About the site:

RockUnited.Com is a website specializing in hard rock, melodic metal, AOR, glam and various other sub-genres of rock. It is run by a group of dedicated rock fans. During its' first couple of years, the site was called "aor-europe.com".

Contact: info "at" rockunited.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rockunitedcom
Instagram: "rockunited.com.photos"

Kimmo Toivonen (Finland) - A founding member

Kimmo is running RockUnited's Headquarters in Raisio, Finland. He is the Art Director and co-editor of RockUnited,and responsible for the layout, the design, not to mention all sorts of weekly routines like putting together the material for the updates and transfering the files to the server.

Apart from pure AOR sounds, he is into melodic metal, hard rock, glam, some modern rock and things inbetween.

Before RockUnited.Com/AOR-Europe Kimmo was the founder and chief editor of Loud & Clear, this site's longest running predecessor.

Contact: Kimmo Toivonen,

Alan Holloway (UK)

Alan is from the South West of England and has been a rock fan for over 25 years and a rock journalist for ten. He loves nothing more than relaxing to classic Eighties AOR like F.M, Shy or Def Leppard, but is equally at home with the likes of Saxon, AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Since joining with Rock United he is getting to hear about more and more cool European bands, and is now an avid follower of Brother Firetribe and Wig Wam. He has written a brilliant (he says) but as yet unpublished romantic rock comedy called "Sex Gods From The Planet Metal" which is available to Rock United readers free of charge on request. "I am very proud to be part of something as brilliant as Rock United" he says, and who are we to disagree.

Contact: Alan Holloway,

Martien Koolen (The Netherlands)

Martien speaks for himself: "Being in the team now for several years I can say that I really enjoy “working” for Rockunited. When I started my writer’s career (back in 1990) I was mainly interested in hard rock and metal. Later on I also “discovered” the progressive side of rock music and now I really have become a prog metal fan and I consider Symphony-X and Enchant to be two of the most underrated bands ever….. My 3 favourite bands of all time are still Dream Theater, Rush and Queensryche, bands that I consider to be highly original and I would even call them trend-setters for modern rock music. I was active as a reporter for a few Dutch magazines like for example The Aardschok and also for a few English ones. I still visit a lot of concerts, are very fond of doing interviews and I like to listen to music for at least 4 hours a day... I truly hope to be able to do this work for a very long time to come; rock on dudes...

“We are only immortal for a limited time.” (N.Peart)"

Contact: Martien Koolen,

Mira Suutari-Toivonen (Finland)

Kimmo's wife Mira has been a background contributor of the site ever since it all began. For the last few years, she has taken most of the live photos for the site.

Mira's preferred musical styles are Glam Rock, Melodic Metal and Melodic Hard Rock. Powerful hard rock ballads are closest to her heart. Her favourite bands include Fair Warning, Michael Bormann, Zeno, Danny Vaughn, Gotthard, Winger, House Of Lords, Def Leppard, Steelheart, Talisman, Tyketto, Europe, Jaded Heart, Mad Max, Bang Tango, Cinderella, KISS, TNT, Whitesnake, Brother Firetribe and the Finnish monsters: Lordi (just to name a few...). She also enjoys 80's and 90's pop-rock.

Contact: Mira Suutari-Toivonen,

Former contributors:

Urban "Wally" Wallstrom
The Bailey Brothers
Endre "Bandi" Hübner
Satu Reunanen
Kari "Carda" Helenius
Dan Mann
Petri Kautto
Janne Neuvonen