Scorpions
At
the start of the new millennium and exactly 35 years since the foundation of Germany’s
most successful hard rock band of all time, SCORPIONS Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker
and Matthias Jabs can look back together on a spectacular career in the international
music business.
Like many youngsters
born in post-war Germany, Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker were influenced by the
music and other life-enhancing delights imported into their homeland by American
GI’s – Elvis Presley, chewing gum, blue jeans and leather jackets, but
most of all rock ‘n’ roll. From an early age, both of them had an irresistible
urge to grab a guitar and step into the limelight. In the early 1960s the Beatles
sparked off the beat revolution. By the mid-1960s Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker,
both of whom were blessed with understanding parents, had also taken to the stage
with their beat groups. In 1965 Rudolf Schenker started up the SCORPIONS in Hanover.
Rudolf’s younger brother Michael Schenker was, like Matthias Jabs, smitten
by beat music and the burgeoning rock culture. Guitarist and songwriter Rudolf
Schenker’s earliest influences were the raw riffs of bands like The Yardbirds,
Pretty Things and Spooky Tooth, who in those days were regarded as the real hard
rockers.
At New Year 1970, the younger
Schenker brother Michael, who despite his youth had already established himself
as an outstanding guitarist, left the Hanover-based group Copernicus, along with
singer and composer Klaus Meine, to join Rudolf Schenker’s SCORPIONS. Rudolf
Schenker and Klaus Meine teamed up to form the accomplished Schenker/Meine songwriting
duo, so laying the foundations for a spectacular success story.
In 1972, the
SCORPIONS released their remarkable début album, Lonesome Crow, produced
by Conny Plank in Hamburg. The vocal and instrumental ingredients which over the
years were to develop into the typical, unmistakable SCORPIONS sound, were already
recognisable: uncompromising, guitar-orientated hard rock, on the lines of what
Jimmy Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin generated in the mid-1960s. The distinctive
SCORPIONS style came from the combination of two electric guitars, a fusion of
fabulously forceful power riffs with dazzlingly exuberant guitar solos. Added
to which was the instantly recognisable voice of singer and front man Klaus Meine
with his highly expressive and polished delivery.
1972: Michael Schenker,
Joe Wyman, Lothar Heimberg, Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker.
In one respect,
the SCORPIONS were unique on the German rock scene of the period. Because, right
from the start, the band was aiming for the very top of the international hard
rock business, Klaus Meine wrote all his lyrics in English. In the creative partnership
of Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine Germany had finally found its answer to the
famous beat and rock composing teams of the English-speaking world.
The first
album Lonesome Crow set the band on the path to international success. The SCORPIONS
toured as support band with Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep and UFO. Throughout their
history Rudolf Schenker has been the unshakeable driving force behind the SCORPIONS.
He adopted his father’s philosophy of life – nothing is impossible as
long as you believe in it. Right from the foundation of the SCORPIONS, he had
only one declared ambition: "one day the SCORPIONS will be one of the best
heavy rock bands in the world!" It was an idea to which all the band members
were committed. The SCORPIONS were constantly on the lookout for fresh challenges.
Every change in the line-up was seen as an opportunity to move closer still to
success and the achievement of absolute professionalism.
1974:
Uli Roth, Francis Buchholz, Klaus Meine, Jürgen Rosenthal, Rudolf Schenker
In 1973, following a joint tour with UFO, Michael Schenker joined the British
rock group. He was replaced as SCORPIONS lead guitarist by Ulrich Roth. He too
was an exceptional guitar player with an almost mystical talent. With Ulrich Roth,
the SCORPIONS continued unwaveringly to explore the hard rock genre.
In the
1970s, the SCORPIONS undertook tours of Western Europe, playing countless venues
and conquering one country after another. They would appear wherever there was
somewhere to plug in their instruments. In 1973, they accompanied The Sweet on
their first European tour. The SCORPIONS went on to record their next four studio
albums with Ulrich Roth. Fly to the Rainbow, (1974) features a solid, high-energy
brand of heavy rock never before heard from a German band. The title track Speedy’s
Coming typifies the SCORPIONS style of ultra-hard rock combined with catchy melodies.
Beginning with their third LP In
Trance, (1975), they began their working relationship with well-known international
producer Dieter Dierks. They were firmly launched on their hard rock career. In
Trance was the best-selling RCA album in Japan, where a regular SCORPION mania
broke out.
In 1975 the SCORPIONS toured Europe, sharing top billing with KISS.
In Germany that same year, they were voted best live group. During their first
UK tour in 1975, the SCORPIONS entered what might be called "the lion’s
den", playing at Liverpool’s legendary Cavern Club. In the birthplace
of hard rock, they succeeded in gaining the acceptance of the most dyed-in-the-wool
British fans. Gigs at the renowned London venue, the Marquee, were further highpoints
of the mid-1970s.
The SCORPIONS achieved their ambition to be the top
German hard rock band, when their fourth album Virgin Killer (1976) won the "LP
of the Year" award in Germany. In Japan, Virgin Killer gained them their
first Gold Disc. Their follow-up album Taken by Force (1977) was also awarded
a Japanese Gold Disc. In 1978 the SCORPIONS toured Japan, the world’s second
largest music market, where they got a foretaste of what it was like to be superstars.
When they arrived at Tokyo airport, the five heavy metal men were mobbed by adoring
fans. Ulrich Roth left the band after the 1978 Japanese tour. The highpoint and
conclusion of the SCORPIONS’ Ulrich Roth period is the double album Tokyo
Tapes (1978) which even now is cherished around the world as a collector’s
item. Michael Schenker filled in briefly (he recorded several songs on Lovedrive
(1979) until Matthias Jabs finally entered the fray.
1975: Francis Buchholz,
Klaus Meine, Rudy Lenners, Uli Roth, Rudolf Schenker
Japan
1978: Herman Rarebell, Uli Roth, Francis Buchholz, Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine
In 1978 an advertisement appeared in the Melody Maker: the SCORPIONS were looking
for a new lead guitarist. In London, they auditioned 140 hopefuls, before deciding
on Hanover-born Matthias Jabs. Thrown in at the deep end, Matthias Jabs immediately
joined the band in recording Lovedrive (1979) which was then in production. The
album was to be the group’s biggest triumph so far, and is still one the
SCORPIONS’ best-ever albums. The sleeve received a prize for the best artwork
of the year.
In 1979, Michael Schenker rejoined the SCORPIONS for a short spell,
but left the band while on tour. In 1980, he founded MSG, the Michael Schenker
Group. Matthias Jabs once again leapt into the breach and achieved the amazing
feat of learning, literally overnight, the entire programme for the current tour.
His baptism of fire came when the SCORPIONS played to 55,000 fans as support act
for Genesis on their German tour. In Matthias Jabs, the SCORPIONS had finally
found the lead guitarist whose creativity, virtuosity and enthusiasm continue
to make a decisive contribution to the band’s success. With him, the band
achieved an even more solid sound. Like the missing piece in the jigsaw, his guitar
style fitted to perfection into the group dynamic, creating the unique SCORPIONS
sound. Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs still form the musical backbone
of the band.
With bass man Francis
Buchholz (who joined the SCORPIONS in 1973 at the same time as Ulrich Roth) and
drummer Herman Rarebell (who first featured on Taken By Force in 1977), they finally
established the combination that was to continue its victorious progress across
the globe right up until Wind of Change.
Already hailed as a super group during
the 1978 tour of Japan, in 1979 the band, comprising Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker
and Matthias Jabs, set out to conquer the vast US market. Their weapons: a professional
attitude paired with a steely determination to succeed and a philosophy of friendship,
both within the band and towards their fans, as well as great musicality. As a
rock band working on the international scene, the SCORPIONS had long since created
their own musical identity. In the 1980s, the USA was the biggest market of all
for hard and heavy rock. Since 1974, the SCORPIONS had built up a considerable
following in the States. Van Halen launched their musical career in the mid-1970s
with cover versions of SCORPIONS songs: Speedy’s Coming (from Fly to the
Rainbow) and Catch Your Train (from Virgin Killer).
In 1979, now professionally
managed and boosted by the success of Lovedrive, the SCORPIONS with their definitive
line-up – Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs – embarked
on their first major tour of USA rock arenas as opening act with Aerosmith, Ted
Nugent and AC/DC. In Chicago, the SCORPIONS swapped the headliner billing with
Ted Nugent, since the SCORPIONS had more fans in the city. On this first American
tour, the SCORPIONS quickly learned the rules of the game in the international
rock business.
Their seventh album Lovedrive was released in the USA in 1979,
and was the first SCORPIONS production to receive a Gold Disc there. Animal Magnetism
followed in 1980. With the two albums, the band finally made their North American
breakthrough. On their second US tour the SCORPIONS were top of the bill. The
era of SCORPIONS monster tours had begun.
1979: Francis Buchholz, Herman
Rarebell, Klaus Meine, Matthias Jabs, Rudolf Schenker
After
more successful world tours, in 1981, while recording Blackout, Klaus Meine lost
his voice. Not wishing to stand in the way of the band’s success, Klaus Meine
wanted to pull out. But the unshakeable friendship between Rudolf Schenker and
Klaus Meine and the close and supportive relationship within the band allowed
the seemingly impossible to happen. After lengthy vocal retraining and two operations
on his vocal chords, Klaus Meine overcame the trauma. And that was not all: in
1982, he re-emerged with a much increased vocal range. One critic wrote: "They
have given Klaus Meine metal vocal chords." The band’s decision to stand
by their lead singer through this troubled time later proved to be the most crucial
the SCORPIONS ever took in the their entire career. It was Klaus Meine who in
1989 composed their smash hit Wind of Change.
In 1982, on their second US tour
as headliners with Iron Maiden as support act, the SCORPIONS promoted their groundbreaking
album Blackout, with Helnwein’s stunning sleeve design. The single No One
Like You and the Blackout LP reached the US Top Ten, the LP was voted Best Hard
Rock Album of the year and awarded a Platinum Disc. One hit followed another,
and in the 1980s the SCORPIONS captured the hearts of hard rock fans around the
world.
US-Festival 1983 in San Bernadino/California
In 1984 the SCORPIONS became the first German hard rock band to play three successive
gigs in front of 60,000 fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The SCORPIONS
had finally scaled the Mount Olympus of rock. With three albums featuring simultaneously
in the US charts: Animal Magnetism (1980), Blackout, (1982) and Love at First
Sting (1984), the SCORPIONS spent two years on the road playing as headliner or
co-headliner at all the big rock festivals that sprang up around the world after
Woodstock.
The SCORPIONS toured the globe,
with a fleet of articulated lorries, Nightliner buses, helicopters, private jets
and the inevitable limos. Hanover’s heavy metal band played all the main
rock venues in North, Central and South America and Europe. In Asia, they played
in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. This was the golden age of heavy
rock.
With gigantic stage and light
shows and dramatic firework effects, the SCORPIONS unleashed a pyrotechnic display
of sound and light. Their relentless energy sent the fans wild. To US audiences,
the SCORPIONS, with their polished, hard-edged "melodic rock" and Klaus
Meine’s dramatic power singing with its dizzying top notes, came to epitomise
the best in heavy rock. Groups like Bon Jovi, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Def Leppard,
later to become mega bands, were support acts on the SCORPIONS’ worldwide
tours, learning what it meant for a band to hold its own in the rock arena in
front of an audience of millions. Love at First Sting became one of the most successful
albums in rock history. It includes the SCORPIONS’ most electrifying numbers
Rock You Like a Hurricane, Bad Boys Running Wild, and the masterpiece Still Loving
You. The critics struggled for superlatives.
Rolling Stone called the SCOPRIONS
"the heroes of heavy metal". The SCORPIONS were admitted to the exclusive
club of the world’s 30 greatest rock groups. Their ballad Still Loving You
became an international rock anthem. In France alone, the single sold 1.7 million
copies. The song unleashed a wave of hysteria among French fans not seen since
the Beatles and became the SCORPIONS’ musical trademark around the globe.
The
SCORPIONS’ most memorable appearances as headliners were at the 1983 US Festival
in California’s San Bernadino Valley in front of an audience of 325,000 and
at the first Rock in Rio in 1985 where they were cheered by 350,000 enthusisatic
South American SCORPIONS fans. The 1985 double album World Wide Live, a counterpart
to the 1978 Tokyo Tapes, impressively documented the band’s more recent international
triumphs.
In 1986, the SCORPIONS topped
the bill at the legendary Monsters of Rock Festival and played in the Hungarian
capital Budapest, their first-ever appearance in an Eastern Block country. By
now the SCORPIONS were a household name, with hard rock hits like Rock You Like
a Hurricane, No One Like You, Blackout, Big City Nights, Dynamite, Bad Boys Running
Wild, Coast to Coast and The Zoo featuring in the charts around the world. In
the 1980s, the SCORPIONS created a kind of modern hard rock that is just as popular
today.
Their authentic power rock ballads,
such as Still Loving You, Holiday and later Wind of Change, Send Me an Angel,
When You Came Into My Life and You and I, along with acoustic based songs such
as Always Somewhere and When the Smoke is Going Down have managed to win over
even the most unyielding haters of hard rock
Savage Amusement, the last
album co-produced with Dieter Dierks, was released in 1988. It reached N°
3 in the US chart and N° 1 in Europe. Even after years of touring the USA
and the rest of the world, the SCORPIONS did not rest on their laurels and continued
to seek out fresh challenges.
As a prelude
to their 1988 Savage Amusement world tour, they penetrated the Iron Curtain to
give 10 sell-out concerts in Leningrad for 350,000 Soviet fans. They were the
first international hard rock band to play in the former USSR, cradle of Communism.
Hard rock, heavy metal and especially the SCORPIONS’ ballad Still Loving
You had already found their way through the Iron Curtain. The SCORPIONS are still
given a rapturous reception in Russia today.
A
year later, in August 1989, 20 years after Woodstock, the Soviet authorities,
encouraged by the success of the SCORPIONS’ 1988 Leningrad concert, gave
permission for the legendary Moscow Music Peace Festival. Here, the SCORPIONS
shared the stage with other international hard rock acts, including Bon Jovi,
Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Cinderella and Ozzy Osbourne and the Russian
band Gorky Park playing to 260,000 Soviet rock fans in Moscow’s Lenin Stadium.
In September 1989 Klaus Meine drew on his impressions of the Moscow Music Peace
Festival, to create the SCORPIONS’ smash hit Wind of Change.
Then,
in November 1989, came a completely unexpected event. The fall of the Berlin Wall.
Throughout the world, Wind of Change became the hymn to glasnost and perestroika,
providing the soundtrack to the opening of the Iron Curtain, the fall of Communism
and the end of the Cold War. One year later, in 1990, the SCORPIONS played in
Potsdamer Platz where a section of the Wall once stood, in Roger Waters’s
spectacular production, The Wall.
The
SCORPIONS recorded a Russian version of Wind of Change. They also gained a distinguished
fan. In 1991, the members of the German band were invited to the Kremlin to meet
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet head of state and party leader. It was a unique
event in the history of the USSR and rock music.
Michael
Gorbatschew receives the Scorpions at the Kreml
For the SCORPIONS too, the
wind of change continued to blow. Before the production and release of their worldwide
mega seller the Wind of Change CD, Crazy World (1990), their long relationship
with Dieter Dierks, the Cologne-based producer of so many successful recordings,
came to an end. The very first album to be produced by the SCORPIONS themselves,
Crazy World, made in Los Angeles, co-produced by Keith Olsen and featuring the
smash hit Wind of Change, immediately became the most successful CD to date. Not
only was Crazy World the most successful album, Wind of Change was the worldwide
top single of 1991, occupying the N° 1 slot in 11 countries. In 1992, they
received the World Music Award as the most successful German rock act.
Crazy
World is impressive testimony to the songwriting talents of the SCORPIONS’
masterminds: Matthias Jabs’s contribution is the dynamic title track Tease
Me, Please Me, while Rudolf Schenker once again proves his ability to hit the
spot with his classic SCORPIONS ballad, Send Me an Angel, and Klaus Meine displays
his brilliance as a composer in Wind of Change. At the end of the 1992 Crazy World
tour, the SCORPIONS parted company with their long-time bass player Francis Buchholz.
The 1993 CD Face the Heat (co-producer: Bruce Fairbairn), featured the band’s
new bass man, conservatoire graduate Ralph Rieckermann.
In 1994 the SCORPIONS
again received a World Music Award. Yet another high point of their career came
when, at the invitation of the family of the "King of Rock ‘n’
Roll", Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, and the "King of Pop",
Michael Jackson, they performed their cover version of His Latest Flame at the
1994 Elvis Presley Memorial Concert in Memphis, Tennessee. In the same year the
SCORPIONS committed themselves to helping United Nations efforts on behalf of
refugees from the civil war in Rwanda. In only one week the band produced and
released their benefit single White Dove.
At the end of 1995, just before completing
the Pure Instinct CD, co-produced by Keith Olsen and Erwin Musper and released
in 1996, the SCORPIONS’ veteran drummer and long-time companion Herman "The
German" Rarebell left the band.
During
the 1988 Savage Amusement tour, the US heavy metal band Kingdom Come, whose producer
was Keith Olsen, had been a warm up act for the SCORPIONS. Even then, the Germans
were impressed by the style of the group’s Californian drummer James Kottak.
In 1995 the SCORPIONS engaged former AC/DC manager Stewart Young¸ and it
fell to him to call James Kottak on the phone and hire him as drummer for the
upcoming 1996/97 Pure Instinct Live Tour. James Kottak became the first American
to play in the German rock band. With the two new members, bass player Ralph Rieckermann
and drummer James Kottak, the SCORPIONS had introduced a new generation of musicians
into the group.
On the Pure Instinct
world tour, the SCORPIONS proved that they were still among the global players
on the international rock scene. Not only did they play in Europe, the USA and
South America. In countries like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, they
continued to notch up well above average record sales and collect gold and platinum
discs. In November 1996, the SCORPIONS were the first international hard rock
band to play to fans in Beirut after the end of the civil war in Lebanon.
On the 1999 recording of Eye to Eye, produced by Peter Wolf, James Kottak worked
in the studio with the SCORPIONS for the first time. The cover of Eye to Eye marked
a change of image for the SCORPIONS. Only the founder members of the band, Rudolf
Schenker, Klaus Meine and Matthias Jabs feature on the front cover. The album
itself is a statement of the SCORPIONS’ awesome talents as songwriters and
instrumentalists. Songs like Mysterious, Mind Like a Tree, Eye to Eye, Yellow
Butterfly and A Moment in a Million Years show the band at the pinnacle of their
creativity. With Du Bist So Schmutzig (You’re So Dirty), the SCORPIONS are
heard for the first time singing a German lyric. As part of their 1999 Eye to
Eye world tour, at the invitation of Michael Jackson, they played at the Michael
Jackson and Friends benefit concert in Munich.
True to their motto "Don’t
stop at the top" the SCORPIONS are starting the new millennium with a new
musical challenge: a crossover project with the internationally renowned classical
orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, once conducted by the great Herbert von Karajan.
In 1995, the Berlin Philharmonic was
exploring the possibility of a crossover project and was on the lookout for a
suitable band. Over the years even this classical orchestra had been aware of
the SCORPIONS' success and international reputation. The two Mercedes of German
music agreed on a joint venture under the direction of the internationally successful
crossover producer, composer, conductor and arranger, Austria’s Christian
Kolonovits. As early as 1995 the SCORPIONS began their preparations. Since then,
both groups of musicians have continued to working on the project, while still
fulfilling current engagements around the world and bearing in mind the timing
of EXPO 2000 in Hanover. After the release of the Eye to Eye CD in 1999 and the
subsequent world tour, the SCORPIONS got down to serious business in the autumn
of the same year.
The SCORPIONS gave a foretaste of what is to come when,
at the invitation of the German government, they played in front of Berlin’s
Brandenburg Gate on 11 November 1999, the 10th anniversary of German reunification.
Joining them in their performance of Wind of Change were 166 cellists. The work
was conducted by the distinguished cello virtuoso Mstislav Rostropovich. In January
2000, the SCORPIONS and Christian Kolonovits began studio recordings in Vienna.
The Berlin Philharmonic recorded the orchestral parts in April 2000. The complete
work was mixed during April and May 2000 at the Galaxy Studios in Belgium, using
the state-of-the-art Surround System Atmos 5.1.
The
crossover CD Moment of Glory, featuring the SCORPIONS with the Berlin Philharmonic
Orchestra, was released on 19 June 2000. The first live performance took place
at EXPO in Hanover on 22 June 2000. The album also includes the official EXPO
anthem Moment of Glory.
From
their official site:
http://www.the-scorpions.com/english
