Shameless

There is more than one artist with this name: 1) Shameless is a glam/sleaze rock band. Alexx Michael, songwriter and bassplayer from Munich, Germany, had for several years the vision of "The ultimate Rock'n Roll band". Being influenced by KISS since he was 7 years old, he started to play guitar at the age of 15. Later he switched from guitar to bass. By April of 1989, he formed the original version of Shameless. Because of the departure of the vocalist, the band broke up by the end of 1991. After that, Alexx tried to play with a couple of other bands, but none of them appealed to him. He kept writing songs and by the summer of 1998, Eric Singer (drummer for Kiss and Alice Cooper) helped him to get in touch with the right people to make the first album happen. Steve Summers (of Pretty Boy Floyd) and Stevie Rachelle (of Tuff) were always Alexx's favorite singers and they also would be the perfect voices for Shameless. Eddie Robison would be the final vocalist to round out the sound Alexx invisioned. Besides Eric Singer, Alexx was able to get Robert Sweet, Brian Tichy and Eric Skodis to play drums on the first album "Backstreet Anthems". Alexx asked his longtime friend and ex-bandmate B.C. to fly with him to Los Angeles to play guitar on "Backstreet Anthems". They recorded and mixed 10 songs with producer Gilby Clarke (ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist) in Studio City, CA. "Backstreet Anthems" was released thru "Red Skunk Records" in May 1999". The CD was received with open arms by fans and press. The coverversion of the Kiss classic "Flaming Youth" was also released on the German Kiss tribute "KISS Deutschland". Even a lot of record companies were interested in the CD, but they all had different ideas than Alexx had. During the summer of 1999, Alexx was writing new songs for the next "Shameless" CD. B.C. and him started to rehearse the songs by January 2000. This time Alexx wanted to record some of the songs at Keri Kelli's studio. Kerri was also a member of Pretty Boy Floyd, before he joined RATT. In March 2000, Shameless recorded the new CD "Queen 4 a Day". This time 13 songs where recorded including an all acoustic cover version of "Tomorrow" by Kiss for a Kiss tribute called "KAOL 2 – Creatures of the Net". Gene Simmons called Stevie Rachelle during the recordings and told him, that Shameless could record a song that he co-wrote together with Tommy Thayer. Also Jani Lane, the original voice of Warrant came by, to sing back-ups on "Far Away" and "Lonely Nite in Paradise". All the songs with Steve Summers on vocals were recorded in Keri Kelli's studio in Orange County, while the remaining recordings took again place in the legendary Gilby Clarke studios. Because of his tour with Warrant, Keri was not able to mix the songs before the end of May. By the end of June, MTM Music offered Alexx to release "Queen 4 a Day" all over Europe. Right before the release of "Queen 4 A Day", Shameless went on a Germany / Holland tour to promote the new CD. Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS guitarist) came along with the band to perform a few songs together live on stage. In 2001 Alexx Michael and Steve Summers also appeared on the Poison Tribute "Name Your Poison" by Perris Records. Shameless started to work on their follow-up to "Queen 4 A Day" in March that year. This time the line-up was more consistant on the CD in order to concentrate more on the music than on "Who´s playing what". The new release "Splashed" features 11 tracks performed by Steve Summers, Alexx Michael, Keri Kelli, B.C., Mike Fasano and Stevie Rachelle. The CD also included exclusive video material of the 2000 tour with special guest Bruce Kulick and the video for "Don't Hesitate". Shameless toured October 2003 in England and they also did a very successful European tour in spring 2004. A live album "The Shameless Super Hardcore Show" followed, which featured two studio tracks. Those tracks were both covers, "Daydream Believer" (The Monkees) and "Start Me Up" (Rolling Stones). After what appeared to be a long hiatus (and some thought the end of the band), Alexx began writing material for a new studio album in late 2006. They returned again to Keri Kelli's studio. Several guest musicians made appearances there and recorded parts for the album, including Jani Lane, Eric Singer, and L.A. Guns singer Phil Lewis. The album was titled "Famous 4 Madness" and released on April 9, 2007. http://shamelessrock.com _________________ 2) Shameless are a hard rock band from California, currently promoting a new studio album entitled "Now Playing". Their 2006 shows have seen them opening for and playing with the likes of Nelson, L.A. Guns, Flock of Seagulls, Warrant, Firehouse, and sets with Don Dokken and Stephen Pearcy (Ratt). _________________ 3) Shameless is a performance name for Davio. _________________ 4) Shameless is a hip-hop/alternative artist. He acquired his varied inspirations in Leytonstone, East London, where a young Shameless was born and raised by his Irish mum, giving him a taste for the craic - and his stage name. It wasn’t the pipes that called Shameless, though, but New York & L.A. Hip Hop’s rugged beats and the frantic rhythms of drum and bass. He got into rap when he was nine years old, yet only when jungle came along did he decide to have a go himself. Before he was picked up by All City Music, Shameless hooked up with his childhood friends to make tunes, forging a loose brotherhood of vocalists, musicians and producers that grew into the Dat Sound collective. Also guesting on his album "Smokers Die Younger" is potty-mouthed solo star Plan B. His own bootleg of the Arctic Monkeys’ "When The Sun Goes Down", meanwhile, was given Noel Gallagher’s seal of approval when he raved to it at the Sheffield band’s end of tour party. Shameless is only going back to his roots, for as a teenager he played in punk bands himself. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.