a ball and posted on social media “Hi! Thank you, Southampton, for last night! It was a blast!”.
linktr.ee/michaelmonroeofficial
