Once upon a time there were 2 brothers. Rudolph the elder one played guitar, and his kid brother Michael used to pick up the instrument and have a plunk around on it too. Eventually Michael became the better player, and the 2 ended up being in the same band which would later become the biggest German rock export ever, … Scorpions. But it was very early on in their career when after recording just one album that Michael was snatched up by a British act that were touring in Germany at that time. UFO were pretty much an underground band during that period and had recorded a couple of studio albums that were starting to make some impact on the German market. But Michael had turned in to an exceptional player with some amazing potential, and once he was fully instated in UFO then they turned in one of the most influential British rock acts of the 70’s. The 5 studio albums that he recorded with them have since gone on to be major contributions to the heavy rock culture of our country, yet it was his final ecording with them, the double live album titled ‘Strangers in the Night’ which kicked the doors open for them across the world and turned young Michael Schenker in to a rock icon!

   But even back then Michael had his demons, and his erratic behaviour mixed with bouts of alcoholic binge drinking soon saw him leave UFO at the back end of the 70’s. For a short period of time he even returned back to the fold of The Scorpions and recorded the landmark ‘Lovedrive’ album with them. Yet his presence with them was to be short-lived, and rumours in the music press abounded about how this young German with his distinctive long blonde locks had lost the plot, shaved his head and disappeared from public sight. Yet he made the most amazing comeback by forming his very own band under the banner of M.S.G. (the Michael Schenker Group), released a stunning debut album and reclaimed his crown as one of the greatest rock guitarists in the world. The early 80’s saw MSG take off, yet his old band Scorpions were now starting to crack America too, and by the mid-80’s then Scorps became a major touring act playing huge stadiums throughout the States. The Schenker brothers became synonymous with heay rock guitar playing, and both of their bands ended up achieving international success.

Now turn the clock forward another 20 or so years to today! Scorpions have been making music for over 35 years, they have just released a brand new album this year titled ‘Humanity Hour 1’, and are still incredibly popular throughout the world. As for Michael, …well his own career has been a lot more turbulent. MSG had numerous line-up changes, and by the mid-90’s he ended up reforming with UFO to represent a classic line-up of the band. But after a couple of albums then that eventually ended up in disaster with him being publicly booed on stage while playing an atrocious gig with UFO at the Manchester Apollo. Michael still had his demons and the rest of UFO refused to play with him any further. Yet Michael Schenker’s name remains legendary and he can still draw an audience to watch him perform. So imagine the excitement when it was announced that Scorpions would be playing some special UK dates with MSG as the opening act, and that also the show would include appearances by former Scorpions lead guitarist Uli Roth, plus the rumoured suggestion that Michael would get up with his brother to perform with the band too. This was a gig that I simply had to attend!

   I’d seen The Scorpions play just 3 years earlier when they supported Judas Priest on the UK leg of their reunion tour, and I was absolutely blown away by just how good they still were as a live act. As for Michael Schenker, I hadn’t seen him perform since the early 80’s on the ‘Assault Attack’ tour, but my god he was an awesome guitarist, and the impressions of that gig (plus his first ever MSG tour which I also got to see) have lived with me ever since. So both me & Nige were extremely excited about seeing this particular special ‘family-linked’ billing. Both of us were at the Newcastle Arena gig watching The Scorpions, and Nige in particular is a massive UFO fan & a great lover of all Michael’s work with the band. So much so that he was quite happy to drive through to Manchester to see this bill in action, so it ended up being an occasion that we were all very much looking forward too. Even with Michael’s low points of his career, this was a perfect opportunity to put those times behind him and to show the UK that he could still kick some serious ass! And as for The Scorpions, it was a chance for me to see them on stage with their former guitar legend Uli Roth, and to play some classic songs from the totally awesome ‘Tokyo Tapes’ era of the group.

But earlier during the day of the gig I got a text informing me that Michael Schenker had played terribly the evening before hand at Derby, which left me praying that this was a one-off situation and that he had recovered enough to wow the Manchester crowds. His appearance at the Derby Rock & Blues festival had been a disaster, but hopefully he could pull things around for this gig. Shortly after arriving in Manchester we made our way to the venue after being tipped off that MSG were due on stage shortly after 7:30. So we made a point of rushing in to catch the blonde German demi-god in full glory, but the true reality of the spectacle in front of us ended up being one of the most disheartening shows I have ever experienced. As the rest of the band took their positions on stage, on shuffled this scruffy looking guy with scraggily hair and an unkempt beard, wearing a purple hooded sweat-shirt and looking decidedly out of sorts. By the time the band had shortly gotten in to their first song then it was apprent that things were not right. Firstly the sound mix was atrocious.

   No lead vocals for the entire first track, and from then on the lead vocal was only coming out of the right hand PA stack, and as I was on the left hand side of the stage then I experienced the full MSG gig with no vocals at all. The rhythm guitar was pretty much non-existent, and Michael’s own guitar was blaringly loud in the mix, which in hindsight might not have been such a good idea. The reason for me suggesting this is that his playing SUCKED! We’re not talking about a man having a little bit of an off-day, or not quite being at his peak, … we’re talking about him being absolutely abysmal. His co-ordination was out of the window as he struggled to play his instrument in time with the music, and even more apparent was just how out of tune his guitar solos were too. He played fluffed notes, bum notes, and at time just made scratchy noises as his hands were muting the strings. This was so bad that it made Eric Bell’s infamous drunken appearance at the Office several years ago seem like the work of an inspired genius. MSG standards like ‘Are You Ready To Rock’ & ‘Armed & Ready’ came across as decidedly lacklustre & sloppy, but by the time he started massacring UFO classics then you could feel the disgruntlement of the crowd.

The lowest point was probably the band’s version of ‘Lights Out’, which for the back end of the song it is entirely guitar-solo dominated. Michael’s playing on this was simply diabolical! He could barely string several notes together, and instead of the flying fury of a fretboard workout that everybody was expecting with this tune, you ended up with a whimpering selection of strung together bum notes and scratching noises. At the finish of this song I found myself booing along with the rest of the people around me, and then I realised just how awful this performance had become. The irony of it all was that this was the very same venue when he played so badly several years earlier that a reformed UFO had split up once again! I was stunned that his management or the promoter of this tour had allowed this man to venture out on stage while in this deplorable condition. Whether it was drink, drugs, or most likely a combination of both, Michael Schenker was in no condition to undertake live performances and the longer this set went on then the more evident the real truth became. By the time he had annihilated ‘Doctor Doctor’ then it was time for him to go. Thank god his set lasted only a little over 35 minutes. It was agonising to endure.

   To be honest I always thought that there was a 50/50 chance that MSG would pull out of the tour by the time it came around, so I had bought my ticket primarily to see The Scorpions. Michael’s appearance on stage should have been a bonus to the evening, but instead it just provided a platform for everybody to talk about their disgust at how low this person had stooped at this point in his illustrious career. If I had to find just one phrase to sum it up then it would be “from hero to zero”, but as for the grown man visibly crying outside the venue in front of the doormen then it had gone beyond being just a minor disappointment for him. Some folk were openly disgusted, some weren’t that surprised, and others even commented upon the fact that he was even worse on his last visit to the Manchester Apollo with UFO. Yet the overall reaction was a one of great sadness. That this man that had inspired guitar players across the globe was now a mere shadow of his former self. I can hand on heart say that I’ve neve seen any lead guitarist in any local pub play more atrociously than this person. He was so bad that even our local covers bands wouldn’t even consider a person of that poor an ability playing with them on stage. What a complete waste of talent!

   It’s hard to retain the former image of this spikey-haired blonde German from 1980 wearing a bomber jacket with the sleeves rolled up and crouching over his guitar in predatory-like style. Back then he was god amongst anybody that admired great guitarists. Now that image has been tarnished and replaced by a newer one of this grubby man in his mid-50’s looking like a hobo and acting like a drunk you’d see hanging about Kings Cross Station. Instead of crouching while playing he was often down on one knee as he was struggling trying to stand and concentrate on his playing at the same time. It was degrading to see this former icon now looking so shambolic. His image had deteriorated badly, but nowhere near as badly as his guitar playing. I was standing next to Rock Solid’s singer CJ, and there were times when we were looking around at each other cringing & wincing in astonishment at the deplorable noises that were coming out of Michael Schenker’s guitar. The man once dubbed ‘Metal Mickey’ or the ‘Mad Axeman’ should now be given a new title, … ‘The Pathetic Pisshead’. What was on stage was a sad mess of man that used to be stunning talent, and the fact that those people in charge let him get up there to humiliate himself further is the biggest crime of all.

   I was going to write this review up as one long piece, but with it being a show of 2 decidedly different halves then I’m going to split it in to two. The second half will be all about the Scorpions part of the concert, and how the older brother Rudolph came through to deliver the goods with a spellbinding show that lasted 2 and quarter hours and made grown men cry for all the right reasons. Uli Roth back on stage with Scorpions, … it doesn’t get much f**king better than that!

   Part 2 coming soon.     Colin Smoult.  31 / 7 / 07.

If you’ve read part 1 of this review then you’ll understand that after the abysmal performance by Michael Schenker earlier that evening that my head was still trying to take in just how terrible that gig was. It was almost like being in a state of shock. I’d just seen a former hero of mine hit new all-time lows by delivering one of the worst guitar performances that I had ever seen, even on an amateur level. But I hadn’t travelled though to Manchester just to see Michael Schenker, and in fact the real reason I was there was to see the Scorpions in action again, especially with the promise of a guest appearance by former Scorps lead guitarist Uli Roth. So this really was a case of me having to put that shambolic MSG set behind me and to now concentrate on enjoying the Scorpions show to the full.
 
The UK has always had a big open heart for The Scorpions. Back in the mid-70’s this band were basically a cult act in this country, and even played the Middlesborough Rock Garden (now re-titled The Arena, although in truth it’s a relatively small venue for major groups to play) as part of their Virgin Killer tour. Yet this band worked their backsides off and constantly toured (as many groups did in those days) to promote their records. And it paid off for them when the double live album ‘Tokyo Tapes’ took everyone by storm. Just like UFO, here was a group on the brink of world domination when their lead guitarist decided to quit the band. Uli Roth’s song-writing style had become so diverse from that of his fellow riff-meister Rudolph Schenker, and towards the end of their career together those albums had an almost schizophrenic quality about them as they featured two very different approaches to the music. Uli’s departure was amicable, and his replacement Matthias Jabs was definitely more in line with th heavy-metal direction that the Scorpions were blatantly now travelling in. The next record (also featuring some stunning guitar work from Michael Schenker) was the ‘Lovedrive’ album, and this turned out to be the first of many heavy metal master-pieces that they would turn out over the next few years.
 
Uli Roth didn’t sit around clicking his heels, and he formed a rock power-trio called Electric Sun to take his own distinctive form of rock music out to the masses. 3 albums later and Uli’s own career started to lose pace, while in the meantime the Scorpions were going stratospheric with each progressive album reaching larger worldwide markets. By the time the Scorps released their ‘Love at First Sting’ album (and the ensuing tour), then they had become an international rock phenomenon. The band have continued on in a similar vein for the next 2 decades by releasing albums that have power-riff rock numbers plus the obligatory lighter-weight ballads that have also been very commercially successful for the group. The Scorpions aren’t so much a band these days, but more of a heavy-metal institution. They are one of the biggest acts to have ever come out of Germany, and they ended up spear-heading the European heavy rock invasion of the early 80’s and onwards. They still play tours that stretch around the glbe, and they can still command large ecstatic audiences that are passionate about the Scorps music. The band have been pretty absent from touring the UK since the early 90’s, yet they did play back in this country a little over a couple of years back when they supported Judas Priest on their official comeback tour.
 
Both me & Nige were at that particular gig at the Newcastle Arena. We’d gone instinctively to see Judas Priest, yet by the end of the night we both had to admit that the Scorpions were in fact the better band on the night (well at least for that evening they were). I’m sure that I’ll now have hordes of disgruntled Judas Priest fans screaming “on no they weren’t”, but for sheer pizzazz & showmanship then the Scorpions definitely came across as the more dynamic of the 2 bands, and I was quite simply blown away by the stunning professionalism and tightness of the group. I hadn’t seen the Scorps play since the early 80’s when they were promoting their ‘Animal Magnetism’ album at the Newcastle City Hall. I went along to the Arena gig expecting very little from them, yet ended up going away being absolutely enthralled by their performance. My exact words to Nige that night were “if this band come back to the UK then I’d travel to see them play again as they were that good”. Well it may have taken a good couple of years later for that to happen, but bang to rights we kept our promise and made a point of catching them in action again. Manchester wasn’t too far to travel (2+ hours from Darlington), and seeing the Scorpions play this gig was well worth the effort, I assure you.
 
Firstly the turnout for this concert was tremendous. The amount of folk that turned up to see the Scorps/Priest gig at Newcastle wasn’t exactly huge, but then again that was part of a series of UK dates. This time it was the Scorpions headlining their own show, and with them only playing 3 gigs in England this time then obviously the demand for tickets was greater. But I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised at the number of rock fans that had made the journey through to Manchester to see this band play. The Apollo is an impressive venue. For those that haven’t been there before then it’s roughly the same depth as the Newcastle City Hall, yet it’s much wider, has a really high ceiling, and the downstairs is totally unseated (very much in a similar vein to the London Brixton Academy). It takes quite a few people to fill this place, and downstairs was fairly brimming with folk from the front right to the very back of the room. Not jam-packed together like sardines, yet still it was a highly imprssive amount of people there, and after the souring performance from MSG then it would take something really special to lift folk’s spirits back up. But from the moment that the Scorpions hit the stage then the clouds parted and the world became a lovely shiny place once again. The Scorps F**KING ROCKED!
 
To see these guys on stage that have been wowing audiences for decades was superb. We’re not talking old men offering a diluted representation of their former abilities, but in fact you had the main 3-man core of the band looking amazing and performing as good as they had done 28 years ago. Firstly you have vocalist Klaus Meine who has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. This is partly due to his German phrasing of his own written English lyrics, yet mainly it’s down to the very original tone of his voice. Regardless of the signature guitar riffs that Rudolph churns out, it’s the lead vocals that will always make you instantly recognise a Scorpions song (even if it’s a one that you’ve never heard before). Meine’s vocals are in the higher region of typical voices, yet they never become too brittle or overly-piercing. His tone cuts through a heavy rock twin-guitar mix with incredible presence, and his beaming personality on stage is a total delight to watch. This is a man that genuinely adores performing, and he grins his way throughout the entire show loving every minute of being up there on stage. His energy always flows out to the audience, and even though he may be no spring chicken these days, he still actively moves about the stage and works the crowd exceedingly well. He’s an old pro and one of the very best at his profession.
 
Matthias Jabs may have been the new boy when he joined up as the permanent lead guitarist in 1979, but since then he’s become as essential to the band as is Meine or Schenker. He’s a very popular player, he has influenced tons of future lead players (even though he rarely gets quoted for doing so) and he’s very recognisable on stage. He’s another member of the band that seems to get huge amounts of pleasure from performing live, and even though the Scorpions have released numerous studio albums, their reputation has always come from their live shows of which his contribution is an important part. He’s superb player with an amazing flair for adding beautiful musical flourishes that compliment the monster-riffs being pummelled out by his six-string compadre. He looks the business too on stage, and it’s marvellous to watch him constantly making eye contact with the crowd and acknowledging their jubilation by making them feel involved with the show. I never got to see enough of him this night as his was stag-right, and I was situated over on the other side to watch the full impact of Rudolph’s performance. Yet I did often catch glimpses of him, and of course I could hear his fantastic guitar work all night long. Jabs is still a top class guitarist and he puts the icing on the cake with his tasty lead solos.
 
But there was only one person that I had desperately been looking forward to watching this evening. And that was the one-man riff machine that encapsulates the entire persona of this group, the one and only Rudolph Schenker! How do I go about trying to describe a man that has become a veritable rock icon, and is the driving heart of the Scorpions itself? To see Rudolph play with this band is like watching poetry in motion. He is probably one the most charismatic rhythm players in the rock universe. He does play the odd lead solo, but generally they are the slower & more melodic pieces, and he leaves all the blistering guitar acrobatics to Jabs. But for one moment that does not take anything away from the splendid talents of this man, because he is a stunning guitarist in his own right and is the total master of his instrument. He makes playing the guitar look so effortless, and to see his right hand strumming looks like he’s just shuffling his hand about, when in fact out come these massive riffs that ar tighter than a redneck’s arsehole in a gay-bar. I’ve mentioned already how much Meine & Jabs were enjoying the show, but to see the glee on Rudolph’s face then he simply beamed with absolute pleasure. After all these years in the music industry then here was a guy that still loves playing his music as much as he did 35 years ago. This man has now become a major hero of mine!
 
The rhythm section did their part too, with the 5-string deep bass tones of Pawel Maciwoda providing the backbone of the music, and with the awesome talents of drummer James Kottak delivering some concrete solid beats that made the band feel as powerful as a Panzer tank division on patrol. Even though neither of them are original members of this group, they have still served many years together with the Scorpions on the road, and it’s been a long time since either former bassist Francis Buchholz or drummer Herman Rarebell have been on stage with the rest of the band. The real draw of the Scorpions will forever be the 3-pronged attack of Meine, Schenker & Jabs, but I have to give it up for the rhythm section for still providing the solid framework for the others to work upon. Kottak’s drum solo felt obligatory as if only included to give the other band members a breather, and a chance to towel off their sweat, change a T-shirt and grab a drink. Likewise was the bass solo which again felt like unnecessary adding, but that’s all part of the ‘arena-rock’ ethics of live performances. When bands are on stage for over 2 hours then they need little breaks to freshen themselves up again, so I didn’t deny this group those opportunities to catch their breath. But obviously I’d rather have had a couple of more songs than pointless solo spots.
 
The set list was a very well paced-out one that featured blistering rock assaults like ‘Hit Between the Eyes’ and ‘Dynamite’, as well as ballads such as ‘Holiday’ and of course their international hit single ‘Winds of Change’ (which has nothing to do with my stomach after eating a spicy bean chilli). The amount of ballads was kept to a minimum, and the band have gotten a lot of that out of their system while playing full sets with acoustic guitars and orchestras in previous years. It’s the rock stuff that undoubtedly works the best in a live environment, but I did love hearing the crowd singing their hearts out on ‘Holiday’, and felt compelled to join in too with the atmospheric audience participation. The slow brooding pace of ‘The Zoo’ was yet again another massive crowd favourite, and when the audience sang out the first lines of the song then it was way louder than even the lead vocal. Of course the Scorpions played 2 or 3 numbers from their most recent album ‘Humanity Hour 1’, but for me personally it as the older material that caught my attention most of all, such as ‘Tease Me, Please Me’ and especially the chugging guitar riff of brilliant ‘Blackout’. And the band even played a whopping 4 songs off their massive selling ‘Love at First Sting Album’ with ‘Big City Nights’, Bad Boys Running Wild’, ‘Still Loving You’ and the classic ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’. But the best was still yet to come.
 
I was so engrossed with the Scorpions show this far that I had forgotten about the special guest that was due to join the band on stage. I think the idea of Michael Schenker getting up too had been totally dismissed after the mess he had been a part of earlier that evening, and so the real guitar legend to get up and play was their original 70’s lead guitarist Uli Roth. Roth’s name may go over the heads of some of our country’s younger guitarists, but back in the mid-70’s to mid-80’s he was a hugely influential player that was widely regarded by many as being amongst the very best. He personally was massively influenced by Jimi Hendrix, yet he took that style one step further with a lot of classical music interpretations in his playing, and if it wasn’t for Uli Roth then I don’t think you would have had people like Yngwie Malmsteen (truthfully). To me this man is a real legend, and I’ve seen him several times before, yet never with the Scorpions. So to me this was an iconic occasion to finally see Roth o stage with Schenker & Meine, and he then went on to recreate some magic moments from the fantastic ‘Tokyo Tapes’ album by playing 6 songs from that era. This part of the set opened up with ‘Pictured Life’, which is a song that Sticky Fingers have been promising to play for me for a long time now (c’mon Phil, you know it makes sense to stick this one in the set). From that first song onwards I could feel the goose-bumps on my arms and knew that this was indeed a very special occasion.
 
Uli Roth looked absolutely splendid. He’s a total gentleman and spent his entire performance smiling out at the crowd. He’s always been a people’s guitarist, and yet again he showed his unique style & grace for all to see. He was wearing his typical crushed velvet hippie attire, and sporting his signature ‘Sky’ guitar, which is a stunning shaped 7-string instrument with an incredible 3-octave neck. As such then he can achieve ridiculously high notes almost like a violin, and some of them become almost inaudible (except to the dogs howling outside, ha-ha). But f**k me he looked the business, and even though his trademark moustache is greying a little, he still played the arse off that guitar and a put an entirely different stamp on the entire show. The music for this section was all 70’s tunes that he had formerly recorded with the band, and how could you fail to set people’s hearts on fire when playing such anthems as ‘Speedy’s Coming’, ‘Dark Lady’ (with awesome twin-lead work from Jabs too), and the tremendous track ‘We’ll Burn the Sky’. Yet for me the moment of the evening was the full version of ‘Fly to the Rainbow’ complete with the soulful closing section in which Roth got to sing and play some beautiful solos too. Later on that night he was brought on stage for an encore of ‘In Trance’, and for me these 6 songs alone made Michael Schenker’s sloppy performance drift in to the distance.
 
The only disappointment of the night was that there was no airing of the title track ‘Lovedrive’ which I would have loved to have heard, but we were treated to magnificent version of the instrumental ‘Coast To Coast’ from the same album, and it even featured Meine on third guitar with Rudolf playing the melodic solo lines. All in all it was a truly brilliant gig that showed the Scorpions still being a major rock force to be reckoned with, and the addition of having Uli Roth guesting with the band on stage was superb bonus feature that gave me a chance to experience the classic sound of 70’s era Scorpions live. It was a long journey back home but well worth the travel to see this kind of concert, which might be the only time I ever get to see Uli Roth and the Scorpions together again in the UK. To sum up the evening it left me with strange mixed feelings, with one part of me be totally elated to see the Scorpions playing such a marvellous show, and the other emotions being ones of sadness & disgust at the deplorable performance given by a drunken Michael Schenker. If the Scorpions ever return to play again on these shores then I strongly urge anybody that missed them this time around to go and see them play once again. They really are one of the finest & most professional rock groups that you’re likely to ever see. And as for MSG, give them as miss as I can’t ever see Michael cleaning up his act.
 
Two and a quarter hours of the best music ever to come out of Germany since Beethoven. I pray like hell that somebody has the sense to video one of these shows and release it on DVD, because Roth with the Scorpions is one of the best things that I’ve ever seen on a stage. Together they “Burn the Sky’ like a motherf**ker!
 
   Still recovering from the experience, … Colin Smoult.  1 / 8 / 07.

Thank you to Tomasz for the pics.,