MIKE STONE: In the name of Rock!!!
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TAKE CARE!!!   There's no pornographic or desasterous stuff on this page, but, it is my will to tell News'n'Facts  in my way, if you think that it is too offensive for your ethic attitude, then just leave it early enough! Thanx.     06.07.2012:   First show with CIRCLE II CIRCLE confirmed for august 2012, let's rock!   22.06.2012: On the road again with JEFF SCOTT SOTO, looking forward to meet Jeff and BJ in Wuppertal Germany end of july, and I surely show up during the Hamburg show.   14.12.2010:   Been a while that I checked my page over here... media communication is rapidly running, changing, exploring, exploding... in view to that I will change this page more into an information platform than into communication, for I also need to understand that people go ahead with myself via Facebook, Twitter, Myspace... well done, mates, these are the days, hahaha! Let's have some fun!   2010 is ending with a package of exciting gigs, and I am proud to have done the last gigs with a new formed MIKE STONE BAND, packed with a bunch of hungry and curious musicians who are free- minded to search for some new paths and tunes. Of course I will always be a "rocker", but hey, rock'n'roll is a wide river with sharks, algas, gold fish and whatever, let them all find their way ;-) so do I...   Looking forward to a little tour through Germany, Netherlands and UK in early 2011, I am sure to introduce some new song material and hope to get good resonances to make it ready for new recordings. Additionally I will be back at Sound Station Studio in january to produce a german project, where I will play guitar and sing: in german language!!!! Again, new experience for me, hahaha! Let's see, stay tuned and maybe we meet again at my last show for this year next sunday in Ratingen, Germany.   Gigs update:   28.Mrz.2009 20:00 St John’s Court Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen 03.Apr.2009 20:00 De Boerderij Zoetermeer 04.Apr.2009 20:00 K- Festival Singen, Baden-Württemberg 05.Apr.2009 20:00 Biebob Vosselaar 06.Apr.2009 20:00 Mad Dog Wuppertal, Nordrhein-Westfalen 09.Apr.2009 20:00 Four Oaks Sutton Coldfield 11.Apr.2009 20:00 Gastwick Birmingham 12.Apr.2009 20:00 Belgrave Bullets Tamworth 14.Apr.2009 20:00 A.V. Festival Sutton Coldfield 09.Mai.2009 20:00 The Beach Athens 27.Jun.2009 23:00 Open Air Festival "Langer Tisch" Wuppetal, Nordrhein-Westfalen         28.03.2009:   Several things are in progress, so here is a little overview to keep you informed: - MIKE STONE EUROPE tour: all dates are confirmed now, tomorrow starts the first test gig in Mike's hometown to warm up the muscles ;-) - MIKE STONE BAND: surprise, there will be a complete new band on stage! Because of several running activities like Frankfurt Music Exhibition, studio worx, and finally a little change/need of music and instruments material, this all brought a complete new line up to the pole position: Mike Stone: bass, vox Stanley Sparrow: guitar, vox (welcome back after five years, mate!) Denny Goldini: drums (with a little thanx to the guys from EVERRAIN and W&H) Thorsten Hillmann: keyboards, vox Yes, this is no mistake, here we will enjoy the first time some KEYBOARDS on stage with the MIKE STONE BAND! Thorsten is a masterclass by himself doing the Hammond and Piano stuff that makes me shiver and shake... so now we wanna have a try! - Yes, there will be a KISS song coming up...   ;-) take your cigarette lighters with you, for the band made a cool ballad out of it! - UK tour: Mike received a vey nice invitation from the wonderful Birmingham DIAMONDISH DOGS to join their easter gigs through the West Midlands, and he couldn't resist... the Dogs are a hard shuffling British Blues Band, so Mike opened up his project named REVEREND GROMBERG (www.myspace.com/reverendgromberg)  for these shows, it surely will be a real experience! And: we have tickets for Mike's favorite UK football club ASTON VILLA vs EVERTON, yyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!! - Health and wellness: yes, the words are true, Mike got some little problems with his left eye, which needed to be cut open a little to get some inflammation out of it. The operation went fine, but it was painful, and Mike currently looks a little like Rocky Balboa... hahaha! His eye and the skin below is some kind of blue/yellow/green/black... and it seems that this "new look" will accompany him all over the tour... so enjoy Mike Stone wearing his beloved John Lennon sunglasses on and off stage ;-) - Thanx again to IBANEZ and BEHRINGER for the tour support, esp. for the UK dates! We wish you well The MS team 23.01.2009:   Some thousand things needed to be done during the last weeks, and I am happy to know that I can now look forward to the next gigs and studio works. Coming wednesday I am looking forward to enjoy the show of RITCHIE KOTZEN in Hamburg at the pretty Ballroom. I waited so long to see the guy, now it finally happens, wow! A really funny thing will come up in my hometown Duesseldorf on feb 06 at the Gambrinus Club, where my best tour manager ever, Big John Ralf, simply booked a show with his band "Bezirksvertretung III" without having any time to rehearse the full show... that's what I really enjoy, for I know that there will be a hell lot of jam and fun coming up, and I am proud and happy that Ralf asked me to take my guitar and do the job there! Let's go, mate! Additional shows are already booked, but I don't have the dates yet. The W&H band comes up during the carnival season mid february, where I will join all shows with vocals and guitar, that's cool also. At the same time my KISS tribute ROCKET RIDE will be part of the carnival truck tour over all days in Velberth and Ratingen, Germany, hope we won't drink too much and forget the chords, hahaha! Also I need to be in shape for the evening shows with W&H... puh! April 4 is already confirmed for a show at the southern german Bodensee at a little town called Singen. I am sure to introduce new song material then. May 2009 is focussed on the tribute of the legendary KISS album DYNASTY, that was released 30 years before, in 1979. ROCKET RIDE will perform the complete album during several shows. I will keep you informed about it. A new MIKE STONE tour is planned for early summer season. And, and and... hahaha! Burning candles on both ends, you see... Have fun and see ya! Mike Stone   06.12.2008:   Greetz from the road! The JOE STUMP clan is very friendly and indeed over the top in playing their instruments on high level. Marco, Anja and me are doing our personel thing and it works well, incl having a lot of fun watching Marco playing guitar with a hair- dryer, hahaha!   Yours   Mike Stone     20.11.2008:   Just returned from the second last rehearsal for the little show package with Joe Stump, where Anja Assmuth and Marco Wriedt will walk the road of rock'n'roll with me. We had too much fun maybe this night, but anyway, the music vibe was again outstanding for being very open minded and not focussed on arranged-to-death song material. Surely there will be some people wonder about some songs of mine that they know for a longer time, because they will sound different during these shows, but hey, the material is so beautiful open- made- up, it works!    See you soon somewhere on the road,   Mike 21.10.2008: Seasons end! If you take a look out of the window somewhere over here in middle europe, the summer season is definitely over… sad sad sad, hahahaha! Anyway, rock’n’roll doesn’t know any season, so the rocky road is still the same! In view to that my life activities are still going on as usual, right now I have several showcases with the W&H band, which brings a lot of fun into my life, I have to admit. Several shows are confirmed, and I am highly happy to party with the guys on Halloween in Solingen, Germany, during a big fat Halloween event- any idea, which costume would be the perfect one for me??? Shadows follow light, so I noted for myself that the Alice Cooper Tribute project under the name BILLION DOLLAR LADIES is not working well right now, for there are workable drums and second guitar still missing after too long checkouts. But again good news about something else: if you are a really mad fan of KISS, you should keep an eye open on November 29, for the ROCKET RIDE gang prepares a really bizarre unplugged happening of MUSIC FROM THE ELDER… if you maybe know the great guys from UK named SACK TRICK, then you can imagine that this event will be completely out of the universe, and I am really looking forward to it. My good partner in crime, dutch drummer extra- ordinaire Erik Stout, will again join the JOE STUMP tour band in early December 2008, and we arranged additional german dates, where the Mike Stone Band will join the tour actions. This time drummer Anja will kick all butts again, for guitar there will be Marco Wriedt the one to let the thunders and lightnings join the stage… right now we think about a “special” setlist, for we would like to try out some really new ideas, but works starts indeed later, for Marco is doing first his worx on all items of the legendary AXXIS, which is top priority of course (and I am happy to see that things run well for the guys). Have a look on the tour dates to keep you informed. Finally we got some of these YOUTUBE clips for you to check out, in remembrance of some really great and also nice days with BJ and Gustavo of Brazil’s TEMPESTT during september this year. Erik Stout and me supported the guys during their unplugged showcases over here with “electric power” during the second part of the shows, and there are some clips in the net that show the fun that we all had on stage together. Hope to meet the guys again in 2009! Here is the YOUTUBE bunch Don’t stop believing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkrx0acodsE Crazy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlCuWFiOCLw Breaking all the rules http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldTkpZN8OC4 Holy Diver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzidOxuP44 Love ain’t no stranger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq_H-rALObo Yours, Mike       05.05.2008 Shows with STEVE FISTER   Yeah, I am happy to hold the confirmation of the first show with STEVE FISTER (www.stevefister.com) in hands, and it seems that there will be some more coming up, before Steve joins the long awaited europe tour with the mega legend JOE SATRIANI. Some folks say that there is sunshine after rain, but rain is first ;-) my partner in crime, Rumen Iliev, will be out of the circle of the MIKE STONE BAND for some weeks, for he is close to a real high class record deal, so I wish him first of all the very best and look forwad to our next shows in late summer 2008! Now the sunshine, hahaha: my very old blood brother Stanley Sparrow will be so very kind to quickly jump onto the Stone Train and support me at the first show with Steve Fister. The people who know Stanley and me well, they all know already what to expect, for it is never ever a standard show, when we both enter the stage at the same time ;-))) for the rest of you: it will be a lot of kindadirtyrocknrollexperience, to explain it like this. Also a nice "welcome" to the drummer of the STEVE FISTER band: Hans in't Zandt! We both run into each other since many years now, and so it is cool to share the stage finally. Indeed additonally funny to understand that him and our drummer lady Anja work at  the same Drummer's Institute Germany for many years, I guess we will join a big family party on the road!!! Loking forward to meet you there ;-) All the best Mike Stone   19.04.2008 Hooray to Dennis Cremer    Duesseldorf's new drum in town, Dennis Cremer, good friend of mine and partner of some collaborations, is the winner of the "GBOB contest" in this area with his band Everrain! Yeah! Next "battle of bands" will be in Cologne in december. Although I deeply hate "battles" of bands, for I believe in making music together and not against each other, I am deeply proud to see again that musicians will come along the road of success, as long as they work hard for it night and day. Dennis does... rock on, mate! Mike Stone   02.04.2008 Hitting the charts   Just received the message that the YENZ cd "Magic Touch" reached the dancefloor charts in Greece, Spain and France, congrats! Will I become rich and famous in the end ;-) Mike Stone    25.03.2008 New CD out now   Just returned from the CD release party of the new YENZ album, which is now available in the legal stores from now on. It was very cool to see all members of the project there, for I indeed just met 50% of the crew before, hahaha! That’s studio life, I guess... I was again surprised to listen to my guitar work on the album, for it all went through many kinds of machines, samplers and computers that I still just don’t know the name or the function at all. The projct is real tekkno core music and sometimes I can’t recognize the guitar anymore because of the strange effects. Finally I had a lot of fun to be part of the YENZ team and realized with a kind of satisfaction that lots of gals and boyz danced a hell lot during the release party to the 10 songs, so: it works! During the easter days, my KISS tribute ROCKET RIDE was born again, we had a great show in northern germany and I am looking forward to some more actions in summer/autumn this year. Was a good feeling to be back on stage with my alltime buddy Stanley Sparrow, who walked with me the way of Rock’n’Roll already as a member of THE TORPEDO GIRLS and THE FORGOTTEN SONS. I deeply hope that Denny Goldini and Big John Ralph will stay tuned to rock with us again this year! "So baby please get on your knees, there are no bills there are no fees..." hahaha! Cheers Mike Stone   01.03.2008 Congratz to Rouwen Bond!   Today I met the guys from the Alice Cooper tribute project THE BILLION DOLLAR LADIES, and at the door of the rehearsal hall the guitar guy Rouwen Bond expected me already to receive some material of mine for pumping up his volume. Completely dressed in a high class black suit and whitest shirt ever! "Wow, cool dress for a simple rehearsal" I said. "Well, I married this morning, that's why" he said... ????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This guy came up for a simple rehearsal during his own marriage party!!! You know, I am into rock'n'roll since maybe 25 years, but this was again new for me. My respect to Rouwen and his wife to be so deep into the love of music and to let me and the guys join some hours of their maybe most important days in their companion- life. We will pay back with a cool show next week in Wuppertal, I bet ;-) Mike Stone   26.02.2008 HOUSE OF LORDS Europe Tour 2008   After joining the great HOL last year in eastern europe I am happy to meet the guys back over here in germany this time! Let's see what the good lord will bring up for inspiring music. And again I will ask myself if I ever saw such an unbelievable fast shredding guitar master like Mr. Bell in my life... Cheerz and stay tuned for the next live dates, Mike Stone   16.02.2008 Good News / Bad News   Bad news first: my blood brother Rumen Iliev is not available for the first two weeks in march, so he cannot join me during the gigs with JEFF SCOTT SOTO an TEMPESTT. Bummer. Miss ya, mate! Good news no. 1: my blood brothers/sisters from the BILLION DOLLAR LADIES will enter the stage with me in Wuppertal on 08.03.2008, and we are willing to do a dozen of ALICE COOPER mega songs from the 70's! Yeah, that'll be fun! You know: only women bleed... Good news no 2: my blood brother Marco Wriedt will join the MIKE STONE BAND for the Hamburg show on 09.03.2008, together with drummer goddess Anja Assmuth. So here you can expect the "classix" Mike Stone material, and yes, Anja, Marco and me will surely play "Snakeskin Rum" from the TIME period, don' worry ;-) There are some more gigs in march/april in preparation, plus new studio material in may, so I don't know how people can have a boring life ;-) Wish you a nice weekend, I will rehearse and watch again football tonite ;-) Mike Stone   29.01.2008 The return of the ROCKET RIDE Yeah, the Ace is back on stage, and so do I ;-))) So here is the official information, that the KISS tribute band ROCKET RIDE is born again and will enter the stage already in march 2008! I guess it was only a question of time, when KISS tunes come back into my life, hahaha! Two shows will come up during easter time, confirmed today is WEBEREI in VAREL on 22.03.2008, both focussed on unplugged arrangements, we all are thinking about some again outstanding songs, surely performed unplugged for the first time... let's see, what rehearsals will bring into the light.   ROCKET RIDE will be featured by some new members on vocals, guitar and drums, maybe also with some cool surprises for you to hear about, I guess that we can introduce the single musicians already very soon, when all arrangemens are done and comletely under control. So, just stay tuned ;-)   Faith, love, hope by   Mike Stone   19.01.2008 Gary Schutt featuring the MIKE STONE band some time ago   In 2004 I released the KISS tribute CD "The Forgotten Songs, Part I" and joined the europe tour of the incredible JEFF SCOTT SOTO for the second time. JSS band member, bass and guitar mastermind GARY SCHUTT, who is one of my real heroes in music (he surely doesn't know...), came up at the last show of the tour and asked to join for the Ace Frehley alltime smash hit "Rip it out" that we performed during the tour several times. ON DRUMS!!!! Hahaha, I knew that Gary is an allround musician by just understanding what things are about, but this was indeed special. No question, of course he was invited to show the balls of rock'n'roll. I still have a smile about these five minutes in Munich and am very proud to find a shot of it via Youtube some minutes ago! So, here is the link, enjoy Gary performing his ass off. Would be cool to come back someday for another stormbringer ;-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrVpGJlU-B0  Mike Stone P.S.: don't forget to send Gary a nice myspace- cheers- hellooooooo on his page http://www.myspace.com/garyschuttmusic    13 Jan 2008 2/4 or 4/4 or what??? Hahaha...   Received some very nice messages concerning "Times of depression" from young "new-guitars-in-town" asking about some special features of the recording worx. Two questions came up again and again, so just to let you know (for I don't keep things like this into everlasting secrets...) - Rumen and me took our guitars and basses indeed down to C , so there is no 7 string guitar or 5 string bass to be mentioned. Indeed my Ibanez Iceman Bass needed some thicker strings than usual to give me a workable feeling... Rumen decided to have a try on dropped D tuning to check it out for the first time in studio, while we surely heard too much radio with bands like RAMMSTEIN etc., so I then asked him to put the tuning again down on one half step... so here we are in C, hahaha! By also listening too many songs like Pink Floyd's "Money", Marillions "Easter" or several tunes from Canadian's Saga, Rumen, Anja and me decided to change the counting in the bridge right before the little chorus. So not to count 1,2,3,4 all the time, as usual in classic rock songs, but to use in this part 1,2,3,4/1,2/1,2,3,4. Doing this supports the straight feeling of the song, without producing some kind of boring space into the music. This month I am on the road to catch all members of my KISS tribute band ROCKET RIDE for the two unplugged shows in march, we surely will have a lot of fun and a good time during rehearsals. So just stay tuned ;-) Mike Stone           13.01.2008:                                                               So here is the official information, that the KISS tribute band ROCKET RIDE is born again and will enter the stage already in march 2008! I guess it was only a question of time, when KISS tunes come back into my life, hahaha! Two shows will come up during easter time, both focussed on unplugged arrangements, we all are thinking about some again outstanding songs, surely performed unplugged for the first time... let's see, what rehearsals will bring into the light.   ROCKET RIDE will be featured by some new members on vocals, guitar and drums, maybe also with some cool surprises for you to hear about, I guess that we can introduce the single musicians already very soon, when all arrangemens are done and comletely under control. So, just stay tuned ;-)               29.12.2007: I know, I know... usually "normal" people take christmas time for a long rest, they return to family and eat much too much of mom's cakes and unbelievable cook- arts ;-) but this year was different for me in many ways, I have to say! Maybe you understand this special feeling that comes up over and over, when something is not finished yet and it makes you somekind of crazy and unhappy each single morning...? In this case there was another song from the last Stahlwerk recording session ready to become mixed and mastered. That time ago, Rumen, Anja and me were already into some other works and necessarities and couldn't finish what we started. At first, I was not too sad about it, for the song was "just" a real old song of mine named "Times of depression", written somewhere in 1992, and you can find it already with a little luck on a CD release "Live Philipshalle Duesseldorf 1993" as a live version. But sometimes things run different than expected... We installed the song into our summer europe tour set, and wow: the response of the audience was huge! Especially Rumen and Ralf pointed very clear to me that "Times of depression" was the ultimate winner of the whole tour. And from that time on I kept in mind that we have an almost readymade recording version of it still in the studio warehouse... With a big thanx to producer George, who had to interrupt his christmas holidays with his amazing lady and his wonderful mom (who is passionate cook, by the way!) because of a crazy emotional ass like me, we entered the studio to finish what we started some months ago. The result? Well, in view to sound surely te most up-to-date song from my side, in view to the song itself it is one of my five everlasting mega- ones, so don't ask me about any intelligent comment, hahaha! The lyrics came up from a very bad family tragedy in 1992, so they are deepy sad and negative, which is not the usual Mike Stone lyric stuff, I guess. But hey, especially europe is packed with this kind of "the world is bad, hope I die before I get old" psydo gothic stuff nowadays, so who knows... 2007 was a year of pure emotions for lots of friends of mine and finally also for me. No other year was full of "good times - bad times" like this in my area. I wish you, and finally also me, a mix of maybe 90:10 instead of 60:40 as it was in this year, and in the end, using the words of the great Mr David Coverdale: don't let anybody make you afraid, okay? All the best Mike Stone   P.S.: a short forecast of the 2008 activities! 01.2008 Release of "Times of depression" 03.2008 The return of my KISS tribute band ROCKET RIDE on stage with some outstanding guests on vocals, guitar, etc! Two shows will be unplugged during the new KISS book release around easter time, stay tuned for more informations soon. Additional "electric" shows are under construction! 03.2008 Release of the new CD of the electronica hardcore tekkno metal band YENZ, feat. Mike Stone playing angrrrrry guitar on 5 - 7 songs. What a different experience for me, this world was more than just new for me. 04.2008 Target month to enter the stage with the brand new ALICE COOPER tribute band BILLION DOLLAR LADIES! Especially the stage artwork is fun, fun, fun! The full package, from "I love the dead" to "Dead Babies", and yeah, "School's out"... hahaha!   Summer 2008 MIKE STONE tour and new songs!       06.09.2007:   The Mike Stone Band will open the new live season this month! From 19. - 24.09.2007 we will travel to several locations in europe, so just have an eye on the tour informations on the several homepages. Besides that I prepare again some new KISS Tribute activities in october and november with my ROCKET RIDE band- by just coming back to some fun, rock'n'roll and "family- meets'n'greetz" with so many fine, nice and cool people of the european KISS scene... To start this month with an extra bonus, Rumen, Anja and me would like to introduce our studio recording session to you. It is our coop- composition "Nothing lasts forever" and my good old song "Take her home" that we firstly planned for TIME, but now decided to release it already now under our own solo names. "Nothing lasts forever" will surely be the opener of the next shows. You can listen to both songs on www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial .  The tour band will be Anja Assmuth, drums Rumen Iliev, guitar & vocals Mike Stone,  bass & vocals Big John Ralf, tour manager & master of desaster  so in this case the bunch of crazy people who performed and recorded several times since the first time in Prague with the House of Lords.  So far looking forward to meet ya again somewhere on the road, take care and all the best!   09.06.2007:   I am a little ashamed, for I managed since weeks to really introduce to you the great "Lady Drums" of the Mike Stone Band, Anja Assmuth from the german Drummer's Institute, but finally I didn't ;-) so now is the time, enjoy her little drum solo on YOUTUBE over here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9OR_3yxnB4 and feel free to send Anja a "Hi" on the guestbook.   12.05.2007:   After relaxing a little in the last days to come back into good health I started my guitar studio work for the next YENZ album, which is planned to become released in fall 2007. The first song "The fight of human nature" is already recorded and now in pre production for first mixes and try- outs. Some more songs are in preparation, since mastermind Yenz himself decided to jump deeper into guitar based industrial rock music. In view to the point that this is not my usual kind of music that I play and perform I indeed enjoy the different ideas and attitudes of the YENZ members, for I learn a lot about this scene and their ideals and visions.   The music management gave me already an information that new gigs are in process to come back on stage soon, I am looking forward to fullfill my cancelled part of the tour soon. "Holiday" is over...   ;-)   06.05.2007:   Bon Giorno, my friends!   Good news first: I finished my chinese recording session and found some time to master it in the last days. “Rapper’s Daylight – Rocker’s Parody” is exactly what the name says, a parody ;-) . Listen to it over here: www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial   Frankly speaking, I was never into rap music for my whole life, although I basically enjoy all kinds of music and totally appreciate the hard work and the love that musicians put into their songs. But having a look on TV to Snoop Doggy Dog, standing beside a hardcore porn gang bang, rappin’ “…never seen a pussy like this…” by completely ignoring what is happening around him (and NOT watching to that pussy for one single second…), well hummmm, that’s not my cup of tea indeed, hahahaha!   Many years ago, during my period performing with PRINCESS VALIUM, I wrote this little fun rap as a “tribute” to a guy, who hardly worked on killing the band by kicking us out of the rehearsal room, speaking bad words about the band to promoters, etc. But thanx god, he was a weak guy and everybody knew about it, so he couldn’t stop any engine seriously.   Last year the basic riff of this rap came back into my life, after TIME worked on a kind of funky disco song, so I installed the riff and the ending to the ideas of the guys and we enjoyed some cool funky package, that unfortunately didn’t come to the final result anyway, after singer Micha van de Weg left the band and Marco Wriedt also searched for new challenges. But as I saw last week, you can listen to the instrumental rough recording on the myspace page of my good friend Erik Stout, this could be funny to listen to the TIME idea and the MIKE STONE song that you can enjoy from today on by myspace.   Shadow follows light, in this case I also have not- so- good- news… because of a stage accident last week I was forced by the doctors to cancel the rest of my tour gigs until end of may 2007. I am happy to have all laboratory results in hands and understand that nothing seriously happened to me after electricity ran through my body because of a bad isolation line on stage that brought me to some heart rhythm problems for days, so I feel more or less fine again and work already on the second part of the tour hopefully in august/september this year. Thank you all for understanding, if you ordered already tickets for forthcoming shows, I hope to give you back something special and goooood very soon on stage again.   So far for today, take care and all the best   27.02.2007:   Right before the first MIKE STONE solo shows are going to rock, I would like to introduce to you my new drummer for the MS band, please give a big hello to Mrs BETTY BIZARRE, who joined Rumen and my actions some weeks ago to support us on the road during the forthcoming gigs and the little europe tour in late spring 2007!   Betty is well known in Germany by her professional work at the german DRUMMERS INSTITUTE, and I got the contact by good mate Hans in't Zand, who is drumming for VENGEANCE, STEVE FISTER and the band of my good singer buddy JAYCEE COOPER. Thanx, my friend, one Heineken on my costs in Frankfurt ;-) one wish free for you!   Our first celebration will be this friday in Prague, performing as special guest with the HOUSE OF LORDS at the Retro Music Hall, which I met already in Munich some days ago, great guys and a great vibe, I am looking forward to meet all of them again in the czek republic.   Finally for today: here is a pic of Betty, so you know next time how she looks like.                                       07.02.2007:   After I had an amazing open air show (!!!) in january at my favorite football club FORTUNA DUESSELDORF I am happy to see the process of the further coming life activities. First, I am really looking forward to the show in Prague on 02.03.2007 as special guest of the famous HOUSE OF LORDS with the MIKE STONE band. Big thanx and a glass of blood red wine for Chris to keep in touch about it. First week of may will then start the MIKE STONE europe tour, details to be released soon. Meanwhile I have some more single gigs all around and it is great to have many really good musicians around me, playing all this material of mine from my periods with PRINCESS VALIUM, TRIO VULGARIS and currently with TIME, from which I will also perfom some of my songs on stage, of course. Let us keep in touch, need to practise a lot these days ;-) take care and all the best 30.12.2006:   I just can say: Rod Steward did it, Steve Harris also, now it is me to do the outing of being a silly football fan... hahaha! Here we are...                                            Take care, the performance is in GERMAN LANGUAGE, for I will have a guest appearance with the Western & Hagen family over there. Cool experience... just like "MC blabla Cool DJ Hiphop Lalala feat. Jennifer Lopez" *ggg* o.k., I better stop now, see ya next year!   24.12.2006:   I remember one day in late 2005, when Marco Wriedt and me joined some time together and we both thought exactly the same: that 2006 will surely be a year filled with different extremities, positive and negative ones. Finally it came up as we expected. Personally I had indeed some really great and beautiful moments, like - releasing the TIME EP, which indeed satisfied my expectation of being a musician and exactly doing the kind of music I prefer - building up my house from april to december, now having all the basics in own hands to work on all this material that bumps through my head for such a long time - doing several gigs in countries like China, Poland, Czek Republic, where I wouldn't have expected it so far. I met some more wonderful people all over the world, learned again a lot about this planet and different ideas of doing music, for which I am more than thankful - meeting some more nice guys and girls, like the Western & Hagen family or Peter from Beijing, or having some few moments of talk with some of my heroes, Glenn Hughes and Bill Aucoin, or supporting friends to let them catch and live their dreams Night follows after day, and so I also had some bad times, like surely everybody, just to mention - the loss of two friends and a family member, who passed away by cancer - watching some friends running into some probs without having a real chance to help them to get out quick - and finally: still not being a millionaire!!! Just kidding… Anyway, a lot of dreams still need to be catched, and I am looking forward to walk the thin line of being comfortably alive in this world again in the next year, hope we meet again over there, somewhere on the road! Wish you and your family all the best for Christmas and hope you will experience a great 2007 very soon. Should auld acquaintance be forgot… Take care and all the best Mike Stone   12.12.2006: MIKE STONE football stadium winter open air!   There is another dream-come-true crashing straight into me, hahahaha! Maybe you know that I am a huge fan of the german football club FORTUNA DUESSELDORF (www.fortunaduesseldorf.de), which was one of the biggest and most famous german clubs from 1930 until the early 1990's... then everything broke down and Fortuna is a midclass club now. But: I will ever believe that they come back to kick Manchester, Barcelona or whoever  ;-) This week I received the invitation to perform on 10.01.2007 at the football stadium open air to perform in front of the team, the still many thousand fans and the "enemies"! More informations to come later, but yeah, this is, how I like the new year starting for me, you bet! Cheers! 22.11.2006:   I just put "Deuce" from my little gig in Krakow, Poland, on my Myspace account, listen and enjoy ;-) maybe you would like to listen a little more on the bass line, for I played that song with my contra bass (!!!), which obviously confused my guest band KIZZROCKZ for some minutes during the soundcheck, but I guess they liked it after some time... maybe I am the first one who ever played this song on contra bass? Need to check the Hayseed Dixies records again...         24.10.2006:   Just a little "Helllloooooo...." from Mr Traveller ;-)  I enjoyed a great time and two very nice and outstanding gigs, far away from classic rock'n'roll in Prague, Czek Republic last week and in Krakow, Poland, yesterday. I have to admit that I lost my heart in Prague last year and love to come back to this lovely city time and again.   Tomorrow I will follow a new invitation to Shanghai, China, until the end of the week. Basically I should be in the rehearsal room with TIME, but shame on us, we all had some very lucrative and interesting projects to go for, so we come back to each other next week to continue on working on our song material. Rumen and me finished a song of him named "Nothing lasts forever" and two more songs will surely be finished in short future, can't wait to play them with the complete band!   Wish you a nice week and take care!   25.09.2006: Two of my good old mates, Erik and Marco, are running through a really outstanding, interesting and milestone- packed year 2006. As a friend you have the good chance to support somebody on his path to the right decisions, sometimes maybe you can just sit beside and hope that things run well, and sometimes you are the one who needs to push a milestone to come up for your friend. I hope that Erik and Marco know that I am there if it is needed, but that I am also able to shut up if situation makes it necessary ;-) Enough of the talking, I asked Pierre to play a special song during our session last week in Paris, and we had a really funny time with it, incl some nice Courvoisier cognac (never again, my friend, hahaha!), it is an old Walt Disney movie soundtrack (Pinocchio???) called "When you wish upon a star", with some very nice guitar chord changes inside. I put it on www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial for everybody who enjoys obscure stuff like me... This song is dedicated to Erik and Marco, wish you both still a good hand in all milestones and decisions in your life, Mike with you ;-) 14.09.2006:   So, today I finished the upload of the 4th song of the little "Best of Solo Albums- Alive 3,5" project, you will find "Mr. Make Believe" under my MYSPACE adress   www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial   I tried to improve the mix in the last days (it is a direct recording from the mixer, so options are very low...), for the relations between the instruments are not really perfect at all, but damn, it is still a great song and it is part of a rock'n'roll show, so let's go ;-)   hope you like it!   Next week I will stay in Paris for some days, and with a little luck I'll join an acoustic session with Pierre, whatever comes out of that, we will surely have again a great time over there!   During the next two weeks more TIME actions are on their way, so we surely have also in this biggest chapter of my musician's life material to talk and write about!   25.08.2006:                                                                                           FORGOTTEN SONS!   This saturday Mike Stone will perform in northern Germany at the Victoria Festival in Varel. He will be supported by his TIME collegue Rumen Iliev on guitar/saxophone and german drummer Denny Goldini. Mike is invited by the owner of the ROCK CITY magazine JENS REIMNITZ, who also is the maker of the YENZ project, where Mike made some guitar work on the last album in early 2006. If sound will be workable, we then try to leave some live bootleg material in the next time for you. We know that Mike and Rumen prepared a bizarre songlist for the audience, so let's see what they'll gonna do over there…   21.08.2006:   MOVE ON- Live in Shanghai   So, here it is now, number 3 of my little „best of solo albums, alive 3,5“ fun project, talking about „Move on“ (download on www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial ), a song that I like a lot because of its easy going and good vibe. If you maybe know the DVD “Live in Largo ‘79” you can easily see that this song jumps quickly into your face by performing it alive. Have to admit that “Move on” was the most difficult one for me to do personally, for the vocals are hard to perform, but hey, challenges are welcome ever ;-) and the live sound of the recording is so “beautiful” rough and rude, so all I all it fits in the end. I picked the first little guitar solo out of a KISS song, let’s see who will find out… oh, plus a piece of a Rainbow tune- if you find out give me a message, let’s see if I can spend you a drink someday then, in exception of Marco Wriedt, for I am sure he knows already after one second, for it comes out of one of his favorite songs ever ;-) So far, enjoy the little mp3 file and maybe you look forward to the last chapter of my project, which I will surely release during the next two weeks.   13.08.2006:                                                           Back in europe now, jetlag in my head, but with a good feeling anyway. I again enjoyed some great days in China and am very proud to have done my second gig over there, this time in Shanghai. Many thanx to Peter to arrange all these great things for me, mate! I received an MD with a recording of the show directly after the gig, and it is a big smile for me to listen to it, for I can hear a lot of things which are absolutely not usual for a Mike Stone or any rock'n'roll show, hahaha! Besides that I performed with a band that I only saw one time in my life before and I wasn't sure if anything would work at all! But congratulations, Andrew, the band leader, prepared a hell lot of our mail discussions and I was deeply surprised how he came into the songs, which are usually surely not completely his cup of tea. He plays great Santana songs in the club and some luxury hotels over there... I attach a pic of him on my account. Anyway, I also passed one song for you on my Myspace account www.myspace.com/mikestoneofficial , maybe you like it as I do. Forget about perfect sound quality or anything, this is simple rock'n'roll bootleg recording and fun. It is "Speeding back to my baby", which is one of my favorite songs of the Ace, hope you like it. It perfectly fits into my fun project "Best of solo albums, alive 3,5", for I made already "You matter to me" and will introduce two more songs in the next weeks, for I have them already also on the Shanghai MD in really cool versions. Enjoy life, and looking forward to play in europe again in two weeks, feels good to be back home. Need some sleep now, thank you and good night ;-)   27.07.2006:   MIKE STONE on MYSPACE:   after all the questions about my "myspace URL"  I now see the necessarity to do something against it ;-)   So, from now on, you can also view a little stonish material over here:   http://www.myspace.com/mikestonefiles   As you surely know, I am not too much into the internet surfing culture, although I use my laptop a hell lot for all kinds of works and networking activities, so please forgive me, if I don't care too much in the beginning of any myspace design or whatever, hahaha! Myspace gives me fun, and I already met some little forgotten contacts of my past, so it is already worth while!   25.07.2006:   MIKE STONE & THE FORGOTTEN SONS will headline the VICTORIA FESTIVAL in Varel, Northern Germany, close to Bremen and Oldenburg, on   Saturday 26.08.2006   The festival will be managed by the famous  ROCK CITY MAGAZINE, ticket orders and more informations about the open air festival will come up soon.   23.07.2006:   Wednesday 26.06.2006, Mike Stone made his first live performance in China during his second asia trip this year, which was mainly planned for business workshops. A well packed club of the Plaza Theatre in Beijing gave Mike a great welcome, although 99% of the audience surely didn't understand one single english word... For Mike couldn't take his Forgotten Sons Band with him, the house band of the Plaza Theatre was so kind to prepare some cool songs with him, own songs plus special cover material, that Mike loves to surprise the audience here and then. Additonally to Mike's spoken positive feedback we are now happy to introduce a little nice rough bootleg from the evening to you, that Mike gave us in hands, after he received an MD from the mixer of that evening. So now we can offer you a free download of a real special song: "YOU MATTER TO ME" from Peter Criss, surely the first and only live recording of this song ever! Mike gave us a remark that this number was used in the KISS solo album TV spots long time back in summer 1978 and it still sticks in his head after all these years.   The download of the song can be done here: http://www.downloadcounter.com/cgi-bin/download.pl?username=FallenAngel&account=8&nobounce=1   Cheerio!   07.07.2006:   Mike returned from his trip through China last weekend, where he had meetings and workshops in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing to check more potentials for TIME and the FORGOTTEN SONGS project. There was a surprise gig in Beijing at the Plaza Theatre Club, where Mike Stone was invited to play some songs on acoustic guitar, and later together with the local club band. Although 90 % of the audience didn't understand one single english word Mike talks about a great show with a thankful and very interested audience.   The club owner, Peter, did send an MD data tape with some live recordings of the spontaneous show, and it seems that Mike will introduce one good working song to us as a download, this will obviously be, still can't believe it, "You matter to me", a cover version of Peter Criss' first album!!! Some kind of a "club version", whatever Mike means with this remark...   ;-)   Right now, Mike Stone works on the final steps for his new built .95HOLY STUDIOS at his new house in Germany. On saturday 08.07.2006 he will join the last show of Daize Shane at the Bospop Festival in Weert, Netherlands, where his good friends and TIME members Erik Stout and Rumen Iliev will support her, together with old mastermind Marco Wright. So, enjoy a nice beer on that day and enjoy hopefully some great shows of Daize and some of Mike's favorite bands and artists like Glenn Hughes or Living Colour.   07.06.2006:   Rumen, Erik and me returned from a nice day in Belgium, where we were invited to perform during the KISS Expo with Bill Aucoin. We had a lot of fun and some great time on stage, although many technical problems forced us to work harder than we expected ;-) indeed it is a big difference for a soundguy "just" to take care on the sound of a classic rock band with electric guitars or on three full crazies, who change all three minutes their acoustic instruments like saxophone, harp, contra bass, jambee, acoustic guitar, little drum kit... it was very funny to watch the soundguy Tom, how he e.g. tried to change the EQ from the vocal mic which suddenly moved into a blues harp or sax one, hahaha! Hope he will ever agree to work with us together again... Big thanx to KISSTORY for the invitation, you guys made a good job out there! I was also happy to have some little time to talk to Bill Aucoin about TIME. If there are maybe five people on earth that I 1.000.000 % accept in their possible kind of view to the band, then he is one of the few... Hope to introduce some Expo snapshots in the next days to you. Additionally there is also a live recording of some songs existing that I will try to organise and pitch it into the net as a download for you.   Some more news! World champion surfer, rock singer and model Daize Shane is coming to europe soon! Howie Simon from the Jeff Scott Soto band was so very kind to give the manager Ken Tamplin the hint to use people from the TIME family for the tour (Howie mate, one biiig burger on my costs to you, hope to be able to pay it back!), so Erik organized some actions for it. Sad to say that I am not able to join the tour circus, for I will build up my house and studio exactly in these days and cannot escape... but beside Erik on drums there will be my good old Marco Wright playing guitar, and the bass part will be done by TIME guitar master Rumen Iliev, so everything stays in the family ;-)  I guess Daize will have a real fantastic band around. For the concrete tour dates just visit her homepage http://www.daizeshayne.com. To make the story more funny: one of the shows will be at the dutch ZOKS festival, and who is one of the managers over there: former TIME singer John Cooper... aaaaaand if you take a look to the pic of Daize from a show in the USA you maybe see that former Jeff Scott Soto bassman Gary Schutt is playing guitar over there. Confused? Me too, hahaha!                                                                              Daize Shayne feat. Gary Schutt   31.05.2006:   Heya, I would like to introduce Mr Rumen Iliev to you, before you will meet him on saturday as the new member of the FORGOTTEN SONS family!   Rumen is born in Bulgaria and made a very serious and high class education about music in school, high school and university. He made all official certificates to lead a symphony orchestra, a choir or to "just" play guitar with TIME. We had some nice meetings jamming together for the KISS expo with Erik Stout and we all look forward to do again something unique on stage that nobody expects so far...   Looking forward to meet you soon, take care!                                                                                    Rumen Iliev (hey, this is my guitar!!!)   21.05.2006   The TIME line-up is complete Vocals: Johnnie Zign Bass: Mike Stone Guitar: Rumen Iliev Drums: Erik Stout As you know, we were in search of the right singer and guitar player for almost 1,5 years now, and finally we found these excellent guys. We met John while doing the tour with Jeff Scott Soto last year, and he also did 95% of the singing duties on the first TIME EP. Right now, John is also singing his heart out with one of the best European Queen tributes: Miracle. However, being an artist who will always have the real passion for bringing originals into the business, he couldn't resist the offer that we made. And we're incredible happy about that!!! Rumen is also a great guy and a great musician. I invited him to come over to do some sessions with Erik and me and musically we knew quickly that we clicked, now we're very happy that Rumen decided to join the team as well!! Both of these guys play multiple instruments and are simply great and very creative musicians, and besides that they have wonderful ideas for the show. So from this moment on we will be head-on into the process of completing the setlist and creating a unique and ambitious show.   We had already an amazing 3-day rehearsal this week in our cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and the chemistry between these 4 guys is simply amazing!! Everyone has great ideas, and we can safely say that we can't wait to go out on the road and give you all an evening to remember!   This week, Rumen and me work also on our little acoustic show during the KISS expo in Belgium in two weeks. Sad to note that Marc Mes is not able to join the Forgotten Sons this day, but Erik, Rumen and me have already some nice ideas to perform as a trio on that day, with a fistful of KISS songs that we love sooooo much ;-)   26.04.2006:                                                                                                      featuring Mike Stone on guitar!   As mentioned earlier I made some studio work for YENZ and his project. The new CD will be released on 29.04.2006 by Point Music/RC Records, and it is a real bunch of: RammsteinmeetsOomphmeetsElectronicPumpUpTheVolumemeetsTheVodooClub!!! Some people asked me about the weird guitar solo of the song "I believe in you" during the session, so here are some little facts to explain: I played Marco Wright's blonde Fender Telecaster (hey dude, this guitar sucks, hahaha! Get an Iceman quick!!!) and plugged directly into the mixer with the V-AMP by BEHRINGER, which is a nice little box for some crazy actions and quick recordings. You can hear a huge stereo delay, and I additionally played the solo two times, so that the result is finally a very unique ping pong solo, for the delay reacted different in both solos, although I played exactly the same. If you listen to the song by headphones now, it really sounds huge and outstanding. If you are also interested in harmony stuff: the original idea was to record a classic Ace Frehley guitar solo (ya know what I mean...), for Yenz is a great KISS fan, like me. In the end we agreed to combine this special kind of signature lick with some of my own favorite stuff, so now you can hear first an introduction lick in the HM5 scale that runs directly into the Ace Frehley "screams". Ritchie Blackmore uses this scale sometimes (or to say: he used to play, when he performed plugged and not-seated...), you can hear it  in the Rainbow song "Gates of Babylon" and on some live solo spots of the Rainbow "Finyl Vinyl" album. A little breeze of the orient... Hope you like it!   I just returned from China and still feel a little jet lagged, but whatever... it was a great business trip for future actions with TIME, and finally I again learned a hell lot. I deeply believe that I will learn day by day for the rest of my life, and it will never end, hahaha!   22.04.2006:   The band TIME comes up with something special: Together with one of Norwegians top architects of modern holiday cabins and houses, Asbjorn Buen, TIME has decided to exclusively attach their name to one of mr. Buens new design-cabins in his completely new, state of the art, Panorama line. This co-operation came to see the light of day thanks to the relationship between TIME drummer Erik 'Twilight' Stout and mr. Buen. They both felt that there are a lot of similarities in creating a new cabin/house and creating a new band; It takes a long time of preparation and hard work before the final product can hit the market. Now that it looks like TIME will play their first try-out shows come september 2006 and the first TIME-cabins will be delivered to customers around the same time, both parties felt that this 'coming together of achievements' would be perfect for this project. The members of TIME are very proud to be a part of this project. Where it took bands like the Rolling Stones or Kiss a long time to come up with having a car or a casket named after them, TIME already has a very luxurious holiday cabin named after them while still having to play their first headlining gig!! The TIME-cabin will be officially presented on the Hytteliv-convention in the city of Hellerudsletta (close to Oslo Airport ‘Gardermoen’), Norway on thursday april 20th, 2006. The official TIME website is still under construction (launch date for the site is may 27th, 2006) but additional information on this project can be found on www.erikstout.com and www.buenprosjekt.no! Here you can find the PDF-file of this project along with drawings of the cabin including floor specifications. Of course the band will take a trip to Norway as soon as the first cabins are being delivered. More on this as the project develops!   13.04.2006:   It seems, that TIME found the perfect singer and the perfect guitar player. Erik, Rob and me had some amazing time to jam with great new musicians and write on new song material, and out of this actions the puzzle formed into a great picture. I am sure to introduce both guys to ya very soon, just be a little patient for some days, please, my friends ;-)   Looking forward to the unplugged show during the belgium KISS expo in june. I got the confirmation of the bulgarian guitar hero Rumen Iliev to become a Forgotten Son for the show, and after playing with him together in different projects, incl guitar, sax, harp, piano and singing performance I am sure that this will be a special show to remember. We should make a DVD out of it maybe...   I take the chance to fly to China after the easter weekend, there is a little option to push TIME into this fast growing market, and it is as it is: be quick or be dead... so I better hurry up a little, hahaha!   Wish everybody a nice and great easter time, cheers and take care!   01.04.2006:   As promised, here are the informations about the forthcoming KISS expo, where Mike Stone will be performing with his Forgotten Sons:        21.03.2006:   Good news about TIME in the next days, ladies and gentleman! Additionally:   Mike Stone and KISS...   although TIME became the definite main job of Mike it is very nice to see that there are still lots of actions around his project THE FORGOTTEN SONGS running. So this time, Mike got the invitation to perform as part of the official KISS expo in Belgium on 03.06.2006 in Harelbeke! Mike will play a complete acoustic show, after the positive feedbacks from all over the world came up about his last spontaneous acoustic jam gigs, incl contra bass and a great FORGOTTEN SONS band, surely in a different line up. Mike will start the expo right before the Q&A session with former KISS manager BILL AUCOIN, who is one of Mike's business heroes. The make up show will be done by Belgium's great tribute band KISSTORY. Just click the band name and visit their homepage, and maybe you give them also a sweet "hello" into their guestbook  ;-) party on, Wayne...   15.03.2006:   Due to popular demand, you can now download the two acoustic live tracks from the show in Kassel (March 4th) that were played on KISS Army Rules. Please remember, this is a real rough recording, performed live without a net or rehearsal, but with several beers in hands ;-) hope you'll like it, as the audience did that day. The songs are TWO TIMER and ANYWAY YOU WANT IT, just click on the songnames and you get it. KISS Army Rules also regretted that the feature started a day later then planned last week because of a local powerfailure. So they informed me they will make Mike as Artist of the complete month March. So keep tuning in to hear Mike and all month long (plus other great and rare KISS material).   07.03.2006:   This week, the delivery of the TIME promo material to all business partners and potential companies started to run, we all wish TIME a great start very soon!   Mike Stone left Germany for the rest of the week for some actions, after he enjoyed a great KISS fan day in Kassel incl a really outstanding live show. We will have some great pics about it soon.   The all new KISS Army Rules internet radio, hosted by Kat's Eyes Products, is growing in popularity by offering lot's of KISS demo's, interviews, live recordings and tribute songs. Now, a new weekly feature is added: each week one tribute band's songs will be played regularly. To kick this feature off, KISS Army Rules has teamed up with Mike Stone, who has had some recent success with his online single None Of Your Business, an unreleased KISS song. Several other Mike Stone tracks will be introduced on KISS Army Rules also, most of which are unreleased KISS songs. Additionally some songs from the Torpedo Girls and two exclusive tracks recorded at the live gig in Kassel, Germany on March 4th, when Mike made a very special acoustic KISS performance with friends, incl contra bass, blues harp on "All American Man" and lots of acoustic guitar!   Listen to KISS Army Rules on this link: http://www.katseyesproducts.com/radio.htm For the stereo experience, it is suggested you download the free media player: Destiny Media Player.   24.02.2006:   Just returned from Paris, where I had to go through some bad cold, brrrr... anyway I was able to work on some studio actions and jumped into a very old network of a french artist named PLASTIC BERTRAND. Maybe somebody remembers him, he had a great smash hit in the late 70's, but I don't remember the title right now, who can help me? "... pour moi" was it???   There will be a release of a Tekkno Dancefloor track from the famous YENZ project coming soon into the global market, and I was invited by the Rock City Magazine to play a twisted guitar solo into a cool break, that I indeed loved to do. I am definitely not a fan of tekkno based music, but 1) the harmony scales were a nice challenge and 2) the imagination that lots of really beautiful young ladies will dance to my solo, in exxtasy and with only some few inches of clothes on, made me feel indeed a little over-the-top, hahaha! Dear Eddie van Halen, dear Steve Stevens, NOW I really understand your performance on Michael Jackson's works ;-)    TIME is on its way to go one step further into a great and outstanding future. We are very proud of the current results and very thankful for all kinds of support that we received by so many great people around us. Today we wanna thank MARCO WRIGHT a lot for his superb work and input into TIME. Marco made our european tour 2005 worth while and brought shiny silver lines into many songs and arrangements. And finally he is simply a great guy. TIME and Marco will go different ways from this month on, and we all have a smile and a tear in our faces, but in the end we are happy to see that we are well and close friends, so it is for sure that we will meet on the road of rock'n'roll again and again, and we are looking forward to it. Rock on, our Sunset Boy, we wish you well! Just click on Marco's name and you will be linked to his new homepage, and don't forget to write some "hello" into his guestbook!   18.02.2006:   Hope y'all had a nice valentine's day with your beloved partners, family, friends early this week! Before I leave for some days to Paris now, I am very proud to write about the official foundation of the company TIME OVERSEAS! Rob, Erik and me are very ambitious to prepare the release of this outstanding band concept on the right professional level from the beginning, and it is a good feeling to have a real company in your background, which gives you support and strength to take care on the most important thing at all: music! A big thanx to our managers Jean Paul and Roland, who lead us all the time through all rocky roads, you guys rock!   Musically I started to get experiences with my "second" instrument in TIME on stage, I guess this doesn't need any comment at all ;-)                                                        It still needs some technically try outs to become a fix part of a TIME show, but we all have already now a really good feeling that this will be again another special thing during our live shows.   My next "experience" with it will be on 04.03.2006 at the FIASCO Club in Kassel, where some older meet'n'greetz guys of mine will perform a full make up show as KISS tribute: KISSIN' TIME , I agreed to jam with some good friends of mine during the period the guys need to build up their make up, so there is surely 45 - 60 minutes time to rape good old KISS songs, hahaha! Kissin' Time is definately one of the two best tributes I know, so think about it to watch the show!   More important is the progress of TIME, and I hope to introduce to you all our next business partners soon, let's see.   09.02.2006:   This flyer reminds you not to forget:     02.02.2006:   We just received the information that Mike Stone's net single "None of your business" gets still good promotion in the USA. If you are able to receive american radio stations by internet you are invited to listen on thursday 02.02.2006 to www.lvrocks.com , 11 pm, when Mike is again on air with his song.   The webmaster team   01.02.2006:   Had a big smile this morning by contacting Erik Stout and receiving the message that he found some old rehearsal tapes of the past with really funny material.   Of course I remember that we had this short European tour in early 2005. During that time we were accompanied by singer Marc Mes from the dutch progressive metal rock band WASTELANDS, who did a great job. Our first rehearsels were acoustic sessions, to see if everything would work so far. One of the Kiss-songs we played was 'Tomorrow', from the Unmasked album. So just for you, here's a very early rehearsel recording of the Forgotten Sons playing 'Tomorrow" acoustic!!! Have a smile ;-) and click here   27.01.2006:   Greetz from Boston, where I have met already some great guys of music business, managers, promoters company leaders. It is a long way to the top, and I am happy to see that he concept about the band TIME find interest by professionals also! Erik Stout made a good information sheet about TIME, I would like to invite you to visit this page to get all official informations about our current status with the band. Just click here to watch and enjoy.   I am also proud to see that our TIME manager Jean Paul Verhoeven made his promise true to get Erik into one of the drummer's hall of fame named Drummer's Directory , where Erik is noted under the new entries. You see, the wheel is rolling...   "None of your business" is still rolling and rolling and rolling... and became the most successful forgotten song after one week already! Thank you, dudes ;-) Hope to pay back someday.   23.01.2006:   Wow, the feedback about the new Forgotten Song "None of your business" (get a download here) is amazing, thank you all for interest! It gives us all the enthusiasm to continue with the next song soon, of course. Let's see. This time it was definately a really not-KISS-usual song, the more we are surprised about the resonances exactly out of this great scene.   Another point for your information: one of my guitar heroes and partners in crime, Marco Wright, opened officially his personal homepage, just click here to visit the page and write some "Hello" in his guestbook!   This week I am on my way to the United States to come back already during the weekend for some trips to Berlin and Munich, and I hope to bring some good news with me. Cheers and take care!       16.01.2006:   Although the year 2006 is focussed on the work with TIME, there will be there and again good and interesting happenings beside that, to keep the mind clear and see what the world is about in global! So today, Erik, Marco and me confirmed a cooperation package show of our three bands The Forgotten Sons, The Horny Bastards and The Sunset Boys for 29.04.2006 in Deventer, Netherlands, again at the Backstage Cafe, where we had a great stop-and-rock time during the tour with Jeff Scott Soto in 2005! We are looking forward to see you all crazies again over there!   Another point is the release of the next Forgotten Song "None of your business" from KISS. You can read a lot about the work process of the song in the chapter "The Forgotten Songs", and I have to say that I am a little ashamed to have been so damn slow in the last months to finish the work on it. Yeah, there was a tour, there were recordings for TIME, additional shows, blablabla... in the end, I didn't do it, and here is my big "SORRY DUDES" to all KISS fans, who asked me for almost one year about the release. Next song will be done earlier, hahaha! I can give you a closer information, where you can get "None of your business" as an mp3 download, during the next days.   And finally for today, I would like to introduce to you two faces of my rock'n'roll family, who support the band, me, and a lot more with enthusiasm and all their balls and bones. Talking about the webmaster of the benelux Mike Stone fanpage www.mikestone.tk , Maarten, and the third family member of TIME, Rob van Essen, who is the one to find solutions, when Erik and me fail, and who is the one who gives TIME the sound that the band needs, all over the world. You guys rock, and a million thanx for your support are not enough to appreciate your work.   If you ever need a good PA system and a good soundguy in the benelux countries, just visit Rob's own homepage of his WHY NOT (SOUND & RECORDS) company: http://www.whynotsound.nl/                         Rob van Essen, sound maniac and TIME god                       Maarten, with Mark St John   09.01.2006:   Since yesterday, Erik and me hold the final master of the first professional TIME recordings in hand. Music is always a matter of taste, but in the end my heart says that we made a real milestone of rock music. So here we are, with a four songs EP in hands, to gamble through the world now and jump back into the business part of music industry. I the next weeks and months, we will travel with our management through the world from USA to Europe and explain everybody why TIME is the most important thing to listen to ;-)   Beside that I am also proud to have finished all works on the KISS forgotten song "None of your business", so that you can look forward to catch your download already at the end of january! If you ever listened to the original demo recording of KISS from 1976, you will be surprised already, if you never heard that song anyway I promise you to be surprised also, hahaha! Wait and see...   This week, my partners in crime, Erik Stout, Rob van Essen and me, will join a good place to discuss all stategical things for the next weeks, and we all look forward to the upcoming live season from 11.02. on, we have already some good options to play over this continent of europe, s stay tuned to catch all news'n'facts about it over here!   To finish the recording chapter of the last weeks, here are the last two missing persons, who gave us an additional blast and supported us to create a rock monster.                               H. Dorgarten from Sound Station Studio, Germany: no matter, how good you are in playing your instrument, if you don't find the right engineer, mastering god or technical support, you are a little piece of crap... My biggest thank to Heinz for his support, interest and enthusiasm, by being very positive critical in his opinions all the time. You made it!                                     John Zwaan, together with Erik Stout and me, after the last recordings. Rob, Erik and me decided to work with additional vocals, after Dario Velasco made already a great job. And suddenly we had a big hard rock monster with Dario and a very special and more sensitive one with John in hands. What a damn luxury, hahaha! The final master of our work is a mixture of both singers, and we are more than proud about both of them. You guys rock! If you wanna know more about John and his musician's work, you can visit his Queen tribute band over here MIRACLE.   04.01.2006:         30.12.2005:              With Fish and J.S. Soto at the Hotel Bar, Mrs. Kiki Dee & Mrs. Soto plus tea        One of my favorite pics 2005, the "signature burger" of Howie Simon, "designed"    somewhere in the Netherlands, hahahaha! Howie is a good guitar player, but he also    knows a lot about european fást food! If this piece of food will ever be offered by ebay???    Hmmmmmmm... whatever...    ;-)   ___________________________________________________________________________ To all you friends, fans, enemies, business partners or aliens: my webmsater team and me would like to wish you all the best for 2006, we have a lot of ambitious actions in stock and look forward to conquer the world! Good luck and health to you and your families. And better notice already today:   MIKE STONE LIVE AT THE GRUHOR FESTIVAL, 11.02.2006, ROSENGARTEN HALL  in KROPP! ______________________________________________________________________________________     27.12.2005:   As expected, Erik, Rob, the TIME crew and me had a hell lot to do, and although we had a really great product in hands, we decided to make it better ;-) that's why we were completely out of the planet earth for some more weeks, also during christmas.   But right now I try to enjoy two or three free days to come back into some kind of a "normal life", which means to understand that breakfast is NOT usually starting at 02.00 p.m. and all these things...   Beside the recording sessions we made a little trip over to the UK to visit Queen keyboarder Spike Edney and his great SAS Band in Southampton, where they performed a really amazing show. Over there it was really awesome to meet the tour assistant Helen again from the Jeff Scott Soto crew, Mr Soto himself (where is your hair, he he he...), plus Mrs Kiki Dee and one of my favourite singers ever: former Marillion singer FISH (Fish:"in wwwwhhhhhssssh bbbhhaaannnd  tcha blaaaaaiiing?", Stone: "Pardon???" A nice guy beside Stone: "He is scottish and asks, in which band you are playing..."). Looking forward to see you again during the football world championship 2006, and: no, I won't send Berti Vogts back to Scotland, hahaha! That's a promise...   Right now I try to sort out some nice pic material of the last months, but someone needs to explain me next time how to use these damn digi cams, they all suck :-D          26.11.2005:   TIME is deeply into pre production now, for next week the final studio works will be the focus! I am happy to introduce you to the singer for the production, bolivian born Mister Dario Velasco. My journey to south america was successfell, you see!                  Work... work... w...         Dario Velasco            Marco Wright               Erik Stout   So far, I am not sure if I am able to be in the net next week, for things need to be done in studio with priority, but who knows, just check out the site and I hope to welcome you back here soon! Latest in 10 days then!   23.11.2005:   I am back, alive and well ;-)   Had a high energetic and interesting time in south america, that I will surely talk about in the next days. In view to that I have some news to write also.   Right, after having some sleep, I will prepare last things for the final studio action early december with the TIME material.Eric Stout and me are flying to the UK after that and will have first business talks with the international business management, the same in january with USA.   Come back to you laterz... good night   03.11.2005:   The webmaster team would like to inform you that Mike Stone is on his way to Southern America for some rock events over there in Brazil, Argentina and Peru. The actions are completely based on a kind of adventure trip and we wish Mike to come back in good health and spirit. His only "weapons" are his Behringer Top and his amazing Ibanez Bass from 1982... we wish you well! Any signs of life maybe over here.   The TIME band will work on final recordings of their first package early december, after that you can look forward to meet Mike and his Forgotten Sons at the pre christmas Firehouse show in Duesseldorf on 23.12.2005 at the TUSA 06 arena. We will come back with further informations soon.   18.10.2005:   Just a little newspaper snapshot from our last tour "show" in a small pub in Kadenkirchen, Germany, we had a good time over there with an audience that also loved to smile. It was indeed difficult to get any technical material on a very little stage, so we played with the smallest PA system in my life, but anyway: it worked! Again a proof that rock'n'roll is still alive, hahahaha!          17.10.2005:   October seems to become a good month for rock'n'roll. After a very successful time in Munich about endorsements and special deals I started to work on a new instrument that I received some days ago. Erik Stout is already shaking his head with a big smile about it, so it seems to be the perfect instrument for our further actions... hahahaha! Wait on the first pics in the next days!   We also made first bookings for studio work, so there will be first professional recordings of the TIME material ready during winter season to place the band deeper and deeper into the business. Also band concept, artwork and stage concepts are day by day coming closer to our targets.   Beside that we don't find much time to perform right now. But I confirmed already one solo show in cooperation with a friendship band in Germany on 03.12. at POINT OF MUSIC in Remscheid (www.pom.de), and two more shows are in discussion. First of all, we want to make the TIME product perfect, and if we find additional time to perform, then let's go!   In this view maybe some sad news for my good KISS friends all over here: there is no fair time right now to finalize the second part of the FORGOTTEN SONGS. If the studio is working well, I will try to add the new recorded material for mastering, but I definately can't promise anything about it. But however, the machine will roll on anyway, just stay tuned and give us all a little patience ;-)   Take care and hope to see you all soon again!   25.09.2005:                                    Eric, Marco and me finished our last show of the europe tour on friday in Kaldenkirchen, and yes, we had some big fun over there. Thanx to the guys of  NERO (www.nero-web.de) and an audience, which was obviously not prepared on us, hahahahaha! Good to see that everybody had fun anyway. Also it was nice to meet Pascal from ALIVE 2000 over there, it was again a proof that KISS fans never die ;-) , looking forward to meet you again some day, mate. Pascal wrote some nice words about the evening over here: http://globalkisstributes.web-log.nl/log/3653562  By the way: thanx to Eric and Marco to let me sing "Mistreated", this was one of my wishes since a very long time, hope it didn't miss it too much ;-)   Some days earlier, Eric and me had also a nice interview date with the KISS Podcast radio station, the coordinator Dion visited us on a beautiful afternoon in Weert some minutes before showtime with Jeff Scott Soto. When the interview release is coming up, we will let you know asap. Until then, maybe you wanna visit their homepage: http://www.kisspodcast.com   Another interview with Eric is already released by the internet mag "Eternal Metal Flame", there are some really nice Q&A's inside, it is always great fun to listen to Eric and his statements. Sometimes I am afraid that he could be better than me... hahahahaha! So, if you still have enough time to surf through the net, here you are: http://www.eternalmetalflame.de.vu/ , just look at the TIME interview.   Finally not to mention is the hard work of Maarten with his fanpage www.mikestone.tk , would be good for the world if more of these crazy guys would be around ;-) we all need them a lot!   TIME wants to thank John "JayCee" Cuijpers for his hard work during preparations for the tour and doing the first european TIME tour with the band. Without him this tour wouldn't have been possible. It was a great ride and he is a great guy! He is now returning to his band Cooper Inc. and he will definately be involved into other projects such as the one with Christian Tolle. Make sure you keep checking him out on www.jayceemusic.com!   23.09.2005:   Another party is over...   So far, the TIME band made its debut in front of an audience in the last three weeks, and we are happy to see many people listening and giving feedback to the song material. This was definately a good start to understand where the band stands right now and what elements are workable or not, so now we will all come back to intensive work on the band items with a hell lot more experience and ideas! In view to that I want to thank the Jeff Scott Soto Band plus Frank Tunney, Peter and Lady Helen for being very nice on-the-road-companions, we again enjoyed every minute!   Tonight Eric, Marco and me will do a fun Forgotten Songs gig in Kaldenkirchen between Germany and Netherlands, and I am looking forward to welcome some guests and enjoy some good time with the fourth band member, the soundmaster Rob van Essen, who made us survive several times already. Great to sit with you in the boat, mate!   Give me some few days to write some impressions and surely funny stories about the tour, first I would like to have a two days sleep, hahahaha! Cheers!   01.09.2005:   Big hellos'n'smiles from the road! The time is running unbelievable fast and I can't believe that the first tour block is already done. We had a great time with the TIME band and the crew named Rob and Wendy (the smallest road crew in the world, hahahaha!), the Soto guys were again wonderful, incl their little road crew around Frank, Helen, Volker and Steve (not the smallest road crew...!). Pics are coming up soon, of course.   In view to the successfully actions we all agreed to book additional shows of JEFF SCOTT SOTO & TIME for september, so you can note officially now   16.09.2005 Headbangers Ballroom, Germany Hamburg 18.09.2005 Bosuil, Netherlands Weert   During the tour block with TIME and JEFF SCOTT SOTO in late august we also made a FORGOTTEN SONGS show and were nicely surprised about the huge feedback we got in Deventer at the Backstage Cafe. Singer John was ill on that day, so I had the fun to sing and play bass for 2 hours, and Marco, Eric and me played surely the biggest jam session we ever made together, hahahaha! Looking forward to do that again someday, guys.   There is also a confirmation now for a FORGOTTEN SONGS show in Germany on 23.09.2005, during the Kneipenrock Festival 2005 in Kaldenkirchen. The location will be defined during the next days, so stay tuned! We're back on the streets now, but I will surely coming back soon.   21.07.2005:   Greetz from rehearsals out of northern germany! We enjoy a great time and prepare a load of songs and gimmicks for the tour! I got the information that last tickets for the FIREHOUSE event in Gelsenkirchen on coming saturday are available by ebay. Good luck ;-) The week afterwards is some business work in Munich, before the final countdown for the tour is coming up. By the way, if you see four rockers on stage with a bizarre band name during august, then it is just us, incognito checking song material in front of some audience, hahaha! I love it.           16.07.2005:   Beside letting you know about a good process of tour preparation I would like to inform you that the current Forgotten Sons and TIME singer Jaycee will perform with C.T.P (Christian Tolle Project, feat. Cooper Inc) as special guest on the forthcoming show of TOTO in Leverkusen, Germany, on july 20th! So, take your free time and money and invest into a great evening with great musicians this day! Further informations to be seen on www.stevelukather.net and www.christian-tolle.de.   04.07.2005:   While people enjoy free time and holiday in the sun, me, the folk..., decided to work harder than ever on the way to the top ;-) so right now, I am collecting song material in the studio, arrange, produce and record millions of patterns and complete stuff, etc. I love and hate it at the same time.   Indeed, as some of you already guessed right..., it seems to become reality that .95HolyRecords will release a special limited edition single for the tour in august/september, further details about it soon, my friends ;-)   At the same time I am proud to introduce to you the new "forgotten son" for the tour, who will take care to sing his heart and soul out of his strong body: JAYCEE , one of the high talented singers of the netherlands, who is also involved into some other very attractive and high class international projects. So, welcome to the family and looking forward to enjoy with you a good time soon on stage, backstage, at Etap Hotels, Mac Donald's at night or somewhere on the road, supported from lovely and good fans and friends who take care! That's rock'n'roll, isn't it?                                                                                    www.jayceemusic.com, click and enjoy!   Not to forget: my good old partner in crime, Erik Stout, opened his official homepage now! So, feel free to surf through some amazing drum pages and don't forget to leave a message at his guestbook!                                                                                                www.erikstout.com   27.06.2005                         All musicians are paranoid, arrogant, crazy, dangerous, drug addicts... but finally they are hungry for feedback and applause ;-) So, of course it is a nice experience to see Mike Stone news all over the world, spreaded by fans, who discuss about the Forgotten Songs Project, who like to involve themselves in KISS tribute actions, watch seriously on the first steps of the new founded band TIME, etc. The "Fallen Angel" from Belgium, Maarten, crosses my streets of life since a longer time already, and obviously we share some same visions and attitudes, and in view to that I am proud to see his selfmade MIKE STONE FANPAGE from Belgium in the net since some weeks.   Just click here to visit the page, and don't forget to post a message on the new forum!   Next we will start with the tour rehearsals, and the complete band looks forward to enjoy some great rock'n'roll time with everybody out there! The spirits of the shows will be very different, for we have on one hand a really good-time-tribute-party event in july together with STRANGEHOLD, after that the first TIME test shows together with JEFF SCOTT SOTO, and at the same time some more Forgotten Songs shows. So this means that the band has to work on three different set lists! THAT'S what I really enjoy, for it shows from the first second if musicians are musicians or just "breadrolls with instruments"... hahahaha! Looking forward to the challenge!   26.05.2005:                                  You see, there will be a double pack of rock'n'roll coming up on you during the next time. First, there is the foundation of the band TIME, incl. first shows in summer 2005, and at the same time I am also on the road to go for MIKE STONE & THE FORGOTTEN SONS. So don't be too confused, please, just visit both shows, hahahaha! With THE FORGOTTEN SONS band I will go for a kind of warm up show already in july, just to have a good evening with KISS and rock'n'roll fans and check out, if all preparations for the europe tour are in a good progress. There is no better place to get a picture about it than on stage...   To give you an overview about the currently booked shows, here is a first overview:   MIKE STONE & THE FORGOTTEN SONS:   23.07.2005 Gelsenkirchen Germany, Firehouse Club/Jägerhof 28.08.2005 Deventer Netherlands, Backstage   TIME (on tour with JEFF SCOTT SOTO): 23.08.2005 Munich Germany, Garage Deluxe 27.08.2005 Cologne Germany, Essigfabrik 30.08.2005 Zoetermeer Netherlands, Boerderij   Just to point it out well: THE FORGOTTEN SONS will be focussing on material about KISS and their unreleased material, added by some great tunes of this band, plus all kinds of songs the band has spontaneously in mind. TIME is based on complete own song material and an own philosophy, so not to compare with THE FORGOTTEN SONS. The good thing is: both is more than worth while ;-)   Further tour dates will be updated, of course.     14.05.2005:     Yes, some very smart folks "smelled" the news already somehow, and this is the right time to make it official. Jeff Scott Soto will return after his SOUL SIRKUS actions to europe, and again I am part of the tour package. If you wonder about the point that my name is missing on the promo flyer, well then, it is also the right moment to start preparing you about the next news. Mike Stone, me, hahaha, is member of a new formed group that wants to bring back music into the ears of human beings: TIME. It needs some moments to come back for deeper informations later, and finally Eric Stout and me usually wanted to start with the band in 2006, but in view to the big promotion possibilites during the europe tour with JSS now, we would be nuts not to start with this milestone and introduce the world right now our visions of everlasting rock music and more. KISS fans may be disappointed not to hear a dozen songs during these shows, but hey, THE FORGOTTEN SONS will also be on the road at the same time, so just check out the dates and enjoy. Both is more than worth while, so better come to both shows ;-) and make me rich by that, I need a lot of money to pay some additonal things like beautiful phone talks to Australia or studio equipment and tour material ;-)   27.03.2005:   First message about the europe tour: the first headliner show is confirmed for 28.08.2005 at the Backstage Muziekcafe in Deventer, Netherlands! Indeed there is also a preparation for some coop shows running during that time period, but nothing confirmed or to talk about yet. Wait, see and enjoy ;-)   May and june will be the finalization time of the recordings for "Forgotten Songs Part II", so it should be ready for order already right in time for the tour. Some guys asked me to introduce already some mp3 material before the release. Depends on the discussions with the record company, but I try to put some 30 seconds patterns in someday, o.k.?   22.03.2005:   This year is a hell's kitchen full of work, and it is great! The band is deep in pre production for the Forgotten Songs Part II cd, which will be hopefully released during august 2005 already, so here is maybe your summer hit you ask for each year, hahaha! The decisions have been made so far, you will be introduced to the songs "Back on the streets", "None of your business" and "Tiara". At the same time there will be a europe tour coming up, there are already concrete dates in hands, so give us some little weeks to make it perfect, before the release of everything is coming up officially. Beside that we all enjoy good times in a, thanks for that, returning and colourful rock scene over europe in all different colours, we enjoyed Whitesnake, Masterplan, Rob Rock, ESP is coming up next week, Queen also, and many more. My bag is full of snapshots from the last six months and I hope to be able to invest some time soon to introduce them to you, maybe you like them as much as I do.   17.03.2005:   So now the first show cases are done, and I am satisfied with the progress. One solo show in Paris was a great warm up for vocals and string work, after that it went straight on with the Forgotten Sons Band to Zutendaal Belgium and Kropp Germany. Because of big timing problems the show in Belgium had to run without special guest The Reflection, about that I am still sad. Soundcheck, stage build ups etc. were much too late because of equipment arrival at 08.00 p.m. so far, there was a hell of ice snow on the streets, and The Reflection had another gig during the next morning, so they dropped their gig. Hope that we come back together some day!   The current Forgotten Sons line up is different to the first one from 2004. The "new kids on the block", Marco and Marc, push another kind of energetic and less blues touch into the show, and the feedbacks of the audience gave us all a good feeling to go on with the concept. Tons of rock'n'roll, many smiles, many energies, and unexpected things were going on there on stage. I still say "thank you guys" for your just unexpected start to play "Dancing in the moonlight" from Thin Lizzy during the acoustic section, and Marco called me suddenly over "Hey Mike, you have to sing, 'cause nobody knows the lyrics..." hahahahaha! I will give that joke back to you someday, guys...  ;-)                                                                                           "...it's caught me in its spotlights..."   There are attractive invitations for another bigger tour this year and several single shows, so I think you don't need to wait for next live gigs too long so far.   In that view I am proud to introduce the german company BEHRINGER as my new tour endorser! Especially thanx to Martin Engelin, who made that possible, I hope to pay that back some day man, see you on one of your great jam sessions soon! Also thanx to the makers of the three shows, Pierre, Maarten and Dieter "Paulemann" (may the holy Gruhor be over you ever and ever, man!). Especially Maarten ripped his heart out to organize a great evening, would be great to repeat that someday, man!   During the shows we made the new arrangement ready for "Back on the streets", so now we are good prepared to work hard on "The Forgotten Songs- Part II", the release will definately be this year, hopefully already in summer. This depends a little on money income during the next shows, so you are invited to enjoy the shows, hahahaha!   I also enjoyed two days in Oslo this week, before the studio work comes back over me before easter, plus some show visits of Masterplan and maybe again Glenn Hughes. I didn't see anything from Oslo, but I had one of my best days there this year ;-) a million thanks for that!                                                                                               ...playing "Back on the streets", lesson one...   24.02.2005:                                    Mike's new formed "Forgotten Sons" band is for the next day in the rehearsal studio to work on a new programme for the next short tour in march! There will be many new songs to be expected, incl. some new material and additionally funny cover stuff from Ronnie James Dio, Alice Cooper and Whitesnake. Yeah, fun fun fun is the way to rock this time, go to the gigs and you will see!   A happy welcome, from left to right: Marc Mes- vocals, Mike Stone- bass (yeah, this time!), Marco Wright- guitar, Eric Stout- drums. Will Eric carry again his damn blindfold? Why are Mike and Marco talking all the time about Doug Aldrich? What is Wastelands? Answers to this questions on the road, ask them, hahahaha!   02.02.2005:   Nooooo, I was definately not lazy in the last weeks!!!! Many travels through europe incl rehearsals, studio actions, promotions, label discussions etc. made the januar to a very busy month. But I am sure to look back to a good one! In march there will be some more live gigs coming up, and I am looking forward to come back on stage with The Forgotten Sons very soon! Rehearsals are already running well, and I am proud to introduce to you two new musicians in the band and some very new material, also from the KISS catalogue. O.K., here is one, but only this one (!!!) song to note for today: "Keep me coming" from the "Creatures of the night" album. When did you hear that song ever live? He he he...                                      07.01.2005:                                              03.01.2005:   NEW PRODUCTION OF "THE FORGOTTEN SONGS PART I" IS NOW AVAILABLE VIA MAIL ORDER! AFTER THE FIRST PRODUCTION WAS SOLD OUT ALREADY AFTER SIX WEEKS, THE RECORD COMPANY MADE 1.000 LIMITED NEW COPIES, WHICH ARE AVAILABLE NOW OVER THESE TWO MERCHANDISERS:   http://www.kiss-store.de/cgi-bin/kiss-store/sx-shop.pl http://www.kissfanclub.de/angebot.htm   ALL OF YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE WEBMASTER TEAM OF MIKE!                                                 28.12.2004:   Unbelievable, the years comes already to its end! Where is time running??? I really don't want to start with any "letshavealookbacktothiswonderfulyear"- shit so far, hahaha! Only one big THANK YOU ALL!!! for support, intelligent critics, spirits, laughters and cries and anything you can imagine. No thanx to anybody who only searched for mistakes and bad moments, you know exactly what I mean!   After a short holiday in the snow between the days I will come back in the first week of january with some new pics of the tour and the KISS expo, an overview of the Whitesnake backstage meeting in Southampton, UK, with Doug Aldrich, Tommy Aldridge and Timothy Drury, some news and hopefully the first dates for live gigs in 2005. I am working hard with many musicians on THE FORGOTTEN SONGS PART II, and there will be definately headliner showcases over europe from march on.   For now, thank you very much for your hospitality and friendships: the KISS community, Eric and Wendy, Jae for those most wonderful mails and hugs'n'kisses in 2004 ;-), the good old Torpedo stuff incl the tour managers and "Rocket" Rythmick, all Forgotten Sons, my webmaster and the worldwide webmaster internet freaks who take care to spread the news, the Jeff Scott Soto community, the Stone family all over the world, Marco for enthusiam and inspirations, hope I didn't forget anybody? Blame on me...   02.12.2004:   The Expo is over, we had some fun there and a smiley show, it is always great to meet so many fans of a super group! Thanx to all girls and guys to have a good day in Witten with us, especially Harald Streibl from the KISS FANCLUB for supporting organisation.   After finishing all current things it is time to come back to the tour impressions about FORGOTTEN SONS band, who supported me so much in the last weeks to make the project such a success:   STANLEY SPARROW:   the guy for rock'n'roll... I think it was a dream come true for him to come so close to one of his most favourite singers on earth, Mr. Jeff Scott Soto, so his mood was each day on high level. Beside that it was surely also a nice thing to play the offwhite Stratocaster guitar again, which is usually more or less forbidden in the other band he plays, and this guy is soooo in love with Hendrix... hahahaha! Well, anyway, Stanley brought the tour into rock'n'roll, he changed my car from a non- smoker to a bad- smoker vehicle (it still smells like a bad ass british pub at night), he did only wear one fucked up jeans pant during the whole tour, incl. stage and nightstay, his hair grew to unbelievable plants with some sideburns on, sleeping in one room in the hotel was a never ending not-to-sleep event, because he snores like a pig in mud, and I will never forget how to step into his big puddle of puke in Dortmund, when I tried to get into the tour bus, while Stanley put 25 high volume drinks out of his body. I thought even yesterday that my cowboy boots still have this strange smell, hahahahaha! Fun fun fun, welcome to the show, Mr. Sparrow, see ya soon!                                                                                                         Mr. Stanley Sparrow   WAX MANSON:   what can I say: this guy rocks! His new haircut based on Wendy O Williams during her PLASMATICS period was another good step for him to become famous, I think. I still have a little cough because of the million gallons of hair spray he used, but if you wanna be more beautiful than me you have to choose these kinds of weapons... if Wax wouldn't have been the right guy, nobody would have seen a Hamburg show of Soto and me, because the tour bus broke 100 mile before arrival and Wax made the transport with my car on his own, first Soto and then the rest. Wow, the licence to drive and rock, I love it! I hope that Wax will keep his smile in his face, it was again a good time with you on tour, mate!                                                                                                        Mr. Wax Manson   ERIC STOUT:   I still believe that this guy is born by a horny wasp. His drumming hands are never more than two seconds basic still, always on the run, always loud laughing, always banging and screaming. Great! Looking forward to our next projects, mate, the world is open for you, go for it! And if it needs to take my hi hat cymbals for it, no prob dude, if it needs to take a blindfold during a show and performing with it, do it, and if you take a visit to Hamburg's Reeperbahn with Soto's drummer Dave, and both of you are much too drunk to come closer than one more drink, you guys rock, hahahahaha! Compliments to you and Dave to play a great drumming show one day after your "trip", many other drummers wouldn't be in so good shape to keep qualities up like you guys did!                                                                                                            Mr. Eric Stout   Hope to come back on the road soon, I am gladly surprises by a message from the record company that the album is already sold out, I hope that a new- production will come up soon, BUY THIS ALBUM, I want to become rich and famous! If you still need one, you have maybe a chance to order it here: www.kiss-store.de or www.kissfanclub.de                                                   15.11.2004:   So many talks and thoughts about the tour and THE FORGOTTEN SONGS in the last weeks, I forgot a little to remind you all to come to the KISS expo in germany next saturday! Bruce Kulick will be the guest and I am sure to listen again to some informations about KISS that I didn't knew before.   I will be on stage together with Bruce and the famous ROCKET RIDE band, which is a mix of some old Torpedo Girls-, some Forgotten Sons- and Sidesho- musicians. It is a big fun to perform with so many good musicians together. In view to so many guitar heroes on stage this day I decided to leave the six strings then and take care of a good microphone performance together with the great Ex Torpedo Nik. We will surely have a hell of lot fun to kick the ass of the band there! What would Gene say: OH YEEEAAAAHHHRRR!!!   08.11.2004:   Tour Impressions Part II:   Today talking about the "other" musicians...   Jeff: Mr. Soto on his own, yeah, not talking about his not- to- discuss high qualities as a singer, more on my own impressions and views! He is the boss of the band, no discussion about that. And he has got many humour to the audience, also in times when things don't work right, this is a big advantage that everybody should become inspired of! Not to forget these little stories during the tour... first examples? Sitting at 04.00 o'clock in the morning at the bar of Hamburg's Headbanger's Ballroom by singing the german children lullaby "Schni Schna Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil" in a not to identified language, throwing the basketball from over 15 m away into the basket backstage in Munich, as Marco Mendoza "teached" him ;-), standing backstage in Munich with a wireless microphone singing complete out of tune and time "Back on the streets" with us, while we are on stage... and the audience stares in pain at me like I would be a shameless mistreater of rock'n'roll music (that I am anyway...), hahahaha! Dear Munich: IT WAS NOT ME!!!                                              In a few seconds, Mr. Soto will start his incredible "Baaack oooonnnn theeee striiieeeettttzzz" ...   Gary: the musicians's musician...! The perfect guy to take care: professional in-times, performance, humour, charisma, behaviour, passion into music! Not enough to play during the tour electric and acoustic guitar incl. background and main vocals, he adds playing bass great! I am proud that he also came to our invitation for playing drums on "Rip it out" in Munich, we had big fun by regarding him fighting with the little drum solo in the middle part, but he is the man, he did it without any rehearsal before! If I will have the money someday, I will try to buy this man out of any contracts to catch him, hahahaha! Latest to learn all this body- conditioning things he is able to do... like doing with the right hand a circle and with the left one a square in the same time, I am still not able to do it, aaaarrrrgggghhhh! I also have to learn again the scenes of the "Monty Python and the holy grail" to know better next time, which my favourite colour really is...                                                                                       Eeeey maaaan, I know yoooouuuu maaaan ;-)   Howie: the right guy for every guitar freak. Nice to see somebody to be able to play different kinds of music on such a stable good professional level with virtuoso performance! I also like his voice very much, and of course it was a pleasure to listen to him singing with us Whitesnake's "Walking in the shadow of the blues" two times during the tour. This man has also a little the blues, man!                                                                                                Howie "Coverdale" Simon on vocals   Dave: the drummer with all these girls... hahahaha! No, this is not true, Dave is the real gentleman and a great drummer! Eric and him enjoyed obviously a great time during the tour, talking about drums, drums, sometimes drums... yeah, and of course much more like how to have more fun and great times. I am only happy to catch both guys back in more or less good condition after the Hamburg show, when they partied on at the Reeperbahn until dawn, and nobody of them puked into my bus on the way to Berlin afterwards, hahahaha! They both made a good job in the evening, that's important to note.                                                                  Dave Dzialak, Howie Simon and Jeff Scott Soto doing some shaving cream party...                   Tour manager Frank Tunney on the right corner with a bad smile, because somebody                had to clean up the stage later... excuses to him and Tom, but it was not my fault, hahaha!   07.11.2004:   Tour Impressions Part I:   Tour diaries are boring, so I think to note better some ideas, impressions and thoughts of the last three weeks into this chapter, may the holy lord of rock give me the right inspirations to note the real important things about all now's and then's...   Frank: the Soto tour manager, one of these guys who work 24 hours a day to make a dream come true. Beside these millions of mails in the last eight months it is a never to forget story for me to get this mobile phone sms "car broke, call urgent", when the complete JSS band was into a car breakdown close to Hamburg and nothing went on ever... what a first shitty day to take care on getting band and equipment to the club, the broken bus to a garage, to take care on a signature hour at a record store (which didn't work well, sorry for that, guys) and praying to come back into good mood until the shows starts up in the evening. And yeah, we all made it, both bands, Frank and the crew Tom and Helen. Hamburg was a great evening!!!   Tom: one of these "did I ever see him???" guys on earth. He was always there, he gave calm- downs and keep-quiets to everybody and took care to get best sounds in each club on this planet! No wonder to note that he works and worked with other bands like Monster Magnet, 10 CC, Anthrax, etc together, it was a great pleasure to let him do the sound into the clubs, and I am very thankful to have gotten the possibility that he also worked for the Forgotten Sons band many times during the tour (by being employed by JSS), incl using the JSS backline. Remember that we were special guest, and nobody treated us like one.   Helen: I guess this lady made already some many thousands of miles on the road in the name of rock... always there, always in time, always at the right place. Helen took care on merchandise and I am also very thankful to her that she took care of selling the FORGOTTEN SONGS PART 1 CD during the tour. And finally it was a great pleasure to sit beside her at the garage, waiting on the reparation of the tour bus, by listening to many QUEEN stories behind the curtain which will never come to daylight... cheers to you, Helen!   Time to rehearse for the ROCKET RIDE gig with Ex KISS Bruce Kulick on 20.11.2004 now, so next impressions soon, take care.   27.10.2004:   Wow, it is already 50 % of the tour done, what a very fast time running currently! So many impressions came up in the last days, I surely will do a kind of tour diary to come up with many funny and not funny stories to tell about later. The JEFF SCOTT SOTO band is doing a more than fantastic job, I will never understand why there are not 100.000 people coming up to each gig to see what they are doing on stage, it is awesome. Beside that, the guys are very handsome and friendly to us, which is not always usual in view how to behave special guests act on tour, every band should do it like them! Also THE FORGOTTEN SONS band is doing a brilliant job, each show becomes better and better, it is a hell of lot fun there!   Netherlands was full of ups and downs, for Belgium was completely fantastic with sold out shows then. The CD sales are also nice and I have a good feeling that there are some more rockers on earth who want to find out what the hell "the forgotten songs" really are ;-)   This week is the tour start for germany, and I hope to see some well- known and also unknown faces to rock to them on stage. Afterwards we will do tour- ending in switzerland, hope to have some beers there with Don Powers and Lord Susej with a big smile and a loooooong sleep after all these thousands of miles driving without real sleep... cheers!   15.10.2004:   Greetz from the street! After the first show in Solingen, which didn't went really well because of tempoary bad sound on and off stage (thanks to the sound guys... what happened???) I had two days in southern germany at the lake Starnberg for interview marathon and workshops, what a great place to relax, anyway I had to work hard ;-)   Coming back to Solingen, we had a nice evening with good tempered fans, some forgotten and not- forgotten songs, a good rocking FRANTIC band playing with us during this evening and first CD handouts. Hope you enjoy the result as me!   Two days off now, and then the tour continues in Netherlands and Belgium. I am looking forward to meet Jeff Scott Soto and his incredible band again and hope to rock also on stage the roof off. The Forgotten Sons of mine are in good mood and spirit, so let the lord of rock bring us a good mind clean up! See ya soon!   09.10.2004:   Had some days off in Istanbul this week, but now the time is there to perform... the tour starts right now! This saturday evening in Solingen at EM KOTTEN club! The band, Wax Manson, Stanley Sparrow, Eric Stout and me are happy to enter the stage now. There was a hell lot to do in studio in the last weeks, my ears are still ringing, hahahaha! Thanx god that H. Dorgarten came up and made a wonderful mastering support. THE FORGOTTEN SONGS PART I, now it is here in my hands and should be in yours soon!   Take a look to the tour sheet, the management arranged a very good new location in Berlin instead of Halford, it is the KATO club in Berlin Kreuzberg. I remember this part of the town very well by having some many drinks there some time ago, it is a sleazy and rock'n'rolly place, based on punk rock and alternative vibes, so welcome Mr. Stone!   See ya on the road!   09.09.2004:   After some weeks in studio I am glad to note that the mastering and recording work on the EP is complete ready now. The next weeks will be focussed on rehearsal for the tour, and I am proud to have a great band together, with which there will be lot of rock'n'roll, fun, sensations coming onto the stage!   THE "FORGOTTEN SONS" BAND:   Eric Stout- Drums Stanley Sparrow- Guitar, Vocals Wax Manson- Bass Mike Stone- Guitar, Vocals   During the next days I will surely do a snapshot with the guys.   There are some more music projects coming up soon, so stay tuned to read all news about it! For now I am tired because of that f*** studio job 24 hours a day (but I like it!), but I surely be back in good shape during the next days. See ya!   12.08.2004:   "THE FORGOTTEN SONGS" CD release 08.10.2004:   Today, we got the confirmation about the CD release show of the EP "The Forgotten Songs, Part I":   Saturday, 09.10.2004 08.00 PM Kotten Am Neumarkt 9 Solingen GERMANY   Performing live: MIKE STONE & THE FORGOTTEN SONS special guest: FRANTIC (www.frantic-rock.de)   Entrance 5,-- €, including the "Forgotten Songs, Part I" EP, that the management will hand out to each guest! Thanx Roland ;-)   I am happy to note that FRANTIC will come on stage, as singer Nina is the great lady who recorded "None of your business" for the "Forgotten Songs Part II" album.   09.08.2004:   THE TORPEDO GIRLS FAREWELL   Somebody has to spread the sad news... today it's me.   _________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE TORPEDO GIRLS activities are adjourned indefinitely We are very sorry to note today that THE TORPEDO GIRLS will go for a longer break without no idea about further future. The hard work on other projects and activities don’t allow the musicians to come together often enough to keep the quality standard of the band as high as it was all the time. So it is the interest of the band, and surely also of the fans, to keep the band in mind as it always was: the big player of “obscure KISS songs”, without trying to survive with lower quality standard for future performances because of missing preparation times. From this point of view please note that the show on Headbanger’s Ballroom in Hamburg on 09.10.2004 is cancelled. We wish all band members all the best for the future, all KISS fans still much fun with KISS, all KISS tribute bands still much success and fun, and maybe we meet again some sunny day ;-) Take care THE TORPEDO GIRLS & Webmaster ___________________________________________________________________________________________________     Sorry to note that, but this is the way it sometimes goes. I am happy to be in good touch with each Torpedo guy and look forward to still work with them on THE FORGOTTEN SONGS project. Time will tell how the story will go on...   28.07.2004:   What a nice weekend with a party, together with KISS and AC/DC fans in a football club, playing soccer and perfoming later on with ROCKET RIDE and PETE RAKE & THE DIRTY DEEDS. Should be repeated someday, I had a good feeling that most people enjoyed a nice rock'n'roll event! And now I know the lyrics of THE JACK forever, hope I was a little able to "sing" it...   Now it's time to spread the news that I have the opportunity to come as special guest on tour with JEFF SCOTT SOTO in autumn 2004. This is one of the reasons why we release a 3 track CD, before the real CD release in early 2005 will go its way. Of course I am proud to have a chance to perform in netherlands, belgium, france, germany and hopefully in switzerland, and hope to get a good tour experience with one of my favourite rock vocalists. You should visit his homepage www.jeffscottsoto.com !   Many things are not signed and confirmed yet, so we have to wait a little to see how things go on. I can surely say that we will definately meet again in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Helmond, Zaandam... to be much continued, hahahaha! Cheers!   14.07.2004:   Coming back from the munich sport exhibition ISPO I had some little trouble with a very special kind of human beings to which I don't find any communication and companions to: hardcore skaters!   While I was walking in good mood through the halls I was first a little surprised and than strange touched by this:                                                  I have some sympathies for IRON MAIDEN, after I had the opportunity to see them already on their first bigger tour in 1980 (long time ago...), so I stepped on the stand to say "helllo guys from PLATINUM, you know where your logo is coming from?" Three maybe 19 years old dumb- crazies came to me out of a wave of bad- arranged house- music, didn't know the answer of course and told me that they are not interested as far as everything is cool. Well, that was not cool for me, so I told them in two sentences and explained also that it is in my eyes a shitty ton- load of waste and a bad fuck to the world by stealing logos & skater original artworks from other companies, mix it into some pseudo bad ass attitude and think to be able to sale that stuff...   They didn't like my words so far... so we had a couple of words against each other, many of them started with "fuck off..." or something like that, but after that I had a good feeling to know that they understood my message, hahahahaha! I am sure that they won't change anything, anyway I don't change myself either. Cheers.   10.07.2004:   I had some good sessions in the last two weeks with many good musicians, so it is a pleasure to look forward to the next live shows and recording sessions. On 17.07.2004 there will be an open air show in Wuppertal of some ROCKET RIDE and THE TORPEDO GIRLS guys, together as an "all star band", where I have the opportunity to do some guitar stuff on songs that I love to play, like the KISS songs "Take me" and "Hotter than hell", we surely will have a big smile in our faces. Just check out the main street called B7, it will be from beginning to the end a big party there, and somewhere (right in front of the HARDLINE music store) is Mike on stage from 08.45 P.M. on.   24.07.2004 will be the KISS vs. AC/DC event, which seems to become a great party! Today starts my "training camp" by kicking some balls to heaven ;-) I have the invitation to help the AC/DC tribute band "Pete Rake & The Dirty Deeds", but frankly speaking, I was never an AC/DC fan, so I better have to check some songs out soon...!   I also made some work in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but I definately didn't see any coffe shops or something like that ;-) don't worry about it, hahahahaha!                                                                                                       The black pope of Amsterdam...   28.06.2004:   I enjoyed a real dirty rock'n'roll roll blast of the Brides Of Destruction last friday in Utrecht, Netherlands. Nikki Sixx and Tracii Guns made a great show, tons of smashes, and they had a kick- ass- drummer! The next four weeks are based on some nice gigs with ROCKET RIDE, reheasals and recording sessions, it seems to become again much work these days...   18.06.2004:   Had an amazing time in Istanbul this week and in Gdansk 10 days ago. Some good recording sessions and some fun, some chill outs, nice experiences in being a little rock star ;-)                                                                                                                                       Istanbul, no Rock City, but a good one!   In co- operation with the management I am in preparation of a nice'n'special rock'n'roll event: a football game of KISS all stars against AC/DC all stars! You know, in the late 70's and early 80's there were only two bands larger than life in rock history: KISS and AC/DC. Led Zeppelin were already gone, Black Sabbath down, Deep Purple were out of order, Whitesnake/Rainbow and other companies were great but not big at that time. If you were in love with rock'n'roll in europe, you had to be a KISS or AC/DC fan. Being fan of both was more or less forbidden, how- and whyever, no one knows for sure anymore...   Now, 25 years later, it is more one family together, fighting against techno, house, rap and other strange musical influences... so why not coming together for a big party and some fun?! After the footbal match, there will also be life music of ROCKET RIDE and PETE RAKE & THE DIRTY DEEDS, so, party/fun/rock'n'roll to be expected until dawn! See ya there! 24.07.2004, stadium TUSA 06 Duesseldorf, Germany.   17.05.2004:   Some birthdays are different... like Eric Stout's, who made with the ROCKT RIDE gang on saturday a loud'n'fat rock'n'roll show at Wuppertal OUTBACK to party into his new year... welcome, old man! And thanx for the champagne all over the pub, hahahahaha! After THE TORPEDO GIRLS destroyed the stage in 2003 by filling it with not washable blood, now the club additionally got a nice ROCKET RIDE champagne shower... I am sure to be the last time there as a performer! The other side of rock'n'roll, I know... :-D  but at least, we were able to collect some money together with FRANTIC for the Kaya family, and this is all about. Greetz to Marc and the FRANTIC guys and girls, hope that you also enjoyed a nice evening!   I have the nice opportunitiy to have the complete new Gene Simmons "a**hole" album, which will be released in june 2004, thanx to some good guys from the "institute" about that! If you are in love with rock'n'roll in its many different ways: buy the album. If you are open to listen to ballads, rock'n'roll, anger/love/good/bad: buy the album. If you expect another classic KISS album: keep off! It is much more, and I like it!   14.05.2004:   After a very nice anniversary party last saturday of the KISS Hotter Than Hell fanclub in Mönchengladbach, I was very happy to come back on stage with THE TORPEDO GIRLS. I had a good feeling together with the audience that everybody had a very comfortable time and party. Greetz to Harald Streibl, the fanclub president: cheers and rock on!   Tommorow is the benefiz event for the Kaya family in Wuppertal's Outback, where I will meet some good friends and hope to enjoy again a great show! I heard that FRANTIC's Nina has some more work to do on stage as expected... thumbs up, let's rattle and roll!   Coming monday is the next studio work day, some flittering guitar solo's will hopefully reach the recording machine! The forgotten songs become a growing healthy baby that I fall more in love each day!   07.05.2004:   So, tommorow there is the next live performance: the KISS HOTTER THAN HELL fanclub (www.kissfanclub.de) will party on for their 10'th anniversary, and THE TORPEDO GIRLS are the live band there, at Stocky's Palace in Mönchengladbach, western germany. More details, as you know, under www.torpedogirls.com. From my side a big cheers to Harald Streibl, for working hard as the president of the KISS fanclub over so many years- this is a special kind of rock'n'roll to pay a little tribute to!   I additionally have the confirmation for a ROCKET RIDE performance on 15.05.2004 in Wuppertal at the Outback (www.livebuehne-outback.de) , together with FRANTIC there will be a benefiz event for the family Kaya, who had the tragedy to loose their complete existence some weeks ago- their house burnt down to the ground and nobody knows if they will get all money back... beside the point that you will never see things again in your life, which made you to the person that you are today, remembrances, pictures, artworks and much more. I hope to help to organize some money for them to for starting a new future!                                                                              27.04.2004:   Back from easter holiday full of sweets, greeat food and drinks... did you see the passion of christ film of Mel Gibson? Puh... hard to handle, isn't it?   Had a good time with the guys and girls from FRANTIC during the recording work of their promo package, good luck to you and take care! It seems that we will do a benefiz event together in mid may, more about that in the next days. I had to steal a picture of mine from the recording day, after you have much possibilities to see ol' Mike on stage with guitars and that stuff it is not very often easy to find him during recording work, so here it is, with thanks to Frantic drummer and digi- camera user Wiesi (he doesn't know about my robbery, ha ha ha!).                                                                                                                                    Echoes in my head...   There are some live performances in final preparation, I am lucky to know that Eric Stout and me will enter the stage together finally, we talked a lot about that in the past. Rythmick will also be part of the fun, and surely one and more Torpedo guys, we'll wait and see. News are coming up soon...   08.04.2004:   Coming back on stage! Last weekend, Eric Stout, Rythmick, Nik, Volker, Carsten and me did a big weekend jam, first on a nice session at the POINT OF MUSIC in Remscheid, Germany, later in our rehearsal studio. It seems that we will support as a kind of all stars special the ROCKET RIDE band during their show in Varel, northern germany, on 24.04.2004, during a festival of the publisher of the ROCK CITY magazine, Jens Reimnitz. Time for rock'n'roll.   Beside my own studio work it was a nice diversion to do some demo studio work for other bands, so e.g. I spend a very nice day together with FRANTIC for a quick- and - rush mastering/recording of three songs.   For now, I wish you all a nice easter weekend, take care and see ya! By the way: check out the song "Easter" of Marillion, it is one of my top 10 everlasting favourite songs...!   30.03.2004:   Had a very nice evening acoustic jam with tour manager Big Ralf and Torsten last saturday, together with Danny and Juergen on a great party. Hope to find some pictures of that event in the next days to show ya.There is also a KISS jam session with Eric, Rythmick and some guys of the "family" this week, because now it is time to come back on stage and get ready! The time has come...   17.03.2004:   I made a test of Paul Stanley's guitar Silvertone Sovereign Special for some music magazines and fan pages, click this link to read it http://www.kissfanclub.de/testbericht.htm.   There are some fun projects running beside my work on the "forgotten songs" album, guess to meet some of you back on stage in april.                                                                          09.03.2004:   After many trips through this world I have to admit that I am a little tired now. The head is full with new impressions, new guys and girls that I worked and spoke with, new scenes, new musicians... It is now important to come back to basic stuff and take some time to think and work on that stuff. I am glad to be the one who can work like this on music things! So, no time to become too thoughtful at all!   After I returned from Moskow and Poznan last week, I decided to spend some free time now, do some test mixes of all and prepare myself on the next meeting in Basel, with Lord Susej and Don Powers for next studio action. So, thank you and good night, ha ha ha!   03.03.2004:   Back from Paris, now on the way to Moskow. What a spiritual moment to visit the tomb of Jim Morisson! Many people were there to spend their tribute- remember that he passed away over 30 years ago and he is still in so many people's mind! I grabbed my THE DOORS cd's to listen after a longer time to their music again during my vacation to russia. "I want to hear the scream of the butterfly..."   Had also some nice fun with Pierre during the recordings. I guess that there is one parisienne hotel which was not happy afterwards to give me a night to stay there, after we made our recording session in the middle of the night there... sorry to all neighbours, but it happened in the name of rock...!   20.02.2004:   After first rough mixes this week I am now planning some days in Paris, for creative work and my long awaited visit of the tomb of Jim Morisson at Père-Lachaise. My second spiritual visit after Jimi Hendrix in Seattle two years ago... wow!                                              I am also a little proud to note that the new rising talents of DISSACRED made their way on number 1 at the metal charts of germany's TRACK 4 (www.track4.de). This should be a good motivation to go on further and take care! Looking forward to new recordings with the guys soon!                                      After Paris I will go ahead for the next recording session and some more work in Moskow, Russia. Damn, it is not so easy to get the visa for that country, but I am looking forward that everything will come out fine. But first of all, there is carnival in Duesseldorf Germany over the full weekend now, so I will do a big party with the Torpedo guys, some "Forgotten Songs" friends like Eric and more folks of the family business. Take care, and see ya! Party on, Wayne!   11.02.2004:   Coming back from Leipzig, Eastern Germany, where I had some clinics at the famous BODY LOOK fair, an exhibition full of beautiful young women, in presentation of all new ladies' underwear worldwide...!!! Thanx to the good lord to give me the chance to see this piece of paradise, and it really was! One TV interview with NBC Europe, MDR, NDR, and some magazines, looking forward to see my face again back in television screens, hahaha! Next week will be a radio interview about music business in eastern europe...   Yeah, still much work at all, I have some more trips on my timer, Paris, Wroclaw, Moskow, Basel, great time, great fun! But: hope to come back on stage in the next weeks, I am missing performance very much! Studio work and production is great, but performance is also the one thing...! Seems be forced to organize a rock party somewhere in germany in late march/early april, what do you think?   Cheers and see ya!   05.02.2004:   Just a little "hello" today. Coming back from Munich I will now take a trip to Leipzig, eastern germany, for one week. Looking forward to check out some clubs, bands, musicians... during the work on the "forgotten songs" project it came out that there is also interest in songwriting with some of the guys and girls. Well, why not?! So, I think to decide to use the short break with THE TORPEDO GIRLS for many different music things over europe. It seems that there will be live activities in april latest, so time is running short. Who said that life is boring????   19.01.2004:   Back to mystery city... after living for such a long time in Duesseldorf, it is always a real "coming- home", when you stay away for a longer time. I had a lot of jobs to do in the last three weeks, some of them are noted under the chapter "The Forgotten Songs", so I am already in preparation for the next trips to Munich, Paris and Wroclaw (Poland) to work further on, on my music and more! Frankly speaking, I guess and hope that there will also be a little time free for skiing near Munich... Zugspitze, I'm coming!!!   I am a little sad to note that, because of this much work, it is more or less impossible to seriously rehearse with the band and perform live for the next few weeks. I am missing the stage already now... good to know that all Torpedo Girls musicians are working hard together on several projects, so there's no fun missing at all actually! Hope to come back on stage soon, with new surprises, songs, show- gimmicks and stuff to be not expected from you...! Cheers.   04.01.2004:   After a workshop with the management I decided to open a new chapter on this homepage, called "THE FORGOTTEN SONGS". There you will get updates and current news of the evolution of my recording- project. It was not my 100 % own decision to open that chapter, you see, now everybody is able to see the progress, the success and the surely coming bad news, when something absolutely won't work at all. I open my mind to you, in hope that you can work with it, as it should be. Feedbacks and ideas are welcome, of course! Enjoy the progress of around 12 months of work on a rock- album.   29.12.2003:                                                    Time to say "thank you & I love you all"?! Well, I think that Michael Jackson is better in talking about that stuff... but finally the year is over, packed with many good and bad times, great shows and crashes, meetz'n'greetz and whatever. Good times at all! The performance- year finished on 20.12.2003 with the recording party, a very relaxed and fun- filled evening with many guys and girls from the KISS family over europe, and a twisted live show with an all star band on its own there, with Stanley Sparrow, Brian Keith, Don Powers, Torpedo Girl Nik, Shandi, my best tour managers ever: Ralf and Torsten, the north german Acegirl, the dutch- animal Eric and many more... we recorded some biiiiiiiig screams and I hope to be able to use one of them for the final version of "Rotten to the core" on the forthcoming album.   The studio- year closes tommorrow by mastering the recordings of the new metal- legend DISSACRED, I really hope to see them very successful in close future!   The familiar year closes on 31.12.2003, 11.59 P.M., like it should be with anybody out there...   Because of some very nice pics that were made during the actual recording sessions and gigs, I made the decision to open a new chapter on this homepage called "The Forgotten Songs", here you can watch and read the current situation and evolution of the project and the sessions, I hope you will enjoy it.   18.12.2003   Party on saturday! Looking forward to meet you all in Duesseldorf on 20.12.2003! It should be much fun. As I heard there will be many musician friends of mine- so we should all have a colourful evening together!   During the last days I came back to the recording work of the "forgotten songs" project. While it was far easy to play the basic guitar patterns on "Ain't none of your business" I went badly crazy because of an only 20 seconds intro part for electric guitar for the song "Tiara" from Eric Carr. I thought of a sound and style somewhere between Jimi Hendrix and Billy Gibbons, while the end of these 20 seconds should come back to the "Ace- style"... but it was a nightmare! I finally got it this morning at seven o'clock... you see: sometimes the short stories are bigger than the large ones... cheers!   At the same time I am in production of the debut studio work of Germany's new metal legend DISSACRED, I hope to see them on big stages and with much success all over the continent! The guys are working hard for their money.   08.12.2003:   Had the jam session with Stanley Sparrow and Brian Keith on last friday. Yeah, it is a big fun to perform without any rehearsal, because you don't know if everybody remembers a song as you do!!! There are always funny situations because of that, so we had e.g. some songs like "We're not gonna take it" (vocals by Benny from DISSACRED, see you in studio this week, man!) or "Jumping Jack Flash", which didn't hit the road really... other ones like "Nice boys don't play rock'n'roll" or "All along the watchtower" rock from the first second on. That's the magic of music: you never know where it will lead you to! It was also very nice to meet Pete Rake and S. Needle Woods on stage later on. What a great time to perform "Highway to hell" and "Rock'n'Roll" again with you guys! Hope to meet you soon on stage again! It's time to write some songs together...!   Because of some questions from people out there where to stay over night on 20.12.2003 after the recording party, I got the information on my desk for you to check out the internet hotel reservation called www.hrs.de, which offers a nightstay close to the recording location, called Hotel Rubin. Just check it out.   28.11.2003:   Because of much work and being constantly lazy, Brian Keith, Stanley Sparrow and me made the decision not to rehearse for the little live show on 20.12.2003 during the recording party. We believe that we all performed songs like "nice boys don't play rock'n'roll" enough in our live to keep it in good standard anyway... hopefully!   To get a first feedback about the setlist (of course it is a twisted one with many surprises!) we made an agreement to headline on friday 05.12.2003 the live- evening at the POM (point of music) in Remscheid, Germany. www.pom.de should be the right mail- adress of that nice club.   I hope that my broken finger is strong enough until that day to perform okay, if not I will find another guitar and bass man from the audience, hahaha!   24.11.2003:   It's the same old song... when the years come to the end, work will start more than ever. Anyway it is a great time, so no time and interest to howl to the moon about it.   Working on the "forgotten songs" project I am now many steps closer to the result as ever! I had some great meetings with good musicians in the last weeks (cheers to Eric, Waczlav and Jerome!), kicking some songs to the next dimension and brought fun, good ideas and pride into the story! I am looking forward to start with the first vocals recordings during december for the songs "Ain't none of your business" and "Tiara", which now sound much different to the demo versions that you maybe listened to. Two more songs are in preparation to become recorded in december/january, so it is also about quantity, not only quality, isn't it?   Additionally I am in preparation of the recording party on 20.12.2003 in Duesseldorf. The complete package is arranged by the musicmanagement Duesseldorf and me, so we have also lot of fun and work to make a nice event happen right before christmas time. Sad to report that I broke my ring- finger last week, so I have to concentrate on arrangements and paper- work and less on playing music... who cares?! Not me... cheers!   13.11.2003:   Had a meeting in Berlin with some business scouts about the economical development of arts, music and exhibitions, one of the hosts was the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, a very handsome and high- intelligent personality in german politics. I was very surprised about his interest and knowledge about arts and performance in general!                                            Wowereit & Stone: dressed to kill... my suite looks better, isn't it???     Well, this week is priority the continuation of my "forgotten songs" project, I am looking forward to a meeting today in the netherlands with a drummer, who should be the right one for three songs of the project.   I am also happy to get many good feedbacks about the recording party on 20.12.2003 in Duesseldorf. Hope to see you all in good condition to scream your heart out... the album- masters and me would be thankful! Cheers.   06.11.2003:                                                      Time to start the engines...   I am impressed about the feedbacks of the "The forgotten songs" project! Thanks to all of you who asked for being a part of the recording session, it is a great feeling to know, how many fans are still in love with rock'n'roll, KISS and the fun of making music!   Finally I had to change the date and place of the event! Please note that we will do the recording of the audience- "scream" now on saturday 20.12.2003, still in Duesseldorf, but in a bigger place at a little football stadium called TUSA 06 Duesseldorf.   The entrance is free! Drinks and food are cheap! The evening won't be based 50 % on KISS, of course, but also 50 % on pure rock'n'roll! Let's have a nice evening, let's have a nice party there!   To find out how to come to the show, just click this adress http://www.djk-tusa06-duesseldorf.de/ or mail the Musicmanagement Duesseldorf musikmanager@yahoo.de .   Cheers!   04.11.2003:   Well, what is rock'n'roll about? For me, it is the kick on stage, the work in a studio, the magic of writing a song, which feels like creating a baby... and additionally the girls, the audience, the resonance, the noise, cheap hotels, party, fun, friends and much more.   And there is one thing more: meeting the idols! In the beginning it was a great feeling to perform on the same stage as my favourite bands did, I was on stage where also KISS, Gary Moore, Marillion, Saga, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, and many more did their show some time before. Later it was the meet'n'greet with the "starlets" of rock'n'roll, there was Nikki Sudden, the guys from 999, UK Subs, the guys from Warlock, esp. Michael Eurich, who went to the same clubs as me these days, etc. Currently it is now the next level: I met Eric Singer and had a coffee with him, this was surely my big bang! I met Sean Delaney and talked to him- which was more or less also a big happening for me. Because of living in Duesseldorf I met very often the Toten Hosen guys and Kraftwerk in the last 20 years, Billy Sheehan had a talk with me some time ago, I met Jeff Scott Soto this year, and the latest one was former KISS guitar player Mark St. John in Helmond, Netherlands. And, frankly speaking, all these guys and girls are still human. It feels better for me to find out: these people have to breathe the same air like me!   Now I hope to come further on to the next level, who's next in meeting Mike Stone? Paul Stanley? The god of guitar: Ace Frehley? David Coverdale? Steven Rothery? Who knows...   During the next weeks I will record further on material for the project "the forgotten songs", it is great and a big surprise to see, how many people are interested to be a part of this event! It would be great to work with all these guys and girls together, we'll wait and see, aaaaand: hope the best!   21.10.2003:   As a musician it is each day again the question: are you good enough for your ambition, are you good enough for the audience, are you good enough for your kind of music and performance? Each day I think about it, and each day I try to make things better tahn before. Sometimes it works, sometimes not, that's my private destiny.   On last sunday I had a show with THE TORPEDO GIRLS as special guest of Jeff Scott Soto. Him and the band prooved the right attitude to rock'n'roll and more music: work hard, stay critical to you and the world around you, take your responsibilities serious, take care and perform as good as you can, no matter of how good or bad the stage, the light, the sound or the audience is! Congratulation to the complete Jeff Scott Soto Band, the whole performance was one of the most professional things in music business I saw so far (incl. backstage behaviour, fan support and that stuff)! I wish them the full success that they are looking for! I am sure that there were some inspirations for me there to be found, I am looking forward to become again better and better and better ;-)                                                                          13.10.2003:   Mike Stone is in preparation of a very special album:   THE FORGOTTEN SONGS is a project of around 12 KISS songs, which were never released or readymade, some of them only exist in rough demo quality without complete instruments or vocals. Mike Stone is working with a great european team of musicians on new recordings, the release is planned for summer 2004 by .95 HOLY RECORDS.   On saturday, 13.12.2003, there will be a recording- party in Duesseldorf, Germany: Mike Stone thinks about an intro of the song "Rotten to the core" (written by Gene Simmons in 1976 during the Rock'n'Roll Over sessions) as a big "scream" of the KISS fan- audience, which will be recorded digitally on this evening. The name and adress of the club, where the event will happen, should be named during the next days.   If you ever wanted to be a part of a CD recording, this is your invitation to be there!   The entrance on this evening is free, we are happy to greet many fans for trying with us the "big scream" for a great KISS project! Mike will surely also perform with his rock- fun- project WOODS/KEITH/STONE a big- smile- programm in the name of rock'n'roll.   Musicians of all kinds (guitar, vocals, violin, flute...) on min. semi- professional level and the proof to be KISS fan are also invited to become part of the recording- project. Send your application per mail to musikmanager@yahoo.de or to Musicmanagement Duesseldorf, Ulenbergstr. 115, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany.   10.10.2003:   I made some days in vienna, austria, to visit the vernisage of the artist Erwin Kastner (www.erwinkastner.at), who did some nice drawings that I enjoyed very much. During our personal talk I found him very handsome and thoughtful by talking at the same time more than me! Impossible, you think? Yeah, I thought the same, but I really found my master of talking too much... anyway, we had a nice time over there.                                                                                                                                        Good Guy!   During the same time I met a singer named Franco Adolpho, and he was worse!!! You know as good as me that taste is different. But behaving like a monkey on speed and talking like being the king of the mountain is NOT my style, I hate it! Franco stood the whole time there to think, he's the greatest, but he was a bad fucker at all. Hope to forget him soon. I heard that he's doing sweety vienna opera stylish music, perhaps he's better in that than in performing on events... I have to admit that I don't know, because I never heard him singing and hope that I will never come to this happening!                                                                                                                                                         ***hole!!!   Finally for today I have to write you about a very nice thing happening on 26.10.2003: I will meet my second hero from KISS in my life, Mark St. John, on the KISS Expo in the netherlands! Mark is not my highlight KISS'er (THIS IS ACE!!!!), but I remember well the release of the album ANIMALIZE, where he made the guitar work on. Looking forward for a great day. KISS KOLLECTOR maniac Joop van Peldt makes it happen, and I will take care for him und all of us that everything will work as fine as possible. His work is high level and much in quantity, this should everybody respect at all! Cheers. 23.09.2003: Back from Geneve, switzerland, where I had some workshops of how to become a real brand. Great time, it is always good to see and learn from better people than I am... Good news for the rock'n'rollers: Keith, Woods and Stone will perform on coming sunday morning in Duesseldorf! Thanx to the Deus management, head president Thomas Deus made a surprise gig ready! Later on there will be more THE TORPEDO GIRLS shows coming in Wuppertal and Bochum. Good business and good time so far, cheers! 08.09.2003: Do you see me? No you don't...                                                                         The quality of the pic is not good enough to enlarge it, but you can still try to find me somewhere there... have fun! Yes, Duesseldorf running day yesterday was wonderful again, around 20.000 people supported all runners to reach their personal target. I got mine and, yes, I am happy! After the small troubles in the last weeks I have got now the ensurance that I am fit as ever to perform and perform and perform and perform... e.g. on friday, 12.09.2003, in Wuppertal's LCB. See ya! I also visited the official jam session meeting on last friday at the "point of music" in germany's Remscheid and enjoyed a nice evening with my friend and master of desaster, Carsten Bockmühl. It is always a surprise to see and hear, how other musicians think and interprete a song by playing it together... I am sure to come back soon there to jam again! Carsten surely, too. 02.09.2003: Back from holiday alive and well... yes, there were really some troubles with some criminals there, but forget about it. I enjoyed my life and the sea and everything out there! Time to talk: I guess the time is right now to tell you that i am in preparation of a new album of mine. It is a long running project with hopefully many many many guest musicians and friends, it will cost a hell of money, and it will take a very long time to produce this little nice bastard!!! Of course, you know about my KISS fan life, don't you? Now I have dozens of demo copies of their songs that they never used for albums or anything so far- and I think, there are around 10 songs of them, which have the strenghth and power to come to good performance. So, after a longer time of checking the copyrights and all organisation stuff in the last months, I started some weeks ago with the first rough demo- recordings on my own, playing all instruments. The first results are on my desk and I will now talk and discuss with the right musicians, the right labels and the right promoters about the project, which is now going clearly its way. Yeah, this is a damn lot of work, right. But somebody has to do it... If you somehow want to be a part of the project- e.g. you are a musician, or you are rich, you are a famous singer, you have a KISS demo song that I don't have- but I should use it for the record... give me a sign and we can discuss about it. It will take around one year until the finalization, there's enough time for craziness, fun and check- outs during that time! Stay tuned on news'n'facts and I will write sometime about the actual recordings and situations. Finally: some new gigs of THE TORPEDO GIRLS are confirmed for the autumn season, I am looking forward to meet Jeff Scott Soto there, one of the definate hard rock singers in history- the torpedo gang leads me time and again through the rock'n'roll odyssee, may they do it for the next decades still! 13.08.2003: Coming back from eastern germany, Leipzig, where I had some very interesting workshops and meetings with people from that business. Actually I am looking for a good club to perform with THE TORPEDO GIRLS there, after we will visit the czek and slovakian republic. I am in good hope to get some contracts ready. Also, thanks to Ruth, who took care for me during that time, so everything went fine out there! Today I started packing my suitcase for a short holiday at the sea.I will hopefully have enough time to prepare myself on new running contests in september and also to check out some new guitar riffs for my record production, which will be ready in early 2004. Cheers to you all and come back in end august for new facts so far! 23.07.2003: Had that little workshop in Duesseldorf last sunday. Around 250 people were listening to a small girl named Ricarda, eight years old, standing in front of this audience to perform "Auld lang syne", "Morning has broken" and "Bella bimba" with nothing than her wooden flute. What a job for a young lady to be tough enough to do that. I had good fun in supporting her during these songs with the acoustic guitar and by taking care of a good sound with the PA system. This is good stuff to keep in touch with classical guitar techniques and a strong finger- muscle- training so far... hope to do such a workshop again some time! 11.07.2003: Back from Prague, czek republic! Wow, I was around 20 years ago there and I am very impressed about the actual city so far! Nice place to live and love I think... hope to get a gig booking there for autumn 2003, I had some good discussions about that. Next saturday will be a Mike Stone workshop in Duesseldorf about guitar work in co- operation with classical instruments- I will be supported by two members of the "clan", I guess it will be a very funny shot! I hope to show you some pictures about the event later on. Before I forget: I replaced the "tie-and-suit"-pic from the main page for an actual one of the headbanger's ballroom gig in 2003. If you urgently need the old one for your private photo-album: FORGET IT- hahahaha! 02.07.2003: Welcome to the next chapter in 2003! The successful release of the "Undressed" CD was a good thing to perform several times in the first half of this year- now, it is time for a short break in performing life with THE TORPEDO GIRLS to prepare new things, songs, events. I am looking forward for the next life step in late summer! During this time, I will re- arrange the management, take my eye more on international contacts and see in the same time some very good new projects running over the second and "new" manager, Carsten Sperl, for the german market. I also started my recording project, made first demo's and feel happy to get some early confirmations of good musicians to help me in recording and producing the "perfect songs" after the pre- productions! Next week is my next visit in eastern europe, I hope to find some good contacts in Prague, czek republic! I believe in a good market for rock'n'roll there... Volker and me think about some life shows with the Rake, Keith, Woods, Stone band during summer, because some weeks without live music is like living without rock'n'roll... 23.06.2003: Budapest, Hungary, where I stayed the last days, was one of the nice surprises in 2003! First of all, the city was great for my kind of spirit! Second, I had a brief encounter with one of the silent stars in music history: Suzanne Vega! I stayed at a nice hotel in Margaret Island, where the whole Vega Band incl. Suzanne also went to, because they had an open air gig just around the corner. I found out of it all, while I was having a drink at the lobby and Suzanne and the band came in for a short break during their gig to relax: all of a sudden ol' Mike was in conversation with one of the musicians, Michael, and, between two cokes and a quarter of an hour, Suzanne Vega herself. I have to admit that I only know two songs of her, but I enjoyed the top professional work and the respect of each other very much! I had the chance to come to the open air backstage area and listen to the second 60 minutes of the show. As a great MARILLION fan I felt very comfortable to listen to sad, sensible and thoughtful songs again after a longer period of party rock'n'roll and craziness in the last 18 months...                                               I also had a great time finally during the last evening by being invited to perform in Budapest's "Fat Mo's" music club! Blues time... thanx god that I had the old Les Paul guitar with me! A big greet to Betty for making that possible! Now I have one more place on this earth, where I played "the song"... Hong Kong, Karachi, Budapest, Berlin, Macclesfield, Zaandam, Verviers, Milano, Seattle, and many many more during my life! Rock'n'Roll is a big planet, isn't it? 06.06.2003: So, the torpedo clan decided to do one additional gig, quite before the summer time will stop the live performances, 28.06.2003 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. We made a show there last year, I remember a nice audience and a very small stage- that's great for rock'n'roll! I also confirmed the next show of Rake, Woods, Keith & Stone on 18.06.2003 in Remscheid, Germany! Wow, again a show without rehearsals... also the guys don't know each other well, but I trust in experience and talents that everybody has got! It seems that the idea of that project is a good one for the "older" audience, who are hardly missing the dirty old "rock'n'blue'roll" in the actual charts, because I have already several more offers to perform! But time is short, I will concentrate on the torpedo- train and my recording projects this year. We'll see, what could be possible. I am looking forward to sing some of the new aaranged & hard rocking versions of "Teinted Love", "What's going on", "Like a hurricane" and many more. Thanx god, Pete Rake will also sing 50 % of those songs, so I won't come into deeper problems by singing 2 hours on the small stage of the POM, by being filled with gas, gas and gas...! 28.05.2003: Lend me your ears... and I’ll sing you a song! A song of friendship, hard work, fun and rock’n’roll... friendship to Ralf, who was by my side during the tour last week and took care on everything, which was important for me. Hard work for thousands of miles driving through europe for some gigs; fun for and with THE TORPEDO GIRLS, especially Volker, Nik and tour manager Torsten, who laughed and giggled with me until dawn; and rock’n’roll on stage of several towns! There are so many people out there that I did talk to, the legendary Katja "Acegirl" from Hamburg with the KISS BOARDER crew, the Headbanger’s Ballroom guys and girls, who were at least incredible (so many wonderful ladies in a rock’n’roll club in this decade, a dream became true!!!), Bert and Hans from De Kade, the goddess of that night: Tania, then Melli and her strenghth to stay for a longer time with seven nice- but- rough boys during a tour, and many many more! I am in good mood to go further on now with the tour, but there are other things to do now: I will start my solo- studio- project this week, do several more recordings for other artists and look already forward for new Torpedo- rehearsals and songs! Cheers over Düsseldorf! 21.05.2003: Too much of too many?! Nobody should ever say "I am bored..." to me, I guess that I will kill him!!! Finally it is great to be 24 hours a day under a kind of pressure that I produce to myself. This is a very special freedom and joy for me! So now, I made the needed rehearsals for the small topedo tour in the next days, and I just thought about the cultural trips that I was able to join with the band: London, Munich, Amsterdam, Nuremberg, Berlin, now Hamburg and later on some more cities in other european countries... I should be a little thankful for that, by knowing that 95 % of all musicians on this planet will ever and exclusively play in their home town for all those damn years that they perform and don't find the right way to introduce themselves in other places! I did... and still do! I also have some offers to perform with my fun project, together with Brian Keith, Pete Rake and S. Needle Woods. We invited Stanley Sparrow to join us for a show in mid june, hope to have much fun out there! Live is short, isn't it? Next studio works are already prepared, so, after the torpedo tour I will come back as the producer Mike Stone for some things happening in early summer! Anybody was talking about being bored???!!! 07.05.2003: Yeah, again live performance, this time in Remscheid at Diesel & Dust some days ago, a small but friendly and nice club out there. We had fun, the audience was really fine! Made my 8th marathon run last sunday, it was hell! Although the training preparation was good this time, there was absolutely no chance to care for a good time- performance: around 30 degrees in the sun were much too high temperature for a run of over 42 KM... around 8.000 people started to run, but around 4.000 only finished! The rest gave up or got physiological problems. Anyway, I finished so far and can proudly say that Mr. Stone was running time in the upper middle class! So what ;-) !!! I really have to say "Thanx" to the Deus- Clan for the two- time support during the run, Carsten for his scream "ROCK'N'ROLL" with a bad bad bad smile when I was fighting against the kilometer 38 (you bloody...! He he he!!!) and my sport- loving dad, who drove with his bike the miles to see his crazy son running through a city desert... I guess he couldn't believe his eyes. Yes, next time in Paris, marathon event in april 2004, take care! 14.04.2003: Life and death Two great shows in the last week made me feel again in the rock'n'roll hall of fame! Although Berlin was absolutely not a show in front of a big audience, it was finally a great time to stay with the band and the tour managers in Berlin and we had much fun out there! The Mülheim show was all in all a nice thing: good audience, good show, good rock'n'roll! On the other hand, I am feeling low today because of the news that Sean Delaney died. Actually I don't know anything more about it, but what is important for me is the point that I met Sean some months ago for the first and last time in my life- we had some time to talk to each other, and I had the first time in my life the absolute feeling to talk to a 300 % professional in music business at all! He performed energy, phantasy, high speed talking, power and this strange kind of "around- the- corner"- intelligence that you badly need to survive for so damn many years in this business. Yes, it is definately sad to know that I won't have any chance to talk again to this guy in my life. All the best to Sean Delaney and his family! So many words left to say...                                                                 By the way, my big thanks to my mate Henning, who made the eastern europe management for three years, investing a lot of time, money and family trouble during that period, I won't forget it! You will find a pic of Henning and me at the Krakow market square at the dia show. The management is in preparation of a europe tour in spring 2007, so I am looking forward to meet you soon. Additionally there will be some new Mike Stone song material coming up, for studio work begins again in late december at 95.Holy Record & Film Works, so there is a lot to do! Oh, before I forget: I cleaned up my old laptop, and here it is also on the myspace page: a video from former KISS guitar player Mark St. John, who sat with me on a backstage sofa during a KISS expo in Netherlands, raping my acoustic guitar... Just look at my chapter "View my: Videos" We had a nice time together and later on a very cool show with my former tribute band THE TORPEDO GIRLS. Those were the days. Hope you like it!