News

April 2025

Firstly, thank you all for your kind messages of support. Having been in a wheelchair since the first week of January because of a relapse, in the last 12 days I have been able to stand for a few minutes and managed a few steps. I am pushing myself hard as I am scared about losing my muscle tone and I am determined to go away as planned in May.

The good news is that I was finally able to go to London last weekend and see my grandson. I was thrilled to finally hold him but sad that he was already a month old but as least I made it down there before he turned sixteen, lol. Absolutely buzzing that Jackson continues the Monro lineage and you never know we might have another singer in the family.

Talking about singing did any of you catch daddy singing in the new BBC1 series ‘This City is Ours’. It started on 23 March at 9.00am and dad can be heard in episode two. Interestingly the series used the little-known song “All of a Sudden” written by Don Black and produced by George Martin which was first released in on 14 March 1969. It was adapted from dad’s platinum Spanish hit “Toda Pasara”.  At the beginning in 1969, dad accrued legions of fans in Spanish-speaking countries, particularly in Latin America. “Leonardo Schultz was a South American promoter who came to England begging dad him to record in Spanish.” It was an instant hit and saw dad gain his first platinum album.

Leonardo Shultz flew over to England once again to try and convince dad to work in South America..He spent the day at the house interviewing mum and dad for a twenty-page magazine special. Filled with new and interesting pictures the crew even went into Central London together to get shots of dad in his hometown but soon after setting everything up it started to rain. Mum cooked dinner for the crew enabling Leonardo to spend the evening at the house. The following morning, he was back at the house with news that dad was in the Argentinean charts with three separate placements. ‘Todo Pasara’ was in at No 3, ‘Que Tiempo Tan Feliz’ at No 11 and ‘Alguien Canto’ at No 17. By the time Schultz left that afternoon he had secured a tour.

Surely that artistic figure of Matt Monro is not one that the young public can understand. He’s a bit short and a bit chubby and he’s not that young so it is taking points away to reach the youngsters. But the English artist covers all that with simple art and pure of his songs. He interprets what he does with a natural honesty. His voice arrives with softness and his personality becomes naked in its song. To sing in Spanish (Castilian) he earns our admiration. His constant happiness that comes from every pore is immediately contagious. When the Buenos Aires public met Matt through his songs ‘Alguien Canto’ and ‘Todo Pasara’ he immediately became an idol of us. Now with his visit to our capital he will show that everything we think of him is real and that he is admired – millions of them can’t be wrong. After Buenos Aires and Chile he will go to Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and Uruguay.             

Magazine Trasande

 

Note from Richard – Another thing not generally known is that it’s claimed that ‘Todo Pasara ‘  wasn’t composed by Leonardo Shultz, but by a Brazilian singer/composer called Nelson Ned.  It was a Hit in Brazil  for Ned around the same time as Matt’s version. Brazilian fans are often leaving messages on Matt’s You Tube site to say that it was stolen from Ned. They also say Nelson Ned sued Leonardo and won – I haven’t actually found anything to confirm this – although this maybe because all the reports are in Portuguese. What I won’t stand for on the site is anyone saying Matt was complicit in this. Records from Brazil just didn’t reach the UK back then and if someone you know well tells you they have written a song, you tend to accept it. If anyone find any news reports about a court case, please let me know. 

‘All of a Sudden” features on disc 2 of dad’s last but one release release Stranger in Paradise: The Lost New York Session. It went straight to the No8 spot in the official album charts and stayed in the charts for six months. The first CD is brand new material recorded with just a five-piece band, which I have to say is now among my favourite albums. There is also a second disc with all of dad’s more familiar titles remastered of course by the fabulous Richard Moore, for any new fans of Dad’s music.

As I already mentioned some months ago Richard and I uploaded a podcast on dad’s YouTube channel. ‘Matt’s Kind of Podcast’ was launched on dad’s birthday last year and we are putting up one a month. So, make sure you pop by in the next day or two to catch the newest edition. Although we have garnered several thousand listeners each month, we haven’t had much feedback and questions have been light so if you have a topic or question you would like to see covered then please email either Richard of myself and we’ll do out best to cover it.

This month we are delving into dad’s early life and his army days and the May edition will feature his posting to Hong Kong so don’t forget to tune in. Episodes can be found here. https://podd6d.podbean.com/

Dad’s YouTube channel frequently features rare television performances, interviews and shorts but don’t worry if you weren’t with us from the very beginning as the channel still has all the ones you may have missed by not visiting yet. It’s all totally free and if you register, the site will send you a reminder every time something new is added. It would be amazing to hit the 200,000-subscriber mark so please tell all your friends to visit us and help us grow so that I can keep dad’s legacy of songs burning bright.

Later in the year we are putting together another audio compilation which will be available on dad’s YouTube channel in the near future. The working title at the moment is “Matt at the BBC Volume 2’ so watch this space.

Don’t forget to visit dad’s very own YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/MattMonroOfficial

Last month I talked about the era of AI and although it has the potential in the future to improve music royalties’ systems for artists and predict future payments saving hundreds of manpower hours there are also real concerns. I have recently noticed photos of dad springing up on Facebook which have been altered and, in most cases, not for the better. I know every nuance of a picture so although one could say I am bias I actually think they look fake.

Fake AI picture of Matt

There are also a lot of unauthorized albums floating about on the internet. Please be wary of spending your money on these items as the quality is not up to our standard and usually the images on the covers are grainy. Everything we endorse is well documented on our websites and you can always email either Richard or myself to check if you’re not sure of an item’s authenticity.

Excitedly I am boarding Ambassador’s Ambience on 5 May (Treasures of the Mediterranean) and then staying on for a back-to-back working cruise which starts on 7 June (Midnight Sun Marvels). I would love to see some of you onboard and if you take the plunge do come up and say hello.

Apologies to everyone that came and asked me for one of my books on my last cruise but I was actually on holiday and only stepped in when someone went ill so I didn’t have any merchandise on me, but I promise I will take some merchandise this year. If you aren’t cruising on those dates but would still like one of the books then click below.

I know you’ve all heard this before but in light of a new Argentina interview dad did which has only just landed on our desks, please, please let us know if you have any rare footage, (even if you taped it illegally, lol), jingles or photos of dad. I ranted on for years on every radio interview I did trying to trace dad’s original Camay jingle and 18 years later a fan sent it in. Asking why she had held it back for so long, she replied “I thought you would already have it”.

While I can understand that in the old days recording shows by the public was difficult, I cannot believe that there is no recording of dad’s Barbican concert from 1985, one of the last he did. There are also dozens of jingles still to be found although they are hard to find as the artist is not accredited to the product. Richard and I have spent months and months listening to product jingles that we know that dad was involved in and we, well to be honest Richard, has found several over the years so come on all you diehard fans, take a look in your attics, even if you have reel tapes we have the equipment to listen to it. Fingers crossed.

Once again, I hope you have a happy and healthy year and I look forward to touching base with you all in May. In the meantime, stay safe and keep spreading the MM legacy.

Much love

Michele xx