M.ILL.ION was formed in 1989 by bassplayer and songwriter B.J Laneby. The band is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
It's a band that combines classic heavy and melodic hardrock with rock'n roll energy and powerful playing. Their stageshow has nothing in common with the 90's grunge/alternative scene. Here we have an act that is far from "the bored drug-addicts looking at their feet" style! We're talking energy, crowd participation and rock'n roll action!
No one will exit a M.ILL.ION show unaffected. Only if people leave the venue covered in sweat and with big smiles on their faces the band has done the job! Musical influences include everything from KISS to Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Black Sabbath, Rainbow, DIO, Queen, heavy metal, blues, AOR … all combined with the more heavy approach of the 21st century.


THE STORY

The debut album No.1, recorded in Denmark and mixed at the world famous PUK Studios (Elton John, Judas Priest etc) in 1992 went top 30 in the Japanese charts and built a worldwide fanbase for the band. M.ILL.ION was immediately called "Sweden's finest" and "No.1 in hardrock".

We, Ourselves & Us in 94/95 had a more modern sound and showed some different dimensions to this hardrocking band. M.ILL.ION followed that up with tours alongside bands such as Magnum and old heroes Nazareth which were big successes. They were also invited to play the Swedish hardrock Grammy awards in Stockholm, The Zeppelingala that year. Co-headlining were John Norum from Europe and Magnum, but M.ILL.ION "cleaned the place that night". The host Vanessa Warwick of MTV said M.ILL.ION was the band of the night and compared their show and energy to KISS. In 1996, new powerhouse drummer Per Westergren climbed aboard. Swedish tours followed...

In 1997 the band signed to german label BlueStone Music and the '98 release Electric made worldwide critics go wild. The release party for Electric saw business people and journalists from Japan, Germany, Italy etc fly in to see the bands show. Was it a success? Let's put it this way: A lot of VIPs were seen standing in line afterwards asking for autographs… Electric received fantastic reactions from major critics in Germany, USA, Japan, Italy, France, UK, BeNeLuX, Scandinavia, Spain, etc and accolades like "Album of the year", "Album of the month" , "Fantastic" and "Brilliant" were frequently used. B.J Laneby did around 80 international interviews in'98 and the band even got on the cover of british mag Powerplay.

A big European tour was planned to push Electric further, but as the record label got into serious financial trouble it was cancelled. A tough time for the band followed as the label went bankrupt. The guitarist and the singer had enough of the music business and quit.

1999 - New singer Ulrich Carlsson and young wiz guitarist Jonas Hermansson joined and this was followed by a tour of Holland.

2000 - Worldwide deal with British label A2 Records. Get Millionized (a best of the first three albums) is the first release for the label

2001 - Recording of new album Detonator being mixed by Simon Hanhart (Bowie/Asia/Yngwie/Saxon/Waysted…), mastered at the most famous studio in the world: Abbey Road.
- Relesased in England and some European territories - Critics are totally overwhelmed: "best M.ILL.ION album ever", "worldclass", "Scandinavias finest" etc. The debut for Ulrich and Jonas promised a lot for the future.

2002 - M.ILL.ION tour England for two weeks. Seven shows with Oliver/Dawson Saxonand the rest they headline. Big success, standing ovations every night. Felt like "coming home" for the band. Lots of British fans made the trip from Brighton in the south to Newcastle in the north.
They do some festivals in Sweden including the headline spot on the opening night of the 3 day Sweden Rock Festival. Huge success - 4000 in front of the stage went mad and magazines named them "the best band of the whole festival". On the bill were the likes of Bruce Dickinson, Magnum, Halford, Motörhead, Ted Nugent, Saxon, Status Quo, Hanoi Rocks etc... Many fans from England flew over joining the thousands of Swedish fans on this prestigious victory for the band.
They also headlined the indoor Metal Madness Festival in Sweden and return 6 months later for an outdoor summer edition of the same festival and invite Oliver/Dawson Saxon to join.
In late 2002 current keyboardplayer & backing vocalist Johan Bergquist (Hammerfall's latest album, Stefan Elmgren's First Strike etc) joins.

2003 - Showstopper, a track from Detonator is included in the prestigious EA computer game NHL 2003.
A big UK & European tour as support act is cancelled in the last minute, and the band use their frustration to start writing the new album scheduled for 2004. In December the band hit the studio to demo some new material.

2004 - M.ILL.ION leaves A2 Records on a friendly basis and are contacted by aspiring labels from all over the world. Three new songs are presented to the labels and yes, this band is "wanted"! After months of negotiations a prestigious worldwide deal is signed with Majestic Rock, a new label formed by established record company people with major backgrounds.

An EP 2004, containing three new songs and two new acoustic versions of Sign Of Victory (No.1) and In Your Dreams (Detonator), is put out as a taster of things to come, in August 2004. Rave international reviews!

Majestic Rock also releases M.ILL.ION's whole back catalogue, 4 albums, remastered and with bonus material including videos and special notes from founder member B.J Laneby (October).

M.ILL.ION's new album Kingsize is released November 2004 in Europe and Japan. Without a doubt the band's strongest album to this date. 6 months of songwriting and 15 Years of rock'n roll experience is put into this monster. Mixed by Swedish platinum selling producer Tobias Lindell (normally working with Swedish popstars like Petter, E-type etc but this one r o c k s) and including 11 hard hitting melodic tracks, things look really promising.

A big launch party show took place in the guys' hometown Gothenburg on October 28 and it was a big success. Jack Daniels and Harley Davidson were among the sponsors and 400 people (media, musicbiz fans, friends) rocked the night away together. And it was all filmed by five cameras (Revolver Film)

The promo video of Backdoor Queen was edited in London (Metropolis). The band toured England where they were special guests to Michael Schenker Group (MSG). Packed venues in Nottingham, London, Dudley and Bradford included many M.ILL.ION fans and the tour was a big triumph for the band. The tour also included several radio interviews and promotion.

A successful promotional trip to Japan was arranged in December. The band's singer Ulrich Carlsson and B. J Laneby were invited to the office of the world's biggest metal magazine BURRN! in Tokyo for a big interview with Chief Editor Masao Fujiki. The guys visited several record stores for signings and felt very welcome in Japan. Kingsize went to #50 in their domestic chart.

The reviews for Kingsize are fantastic worldwide! Critics in the U.S, UK, Germany, BeNeLux, Italy Scandinavia and Australia give Kingsize top scores.

M.ILL.ION hit many important journalists' "top album of 2004" lists and interviews are being done all over Europe.

2005 - More touring in Scandinavia and the band is invited to play the prestigious U.K indoor festival of Firefest, joining bands like Soul Circus (including Journey's Neal Schon & Jeff Scott Soto), Firehouse TNT & Pink Cream etc. A great show, M.ILL.ION had the audience singing loud and the recordcompany sold out of the cds.

Jonas is temporarily out of the band for some months, to travel and do other things than music, and M.ILL.ION seeks a replacement.

2006 - M.ILL.ION does a couple of shows with a guest guitarist, including a gig at the Rock in Copenhagen with original MSG singer Gary Barden's band Statetrooper.
In March Jonas returns to the band and the guys join ex Black Sabbath singer Tony Martin & Band for a show before starting to write new material.

Majestic Rock releases the compilation 1991-2006 – The Best So Far

2007 - Songwriting and demoing new material for most part of the year. Mission: Quality stuff!
It's now time for a new record label and in September M.ILL.ION sign a new contract with german label Metal Heaven.
In November the band hit Johan Bergquist's studio to start recording the new album.

2008 - In February the mixing of the new album is done at the major Bohus Studio (ABBA/Status Quo etc) and again Tobias Lindell is behind the mixing desk, joined by B. J Laneby. Prior to M.ILL.ION Lindell produced the Swedish Grammy winner for best hard rock 2007, Mustasch.
The goal with this, M.ILL.ION's sixth production, was to come up with a totally quality packed melodic and powerful hard rock album. The result is the breathtaking new album 'Thrill Of The Chase' to be released and promoted all over Europe on May 23.
The band recently signed booking agency deals with Sweden Metal Music Entertainment, Factory Music Ltd for the UK and M.A.M Agency for BeNeLux. At the time of writing, touring offers from all over Europe are coming in and negotiations for a Japanese release are taking place.


Source : http://www.million.o.se/m/bio.htm