Lord Of The StRings!
Guitarist, band leader, producer, song writer, radio and TV personality, session musician, Mike Vlahopol – half Greek – is well known as Lord Of The StRings or “Sharky”.
Mike Vlahopol
Short History
He started to play guitar when he was 15 and a half when his father brought home a 7 string Russian guitar for 50 LEI (about 3 US dollars – in 1985). He started to learn guitar on his own due to the lack of books and teaching materials. After a year or so he started to make good friends between some of the best musicians in Romania of that time. He was encouraged by (Laur Simniceanu – guitar, Cristi Marinescu – guitar, Fisa – Keyboards, Florin Ionescu – drums, Adrian Ordeanu – Guitar, Lelut Vasilescu – drums, Teo Peter – bass, Sorin Chifiriuc- guitar and many others).
He started to play in the first band during high school. First hard rock and later on, he evolved to Heavy Metal and Progressive rock. Only late in 1996 “he got to The Crossroads and met with the blues” when he was invited to jam with some bands due to Christmas and the New Year’s Eve.
Mike is an imposing man with remarkable stage presence, at 1.87m (six foot-two) with a cool American look on stage. Due to his craziness, on stage Mike is able to make people – most of the times – to stand up dance, jump on tables and feel good. Having technical possibilities on blues, funk, rock, and prog performances helped him over the years to become a regular fixture on Romanian mass media as a figure of public celebrity.
He has appeared in feature articles, not only in the music press, but in the biggest news papers Romania has such as: “Romania Libera”, “Evenimentul zilei”, “Evenimentul Muzical”, “National”, “Libertatea”, “Cotidianul”, “V.I.P. – magazin”, “Capital”, “Vox Pop Rock” and few others.
With 35+ years of professional experience in various top Romanian popular music groups, Mike made a move on his own as a bandleader back in 1993 with “…Of The Lord!” the first Christian rock band in Romania that made it to the Romanian mainstream with no compromising, after only five months of existing.
The band at that time has debuted as a support band in the Manic Depression Tour for Schnitt Acht and Garden of Eden.
Right after the Romanian revolution while he started some other bigger projects sounds and frequencies captures his attention. Due to his good English he managed to be the stage coordinator for many shows in Romania.
1993: Backstage Coordinator for THE SCORPIONS
1994 Backstage Coordinator for Uriah Heep
1995 Backstage Coordinator for Deep Purple
1996 Backstage Coordinator for MICHAEL JACKSON “History ‘96 World Tour”
1997: Backstage Coordinator for WHITESNAKE ‘97 “Restless Heart Tour”
1999: Backstage Coordinator for JULIO IGLESIAS
2000: Backstage Coordinator for STEVE VAI – “THE ULTRA ZONE – tour”
2002: Enrique Iglesias
2009: Backstage Coordinator for STEVE VAI – Cerbul de Aur
2010: Backstage Coordinator for STEVE VAI – Sala Polivalenta – Evolution Tempo Orchestra
2012: Backstage Coordinator for STEVE VAI
Jessie Dixon – King of Gospel – Organizer
Garden of Eden, Schicht Acht, Tiamat
… and many others.
Probably the most happy earthly moments of Mike’s life were when he personally met and spent personal time with
Steve Vai & Jennifer Batten (guitar player of Michael Jackson). He also had the privilege to meet David Cloverdale (Whitesnake), Mike Kenelly, Mike Mangini, Dean Wiliams, Steve Clark, and many others.
Jennifer and Steve have encouraged Mike to keep up the good work he even had time to get some guitar technical input from two of them.
Even more Steve took time to sign Mike’s Ibanez guitar with a screw driver (Steve really enjoyed doing that)
Mike had an opportunity to have once a week his own radio show for over two years on the best radio of that time Radio Total and also on Radio Cosmos FM – Cyprus..
Here is a list with the most important bands he worked with or recorded for since he started to play…
Collaborations
Mike Collaborations over the years!
Discography & Studio Work – Over the years Mike has worked in the studio or collaborated on stage or offstage for a number of national or international artists. Here are some of them:
International Artists:
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Decebal Badila – Germania– Grammy Awarded in 2023 – with 5 other Grammy nominations. – “Mike Vlahopol is one of the exceptional Romanian musicians, with whom I have an almost indescribable joy to collaborate. Energy, professionalism, authenticity are characteristics that accompany us in our common project“. Decebal played with great names such as: Quincy Jones, Joe Zawinul, Johnny Raducanu, Eugen Cicero, Djamel Laroussi, SWR Big Band, Chaka Khan, The Temptations, The Supremes, and many others. – He was nominated 5 times for Grammy Awards together with Sammy Nestico. |
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Marco Mendoza – USA– Marco was part of bands like Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Journey, The Dead Daises, Glen Hughes. Mike met Marco back in 2010 at MusikMesse Frankfurt through a very good common friend Marco Soccoli. Ever since than Marco and Mike remained friends. Marco was very kind to invite Mike on stage as his part of promoting artists wherever he finds talented musicians. |
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Jay Gore – USA“Mike is an incredibly gifted guitarist and passionate composer. He’s a true gem and I’m lucky to call him my friend” Jay is a leading guitarist and in-demand session player in Los Angeles. He has toured the world, sharing the stage, with artists as diverse as: Bruce Springsteen, Michael Bolton, Hilary Duff, Marcus Miller, Bobby Kimball (Toto), Lauryn Hill, Bobby Caldwell, Keb’ Mo, Debby Ryan (Disney), Lalah Hathaway, Warren Hill, Seal and many others. He has written and produced, for hit TV shows, such as 90210, Miami Ink, American Dad, E.R., Party of Five and others. |
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Dan McGuinness – USA
– Creedence Clearwater Revisited – Dan is the new official singer of the band. Mike was invited as a special guest to be part of the ’69 Era Show in Lisbon Portugal in the grand Casino Estoril. |
 Joe Berger & Mike Vlahopol – NAMM – Los Angeles 2019 |
Joe Berger – USA– “I met Mike Vlahopol at a Musikmesse Frankfurt many years ago walking the floor and saw him playing some crazy stuff with a whammy bar.. I was sold in less than 5 minutes and since then I have been appearing at his stand at trade shows in Germany and the USA. Recently Mike had me play on a great song for his new album and I will hopefully visit Europe for some live shows! ” Joe collaborated with: Brian Johnson & Cliff Williams (AC/DC) – as a sound engineer. As a guitarist he played for artists such as: Cymbalic Encounters (John Entwistle (The Who), Jack Bruce , Jon Anderson (YES), Vangelis, Billy Cobham, Jon Hammond, Teruo Nakamura, Chris Trousdale, Barry Finnerty, Dream Street and over 3.500 concerts and shows, workshops and exhibitions across the world in recent years. Mike and Joe go back many years ago as they played and collaborated on many occasions in Frankfurt and Los Angeles. |
 Steve Clarke |
 Steve Clarke & Mike Vlahopol – La Mama – Clubul Taranului |
 SteveClarke – Mike Vlahopol & The Crossroaads -SingFest |
Steve Clarke – USA
– “It was a true blessing to meet Mike by chance and have the opportunity to perform with. He has become a good friend, and he is very passionate about the music and entertaining the people ”
Steve is known for playing along great bands such as: Tower of Power, Mike Stern, Sherri Winston, The Drifters, The Coasters, Mary Wells, Ben E. King and Yellow Jackets. He also played with Theresa Wright Quartet, Patxi, Willie Randall, Charles Dukes, TNT Jazz Band, Greg Bernard, Greg James and others.
 Alex Paulista & Mike Vlahopol – The Pub Universitatii |
 Alex Paulista & Mike Vlahopol – Hard Rock Caffe – Bucharest |
Alex Paulista – Brazil– For the second time in Romania and also with Mike Vlahopol, Alex Paulista felt so good with us that he comes with his experience to stage an exceptional tour. Alex Paulista is a musician who comes from a São Paulo family with a strong tradition in “drums”, his father, Marquinho Paulista, and one brother of the four playing bass. He was invited to join “Europe’s international drumming team”, C.D.C “Creative Drum Clinic” by British drummer Garry King. Alex met Garry and Mike over 18 years ago. |
 Lee Hedley |
 Lee Hedley, Gary Ingram & Mike Vlahopol |
Lee Hedlay – Ireland – Lead singer.Lee met Mike through a very good common friend Gary Ingram. The two had quite few concerts together both in Romania and in Ireland. Lee also recorded on Mike’s album |
Brad Vee Johnson – Usa – Ex. Bonnie M
Lionness – USA
Stacy Quenny – Canada
Robert Thomas – USA
Jessie Dixon – USA
Terry Lee Burns – USA
Resolut – Germany
Romanian Artists:
- Mihai si Aura Danciulescu – vocals & guitar – Scarlet Aura (Metal band)
- Mugurel Vrabete – bass – Holograf
- Ionut Ruscior – vocals – Publika,
- Eugen Mihaiescu – guitar – Krypton
- Claudiu “Nasu” Purcarin – drums – Nightlosers
- Rene Nistor – bass – Scarlet Aura
- Humberto Miquilena – bass – Krypton
- Marcian Petrescu – Trenul de Noapte
- Gerorge Baicea – guitar – G.B. Electric Blues
- T.K.E. – Hip Hop Artist
| Full Albums produced & engineered by Mike: MS – Carne de tun – FULL ALBUM PRODUCTION Petre Magdin – album Vitamina C – album Marius Vilan – album Raku – album Festivalul Mamaia – album Karisma – Album Of The Lord – Seven Days In Paradise – LP Mike Vlahopol – Instrumentals Contrapunct – Alina Manole – Luna Patrata DN1 – Ana Patan ANAIS Aquila |
Singles 3SE – singles Cristiana Raduta – singles N&D – singles Bambi – singles Annes – singles Annais – singles Puia – singles B.R.P. – Konect-R – singles Requiem Sfera Solaris Arena Calin Nicole |
Andrei Paunescu Catalin Beciu Foisorul de Foc Carmen Cristi Voicu Dom’ Profesor Georgi Gheorghia Cyprus Haisam Liban Joana USA Mihai Petrescu Philadelphia TEO Tina Iusco Don Pedro |
… & few others…
Visit Mike’s Recording Studio Page – HERE
You can read the full BIOGRAPHY here. http://www.vlahopol.com | VISIT HERE FOR INTERVIEWS
To be continued HERE – COLLABORATIONS
