HANOI ROCKS Officially Reunite!!

Following the announcement that HANOI ROCKS have been confirmed for this year's Sweden Rock festival, it now appears that frontman Michael Monroe and guitarist Andy McCoy have officially decided to continue their career as HANOI ROCKS. A new single, entitled "People Like Me", is due out in April, and a full-length album will follow sometime in the fall.

The current line-up of HANOI ROCKS is as follows:

Michael Monroe vocals
Andy McCoy guitar
Kari "Lacu" Lahtinen drums
Timpa Laine bass
Costello guitar

In addition to the aforementioned appearance at the Sweden Rock festival in Slvesborg, Sweden on June 7th, HANOI ROCKS will be performing at the Tavastia Club in Helsinki, Finland on May 24th.

Here is an official statement on the reunion from Monroe, as posted at his official web site at www.michaelmonroe.com:

HELLO FRIENDS and fiends!

Betcha gonna love this one: There is now a new band with a history called HANOI ROCKS.

This is NOT A REUNION, by any means,, but merely a REBIRTH of the greatest name in rock HANOI ROCKS.

You see, me and Andy McCoy have been in the recording studio and as a result there is some outstanding material ready and achin' to soothe the respective ears of the world. It sounds very much like HANOI ROCKS but only better than anything we've done before. And it deserves a name. I know, I didn't think I'd ever see this day either, but hey, life is full of surprises. And when you keep a fresh and open mind, you are quite likely to experience such phenomena, which is what keeps life even remotely interesting.

Believe me, I've given this a lot of thought and then some, and I know this is right and does not compromise or damage the integrity of HANOI ROCKS or Michael Monroe for that matter.

Of course I can imagine some self-righteous negative stuck-up f.cks, who'll of course consider it their business to judge or even condemn this REBIRTH by saying something like 'This ain't the original HANOI ROCKS' 'This is a rip-off or a scam' 'Look, fellows, they're selling out to make the big time', or something along those lines...

Well, I tell you all - that is a bunch of horsesh.t! If I'd wanted to do a cheap reunion in order to make a quick buck by exploiting the name HANOI ROCKS, I would have done it years ago when we were offered millions to do a one-off tour in Japan, for example.

Keep in mind that I was the one who fought and suffered the consequences to keep HANOI's name intact for all those wasted years when all the other members were trying to pressure me to do it and resented me for sticking to my guns and saying, 'No f.cking way!' And you can be sure I'm not gonna let anything tarnish HANOI ROCKS' reputation in the future either.

What it comes down to is that me and Andy really were and still are HANOI ROCKS. In the beginning it took us 4 years to find the right guys and to get the band started. We trained the others well and they were good soldiers, although [former drummer] Razzle was a bit more than a soldier. He had a spirit that kept us going especially when times were hard (which they often were). However, we all remember him once telling us that if anything ever happened to him he'd want us to keep going and make HANOI's name known all over the world.

But we were all too devastated to 'keep going'.

Calling ourselves Michael Monroe & Andy McCoy would not be practical and we'd have to educate too many people about who we are etc. We needed a band name and there's no better name than HANOI ROCKS. Plus that name has a history, our history. After all the hard work and the years we put into it, it was all taken from us because of that horrible accident, and I think it's only fair that we should reap some kind of benefit from our slaving and suffering...

So this is then... that was now - I proudly present: HANOI ROCKS!

Love & Peace,

Michael Monroe