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Last Updated: November 21, 2009 6:52 PM




Review: ULI JON ROTH Performs With The SCORPIONS For First Time In 27 Years - Sep. 15, 2005
On September 10, SCORPIONS and Uli Jon Roth performed their first concert together in Colmar, France, since they had been on stage together in Tokyo in 1978. For many of Uli Jon Roth and SCORPIONS fans, this was a very emotional and truly historic event which they had long been waiting for.

The Parc Expo amphitheatre was virtually sold out, with approximately 8,000 people in the audience. After two support bands, Uli took to the stage just after dusk at 8:30 p.m. with a new band which he had put together especially for this event and which was well rehearsed. (Rehearsals took place in Hanover, Germany, in the week leading up to the show.)

Uli and his band played a 70-minute-plus set, which featured three songs from REQUIEM FOR AN ANGEL alongside material from his ELECTRIC SUN and SCORPIONS days. For the last two songs he was joined by his old SCORPIONS buddy, Rudy Lenners, and they performed "Catch Your Train" and "Polar Nights" together. The audience responded enthusiastically throughout the virtually flawless Uli Jon Roth set, which premiered two beautiful new songs from the REQUIEM — the unique and powerful rock epic "Land of Dawn" and the slow and heartfelt instrumental "Forgive", which Uli had written especially for that show two weeks ago. The intensity of Uli's performance and that of his band in connection with the images on the screen was palpable. Further highlights included "Sky Overture", which was the opener, a full-length version of "Winds of War", a mind-blowing "Enola Gay – Hiroshima Today?" and the new orchestral version of "The Sails Of Charon", which was particularly well received. The set also featured a brief version of "Virgin Killer", followed by another SCORPIONS classic from the Uli era, "Fly to the Rainbow".

The SCORPIONS soundcheck took place at 1:30 in the afternoon, and it was a sweltering day in Colmar. Uli, Mathias Jabs and Pawel had a little jam session onstage before the soundcheck proper, which lasted for about an hour. SCORPIONS and Uli rehearsed four songs at the soundcheck and the feeling onstage was great from the word go. Briefly before the concert it was decided to also include "Kojo No Tsuki" in the set. Following Uli Jon Roth, SCORPIONS played an amazing set, and Uli joined them halfway through to play the four songs together. Klaus Meine gave Uli a very warm welcome onstage and there were smiles all round when Klaus said, "Please give a big welcome to the legendary Uli Jon Roth!" The audience were spellbound and went wild with the excitement of this once-in-a-lifetime moment. The first song was "In Trance", which Uli kicked off with a haunting improvised guitar intro and when Klaus started to sing, the audience immediately chanted along with him. The guitar lead was shared by Uli and Mathias Jabs in harmony, and the two guitarreros sounded great together while Rudolf Schenker was blasting his famously energetic and relentless power chords underneath. The next song on the menu was "Pictured Life", which the band hadn't played for ages. This was followed by the sort-of impromptu version of "Kojo No Tsuki" from "Tokyo Tapes". Klaus dedicated the next song, "We'll Burn the Sky", to Monika Dannemann, Uli's deceased girlfriend, who had written the lyrics to that SCORPIONS classic back in 1977. The band then continued their set and Uli came out for the encores again to play "He's A Woman – She's A Man". Rudy Lenners also participated on that song playing along with James Kottak.

Prior to the show Klaus, Rudolf and Uli had a joint interview with one of the French rock magazines and gave television interviews.

There was a major glitch before the show regarding Uli's Mighty Wing Sky guitar. One of the tremolo bar springs at the back of the guitar had come off and rendered the guitar practically unplayable. Luckily — literally at the last moment — Rudolf's guitar technician and repair whiz — Peter Kirkman — performed 30 minutes of surgery and repaired the damage just in time for Uli to restring the precious instrument before the show. Uli had no spare guitar with him and would have had to pretty much cancel the show without Mighty Wing since none of his new material can be played on a standard instrument. Both Uli and SCORPIONS were very happy about the event, which came about rather unexpectedly and at pretty short notice under the auspices of French promoter Joelle Kilhofer of Music Forever.

During their joint interview in the afternoon Klaus and Uli already hinted to the press that they would like to see more of these events in the future and possibly go on tour together.

Check out pictures of the show (some of which will appear in the October 2005 issue of the Italian edition of Rock Hard magazine) at this location. A "France 3" French TV report on the one-off "reunion" can be viewed at this location (Windows Media) (NOTE: The report begins approximately 11 minutes and 16 seconds into the video.)
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COMMENT | this guy
posted by : BreakerMetal
9/15/2005 11:10:10 AM

is a guitar gawd

COMMENT | Got to see Uli this year in SoCal
posted by : Scot the Hoople
9/15/2005 11:18:37 AM

Now I can die happy.

COMMENT | I hope not
posted by : metalhead43
9/15/2005 11:27:59 AM

I'm sure roth is a fine player but his time in the band means nothing to me or the fans who love thier music with matthias in the band from blackout on. thier stuff before that sucked so why bring back somebody who was a part of it?

COMMENT | ULI & The Scorpions Rule!
posted by : RiotAct666
9/15/2005 12:04:59 PM

\m/ !!!!!

COMMENT | Wow
posted by : Bon Halford
9/15/2005 12:55:11 PM

This looks pretty metal.

COMMENT | scorpions
posted by : lickmylovepump
9/15/2005 1:03:59 PM

without Uli, they're awesome. Always wanted to see the scorpions and got my chance when they suported Priest, and they just deverstated the stage. Woudln't want to be in a band that has to follow them!!!

But I reckon with the bands that are around today, Scorpions with Uli would be the best band in the world.

Tokyo tapes is imo second only to Made in Japan.

Wthout Uli the scorpions are a hard working rock band with great songs. With Uli they are all those, but with a true legend in the band.

COMMENT | iF YOU THINK:
posted by : Firewind
9/15/2005 1:40:59 PM

that the post Uli Scorpions are better, you know NOTHING about Metal. Period.

COMMENT | Monika Dannemann.
posted by : SavageThrust
9/15/2005 2:10:29 PM

wow! I didn't know that she also dated Uli. It's a good thing he never needed to go to the hospital when she was alive. She would have called Eric Burdon first instead of the ambulance.

COMMENT | another dumb post by metalhead43
posted by : Loudnessguy
9/15/2005 2:24:37 PM

metalhead43 says he's metal but actually prefers the soft, wimpy, ballad-driven rock like the Scorpions played after Uli left the band. He can't quite understand the intricate guitar work of guitar legends like Uli and Schenker.....so remember to keep it soft for metalhead43 and keep listening to those sappy ballads!

COMMENT | uli
posted by : BreakerMetal
9/15/2005 2:37:44 PM

scorps not as good as later scorps??

yes, Uli could never match the savage amusement album, lol

The best scorps album IMO would be Lovedrive, which was with Matthias. but Uli is just a great example of a guitar players guitar player in league with guys like Allan Holdsworth.

COMMENT | Cool
posted by : goldenduck
9/15/2005 3:16:40 PM

I like how that news report displays Uli's occupation as "guitar hero"! How true.

COMMENT | loudness guy
posted by : metalhead43
9/15/2005 4:47:06 PM

yea that's right I realy like the softer side of metal and particulry the ones by the scorpions like blackout,dynamite,rock you like a hurricane,don't stop at the top,passion rules the game,please me tease me,alien nation as opposed to the hard rockin hits of uli like uh well there was that song no wait that was somebody else. look ass wipe being able to play "complex" guitar solos without songs does not make you a genius or a legend.just because the people you like don't know hoe to write songs doesn't mean bands like the scorpions sold out because they have succsess it just means they know how to write songs people like unlike your genius players. go ahead and listen to crap they put out with him but in no way is it better than what they did without him and yes I tried to give it a listen after I heard blackout but was so bored I fell asleep. go on and lsten all you liked I will stick with guys who can play and write songs like satch and garey hoey and eric johnson among others, you probably never heard of them since thye write music people like.

COMMENT | metalhead43
posted by : Loudnessguy
9/15/2005 6:49:41 PM

I see where you're coming from and have no problem with you liking the post-Uli Scorpions, I just had to respond to your take that they sucked with Uli. As you can see, I'm not the only one that likes the Uli-era Scorpions and they actually wrote some great songs to go along with Uli's shredding. Also, I think Lovedrive and Blackout are great albums, but you probably hate Lovedrive because Michael Schenker shreds on some of the songs. I have heard of Satriani, Hoey, and Eric Johnson and they're all good guitarists, but they put ME to sleep these days.

NP: The Sails of Charon

COMMENT | no offence
posted by : lickmylovepump
9/15/2005 10:14:22 PM

but Scorpions witout Uli were an awesome band going somewhere. But with they were just unstopapble. I mean I reckon they were up there in terms of songs and ideas as Blackmore and Gillan (/Lord).

I love the Scorpions, but with Uli they would just be able to take over the world!"!!!!!!!!!!!

COMMENT | Metalhead43...
posted by : Antonotron
9/15/2005 10:37:33 PM

Trying to only give credit to the overwrought works of the Scorpions from the 80's without giving any credit at all to the genius and innovation of their stuff from the late 70's is just plain ignorant.

It's like trying to separate the 'Painkiller'-era Judas Priest from the hard rockin' stuff they did before that. KK Downing & Glenn Tipton didn't _just_ need to turn up the gain and start using pinch harmonics & screams gratuitously to become 'more rockin' --

& personally, Klaus' vocal work on tracks like 'Virgin Killer', 'Backstage Queen' and 'Dark Lady' were a lot more closer to your MTV-mandated definition of 'metal'

Music Evolves. Scorpions have always been ahead of their time and managed to stay at the forefront.

DON'T BE IGNORANT.
They say the Beatles started Rock & Roll -- just because I've never been a fan of them doesn't mean I haven't still had the utmost respect for them all along.

but then again -- they say Ozzy started Heavy Metal. And that's just bullshit. : )

COMMENT | Scorpions with Uli is priceless...period
posted by : Power
9/16/2005 2:36:24 AM

Virgin Killer is Heavy as Shit!

Ozzy did start Heavy Metal...he couldn't have done it without Tony Iommi - Godfather of Metal



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