... but this is the best I've seen of the Michael Schenker Group in a long time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVduigGy-ic
Doogie White does a good job singing songs from as varied singers as Mogg, Barden, Meine and Bonnet. And that Dean Razorback wielding guy is a real asset to the band.
Sounds really good. I recognized Francis but is that really Herman ze German? I guess there are no hard feelings there.
I know someone in Chicago that just interviewed him. It's Bucholz/Rarebell behind him. They did some warm-up shows in the states with a different rhythm section, but the plan is to tour Europe and then swing back through the States, and they want to be strong.
Ok, it does sound good....But I kept wanting to see Pete and a Thunderbird!
Shoot! Shoot and no Pete :-\
Pete has cancer (prostate I believe) and is in treatment. He has said that he has no yearning playing with UFO ever again, but he's always gotten along fine with Schenker (and toured with various MSG line ups).
That particular line up has made a recent CD which is among the best MSG releases ever. Schenker seems lively and relaxed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPN6YHvN6hs
Rarebell has played with the Scorpions as special guest on some songs during the last "final" tour (which doesn't stop!), so whatever hard feelings there were seem to be water under the bridge. No hard feelings with Michael ever, when Rarebell departed the Scorpions in their years of artistic crisis, Michael was already long gone (I saw him with the Scorpions on the Love Drive tour, he did not feel comfortable playing all that Uli Roth stuff at all).
Francis Buchholz is another matter though, he is still banished from the Scorpions fold for getting them in huge tax issues in the late eighties. He was the band's treasurer in their most successful years and was so immersed in that he is reputed to not have played on Love at First Sting at all, Jimmy Bain is supposed to have played bass on that, stating: "Of course Francis could have played on that album, he's a fine bassist, but he was so busy with the band's finances at the time, he simply didn't have the time to do it. He was perfectly alright with me doing it and even dropped by in the studio when I laid down some tracks". After his Scorpions career, Francis was successful in the tooling business (Hannover is a hub for that) and played with Uli Roth more recently (he and Roth came both from Dawn to join Meine and Rudolf Schenker when the Scorpions were down to a duo after Michael's departure to UFO, they brought their drummer with them who would later on join German proggies Eloy). Since Roth and Michael Schenker get on well, Roth probably recommended Buchholz to the (formerly mad) German axeman. His economic, but very structured bass playing fits in nice with MSG though I will forever miss Chris Glen's playing.
Quote from: uwe on January 28, 2014, 04:27:43 AM
I will forever miss Chris Glen's playing.
I'm a big Chris Glen fan. He has one of the best live bass tones I ever heard. It doesn't hurt that he was part of SAHB, along with Ted McKenna. The night I interviewed Schenker, it was Glen/McKenna driving the band. Glen was at sound check with two females. They all left for an hour or so, and came back pretty disheveled.
Pete Way was one of the worst bass players I ever saw live. I saw him with UFO on Ray Chapman's first tour, and they were bad. The band was so wasted that Way opened up the show with a brutally wrong chord on "Doctor, Doctor". It was downhill from there. Way was also the legend-in-residence here in Columbus for a long time.
Way can be sloppy, yes.
Quote from: uwe on January 28, 2014, 08:33:11 AM
Way can be sloppy, yes.
Sure,
NOW you understate things. LOL. 8)
Re. Way. A life of alcohol abuse (and whatever else came with it) will do that to even the best bass players. When he wasn't (isn't?) wasted (no pun intended) he was really good. I know some people don't care for his style but there are many UFO videos spanning their career that show a guy who can play when he keeps his other distractions in check; kind of like Schenker in that way. They're compadres in more ways than one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw_q06RQHFk
Then again, this is coming from a guy who even owns this album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2smJkOZWiw
Edit: What's with these idiots ruining my video interjections! Release the embedding, guys!
I'm always glad I got to see UFO with Pete and Michael in '78 just before he left the band, I don't recall them being sloppy, tho Pete was likely sauce'd, he pushed his Marshall stack over at the end of the show with his Thunderbird........
I never cared for them as much after Schenker's departure, the band suffered without his infuence, and he was a very creative lead player (probably my fav at the time), no one else could have performed "Love to Love" but Schenker, at least in my book ;)
Man, how I'd love to see the Strangers In The Night tour..
Quote from: uwe on January 27, 2014, 06:08:39 PM
... but this is the best I've seen of the Michael Schenker Group in a long time:
Having a singer that actually sing makes all the difference.
He's had a penchant for bad singers way too long.
Saw UFO tour with Schenker (Obsession tour - utterly stunning - effectively the SITN tour), the Scorpions Love Drive tour (again superb, Blackfoot supporting), the first London (?) MSG shows (with Powell - always a monster), and UFO with Tonka (saw him in Lone Star too) several times - all great except the last time when a drunk Mogg ended it for me...
Heard some really good things about his latest lineup...
Michael Schenker is playing Yoshi's in Oakland (http://www.yoshis.com/oakland/jazzclub/artist/show/4003) - it's a jazz club but the economy is bad so they've been having different stuff, though usually more r&b and comedy - this is the first time I've seen metal advertised. I thought about going but I have a meeting that night. Only $59 for the meet & greet! :mrgreen:
Harry... seeing that line-up in what is effectively a club situation is almost too tempting a prospect to bear...
Schenker is never again gonna get out of the clubs. He missed the stadium boat when he left acts like UFO and the Scorpions, but I think he knew that. He seems to be genuinely happy with what he is doing now. And he won't go hungry as long as his big brother Rudolf is around, a wealthy man.
Quote from: CAR-54 on January 29, 2014, 04:29:06 PM
Harry... seeing that line-up in what is effectively a club situation is almost too tempting a prospect to bear...
I realized I had the date wrong, and almost rearranged my schedule so that I could attend...
And it's SOLD OUT! :-\
I enjoyed seeing Michael Schenker on That Metal Show - he seemed pretty relaxed and healthy.
Any truth to the story that part of the trouble he had in UFO was that he couldn't speak English at the time? Seems unlikely to me but I don't really know.
Quote from: uwe on January 29, 2014, 05:50:43 PM
Schenker is never again gonna get out of the clubs. He missed the stadium boat when he left acts like UFO and the Scorpions, but I think he knew that. He seems to be genuinely happy with what he is doing now. And he won't go hungry as long as his big brother Rudolf is around, a wealthy man.
I interviewed him with MSG - I think it was Gary Barden on vocals, along with the SAHB guys, and an incredible background singer hiding in the wings of Haymakers - and he basically confirmed what you just said. He left UFO, fearing that one more tour with them would finish him off. He felt that the lifestyle would kill him if he had stayed.
Saw MSG last week here in NJ. Michael played his butt off, but the aforementioned ex-Scorpions were not in present. The suspiciously-coiffed Doogie White was in attendance, as was Wayne Findlay and bass duties were handled by the ever-mobile Rev Jones. Pete Holmes was on drums.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/lowend1/MSG4_zps6c13e7d5.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/lowend1/media/MSG4_zps6c13e7d5.jpg.html)
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/lowend1/MSG6_zps05ce7098.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/lowend1/media/MSG6_zps05ce7098.jpg.html)
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/lowend1/MSG20_zpsb0c826b4.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/lowend1/media/MSG20_zpsb0c826b4.jpg.html)
From his interview:
MICHAEL: and so the album lineup world tour is not ready until March. So, in March we start off in Japan with the album lineup touring the world and we're gonna be in America around Autumn. I said to the guys the album is coming out in the states so I'd better go there. I want to be there.... I haven't been promoting any album for any tours for the past; who knows how many years. This is a very special album. I want to make sure that everybody knows about this. So I decided to take Doogie with me and Wayne Findlay and put together a few shows on a smaller scale and tour throughout the United States going from coast-to-coast and letting people know that there is a new album out called, "Bridge the Gap" and that's the new album lineup that will be touring the world and be in the states in Autumn of this year. So basically, I am here with Doogie with the help of Wes Jones on bass and Pete Holmes on drums, we are basically introducing a couple of new songs. The main focus to having Doogie with me is to introduce him to my hard-core fans as the new singer and hoping to get additional people to know about this and do as much press as possible- TV radio magazines etc. etc. we will be touring until the 16th February and will be hoping by then that the whole United States will know that there is a new album and we will be coming to the states with Herman and with Francis in Autumn.
http://onstagereview.com/interview-with-michael-schenker-january-12-2014/ (http://onstagereview.com/interview-with-michael-schenker-january-12-2014/)
Quote from: hieronymous on January 29, 2014, 05:56:57 PM
... that he couldn't speak English at the time?
Mogg and Way were/are extreme p*ss-takers and the young German laddie was targeted in a brutal fashion, so it was told at the time... that, and the alcohol...
Schenker was shy, spoke no English at all, was only 17 and came from a sheltered, if not wealthy background. The UFO guys were hard drinkers and partyers, came from an English blue collar background and physical violence was not unheard of among them. The first departure of Schenker was fuelled by physical violence of Mogg - he sucker punched Schenker backstage after an argument even though Schenker had said he would immediately leave the band "if Phil ever hits me". Mogg apologized, Schenker returned, but of course it happened again.
I know, Krauts are pussies.
As a teenager and huge Schenker fan, I tried to go see UFO three times. The first time was in '77. A plumpish guy in leather walked out onto the stage of the little club, sweated profusely and played guitar for them while I tried to figure out what happened to my hero. My first encounter with supersub Paul Chapman. Not to worry though - a year later, I had tickets again. Unfortunately, by the day of the show, I also had mononucleosis. My friend used the tickets. "How was it?" I asked, and was told that it was unbelievable and that Schenker was indeed there in the flesh. As luck would have it, they showed up in NJ again, supporting Cheap Trick. I had third row seats. The lights go down... and out comes the guy dressed in leather again. I was beside myself. "Where's Schenker?!" I repeatedly screamed at Phil Mogg. Finally, he replied on mic - "He's dead".
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/lowend1/UFO2c_zpsd9ee2586.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/lowend1/media/UFO2c_zpsd9ee2586.jpg.html)
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y247/lowend1/UFO4b_zps028c77da.jpg) (http://s6.photobucket.com/user/lowend1/media/UFO4b_zps028c77da.jpg.html)
Chapman was a competent guitarist in his own right, but - in Rolling Stones terms - no Mick Taylor for the band. With Schenker gone, UFO lost a lot in the songwriting department and the guitar solos became mere afterthoughts, not high points of songs.
I saw a UFO version with Atomic Tommy in the eighties and ex-Damned Paul Gray on bass, they weren't bad at all, but Mogg's heart was no longer in it.
I listened to a track-by-track review of the new album. Schenkers playing is still great and there are some great solos and riffs on the album. The lyrics sound more like Dio cast-offs in many cases but the vocals were fine.
Yes, the lyrics are trite, Doogie White is no Ian Gillan when it comes to word play or amusing/witty lyrics. No comparison to Mogg's little stories either. And White, his voice having aged somewhat (in a nice way), has certainly become more Dio'ish over the years. There are worse role models though, I've never heard any other rock singer say that Dio's use of his voice was anything but technically excellent, especially as his range wasn't exactly baffling.