You never know how long it's gonna last with him ...

[uwe]

... but this is the best I've seen of the Michael Schenker Group in a long time:



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.

[OldManC]

Sounds really good. I recognized Francis but is that really Herman ze German? I guess there are no hard feelings there.

[gweimer]

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. 

[TBird1958]

Ok, it does sound good....But I kept wanting to see Pete and a Thunderbird!

Shoot! Shoot and no Pete 

[uwe]

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.



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.

[gweimer]

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.

[uwe]

Way can be sloppy, yes.

[gweimer]

Way can be sloppy, yes.

Sure, NOW you understate things.  LOL.   

[OldManC]

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.



Then again, this is coming from a guy who even owns this album:



Edit: What's with these idiots ruining my video interjections! Release the embedding, guys!

[TBird1958]

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   

[NOT]

Man, how I'd love to see the Strangers In The Night tour..

[Basvarken]

... 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.

[Highlander]

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...

[hieronymous]

Michael Schenker is playing Yoshi's in Oakland - 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! 

[Highlander]

Harry... seeing that line-up in what is effectively a club situation is almost too tempting a prospect to bear...