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.