Former HANOI ROCKS singer MICHAEL MONROE checks in with the following blog:

"Hope you've all had a nice summer so far. It's certainly been nice and hot in Finland with a record breaking heat-wave. I love it!

The gigs have been good and our song-writing is moving along pretty nicely.

We did the Peace & Love Festival in Sweden on July 3rd, and our dear friend Nasty Suicide (ex-Hanoi Rocks rhythm guitarist) came along and of course jammed with us too. That was great fun, as always with Nasty. We all love him dearly. Before driving to Borlänge for the festival, me, Sami (Yaffa; ex-Hanoi Rocks bassist) and Nasty actually stopped by at THE Cafe Avenue in Stockholm (on Kungsgatan) to reminisce the early Hanoi days when we were living homeless there in the streets. Cafe Avenue was one of our regular hangouts.

After Sweden we took the ferry over to Helsinki. There we did a special show for people from our Fan Club and Street Teams, plus some friends we invited, at the Tavastia Club on July 6th, and actually recorded a live album. We decided that we wanted to capture our current live set on record - something to hold the fans over until our actual studio album will be released early next year. Apart from my solo stuff and Demolition 23, etc., we're also including live versions of two of our new songs; 'You're Next' and 'Motorheaded For A Fall'.

As the case often is with live recordings, you always feel like the one you recorded is not the best show. Of course the next couple of shows we did after that one, we performed some of the songs better, or at least we felt like we did... But anyway - no excuses; it is what it is and will probably end up sounding great with all its clunks and flaws, once it's mixed and finished. Obviously we're not doing any overdubs, so you'll have a very raw "rough and ready-or-not" live recording of another rockin' night in the sun in the beautiful Finnish summer. The album will be released at the end of September. I'm sure you all will appreciate it!

The rest of the week we spent in Turku, doing a few days of song-writing, which was very productive. Then there was the 40th anniversary of Turku's legendary Ruisrock Festival. We played there on Saturday night (July 10th) and I thought it was a good show. Maybe a bit hectic, but good and energetic.

The next and final day of Ruisrock (Sunday), I was excited to go and see SLASH (VELVET REVOLVER, ex-GUNS N' ROSES) and his new band. It was really great to hook up and hang out with Slash, since I haven't seen him for a long time in person. He is such a super nice guy and an absolutely fantastic guitar player! He's just got it all. I think his new record is great, my favorites are Iggy's 'We're All Gonna Die' and Lemmy's 'Doctor Alibi'. There's something for everyone on that record and I thought it was a smart idea to use all the different lead singers. I really enjoyed his show and thought the band played great. Myles Kennedy did a very good job singing the GN'R and Velvet Revolver songs as well as the new stuff. Slash invited me up to sing a couple of songs with him and I was happy when he suggested we do Iggy's 'We're All Gonna Die' from his record, as that was already one of my faves. As the second song we decided to do Hanoi's version of 'Up Around The Bend', as we thought that would be a nice extra treat for the fans. Sure enough, we had a blast together on stage and the crowd loved it too! It was a great pleasure and a privilege to jam with him and his band and I hope we can do it again soon.

The weekend after that we played at Tammerfest in Tampere and at Simerock in Rovaniemi. Both of them were great shows, that we all really enjoyed.

On July 23rd I went to see one of my heroes, JOHN FOGERTY play at the Pori Jazz Festival in the city of Pori. His drummer, Kenny Aronoff is a good friend of mine and one of the absolute best drummers in the world! The show was fantastic, as expected, and I had a great time hanging with Kenny and the rest of the band. There I also met the President Of Finland, Tarja Halonen, who is a John Fogerty fan as well. She's a very cool person and the hippest Finnish President ever. I'm proud of the fact that we have a female President, who does such a great job.

The following day I played a special acoustic show at the "Old Texas" Club in Kaarina, about 20 minutes drive outside Turku. Just me, an acoustic guitar and a little blues harp. It was a bit "low profile", as it was a kind of an experiment for me. I don't usually do actual acoustic solo gigs. I've only done a short set at a couple of private gatherings over the past year, or so. Happily, this turned out to be quite a pleasant, fun experience and people really liked it too. So much so, that I ended up playing over two hours. I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime... Of course I still love doing the electric shows with my band the best, but it was nice to do this kind of a thing for a change too.

So, this week we're off to Japan for the Summer Sonic Festival in Osaka and Tokyo. I can hardly wait, it's gonna be great to finally present this band live to the wonderful Japanese people!"

Monroe's live album, Another Night In The Sun, will be released in Europe and Japan on September 22nd. The album will be mixed and mastered by Niko Bolas in LA, who has worked with NEIL YOUNG, FRANK SINATRA, KEITH RICHARDS, KISS and SPINAL TAP to name a few.

(Photo by Ville Akseli)