ULI JON ROTH ON GUITAR IN IDAHO ON 10-1-08. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.
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ULI JON ROTH- “Guitar Fans Rock to Roth”
By SARAH DE CRESCENZO
The Porterville Recorder
Porterville, California
June 24, 2009
While Uli Jon Roth may not be a household name, Central Valley guitar enthusiasts gathered Tuesday night in droves at Exeter’s Orange Blossom Junction restaurant and events venue to witness his musical prowess. In true rock n’ roll style, Roth showed up late, but his fans were willing to wait.
Maybe his biggest fan – Orange Blossom owner and guitarist Doug Long – nearly vibrated with excitement as he discussed Roth’s legendary guitar skills.
“Uli is one of the greatest guitar players in the world,” Long said. Roth, previously the lead singer and songwriter for the ’80s rock band Scorpions, has had a long and varied career.
Following a stint as lead singer and songwriter with the Scorpions, Roth retreated from the music scene and explored different ways of using the guitar to make music, including playing sevenstring guitars in order to hit the highest notes. Roth has performed at the Orange Blossom before, most recently in 2008. That performance, while not a Hendrix tribute like Tuesday’s concert, also incorporated guitar riffs inspired by Roth’s favorite musical legend.
Roth strolled in casually one hour after the slated beginning of the show sporting a sequined black fanny pack, tight black pants, and a blazer and headband in bright red velvet holding back his long locks. Raucous applause and howls of appreciation greeted Roth’s arrival on stage.
Tuesday night’s show, called “In Celebration of Jimi Hendrix”, attracted a crowd of both Roth and Hendrix fans alike. The audience, while mainly made up of ’80s rock fans, incorporated people of all age groups. “We have people from 16 to 60 here to see Uli play,” Long said.
One of the people closer to 16 than 60 was his son, Christian Long, who attended with his friend Randall Shahan. Long – the younger – described his respect for Roth’s musical talents.
He described Roth’s prior performance as a mix between a “German war song” – in reference to Roth’s penchant for incorporating classical music from the likes of Wagner – and “serious hard rock.” When word got out that Roth had arrived, cries of “The king is here!” inspired an exodus of diners from the restaurant tables to the folding chairs set up around the stage. The audience, sitting closely crowded in a half circle around the small stage, were treated to an intimate, live experience as Roth sang and strummed on his electric guitar.
The sound of the guitar echoed warmly throughout the wooden building, as fans cheered and raved about Roth’s song selection. “This set is different [from my last performance] as you would expect from any self-respecting musician,” Roth said by way of introduction. “We’ll do some other songs too, but tonight is about Jimi Hendrix,” Roth added. His rendition of Hendrix’s lesser known “If Six was Nine” inspired a respectful silence as he sang throatily. But, when Roth dove into “All Along the Watchtower,” many members of the audience couldn’t help bouncing around in their chairs along to the catchy tune.
Even when Roth broke a guitar string, his band mates picked up the slack and entertained the audience with Hendrix melodies until the calamity was averted. As Roth returned to the stage, a full house held its breath to see what their musical icon would treat them to next. They weren’t disappointed.
ULI JON ROTH DISCOGRAPHY:
1974 Fly to the Rainbow (Scorpions)
1976 In Trance (Scorpions)
1977 Virgin Killer (Scorpions)
1978 Taken by Force (Scorpions)
1978 Tokyo Tapes (Live Scorpions)
1979 Earthquake (Electric Sun)
1981 Fire Wind (Electric Sun)
1985 Beyond the Astral Skies (Electric Sun)
1991 Aquila Suite
1996 Sky of Avalon
2000 Transcendental Sky Guitar Vol. I & II
2003 Metamorphosis
2008 Under a Dark Sky
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ULI JON ROTH-
“FORMER SCORPION STRIKES WITH NEW ALBUM”
THE FOOTHILLS SUN GAZETTE
EXETER, CALIFORNIA
SEPTEMBER 17, 2008
Legendary guitarist Uli Jon Roth will perform live in Exeter Sept. 23, the same day he releases his new album, “Under A Dark Sky.” The CD is the first official release in the long-awaited series of Symphonic Legends, which is a cycle of music written by Uli for his all-encompassing “SKY OF AVALON” project. It is also his first real rock record since 1985′s “Beyond The Astral Skies.” Fans of the Scorpions and Uli Jon Roth alike will be in awe of the guitar master once again as he delivers his next masterpiece.
The concert will be held at Orange Blossom Junction. Tickets are $85 and include dinner. Roth may be best known for his early years as guitarist for the Scorpions, a hard rock band from Germany, known for their 1980s rock anthem “Rock You Like A Hurricane.”
During his tenure as lead guitarist and a main songwriter for the Scorpions in the 1970s, the band released five very influential records, including the live album Tokyo Tapes, which sold nearly 1 million copies and went gold in several countries. Some later Scorpions releases with Roth began to exhibit a stylistic split in songwriting. Roth-composed songs were influenced by classical music and Jimi Hendrix but songs involving Rudolph Schenker as composer leaned towards straight hard rock and pop hard rock. This split reflected Roth’s growing dissatisfaction with his role in the band. He began investigating spiritually oriented subjects in his private life, like his influence Jimi Hendrix did towards the latter half of his career. Roth left the Scorpions in 1978.
He formed his own band named Electric Sun which released three albums. The first, “Earthquake” (1979), was dedicated to the spirit of Jimi Hendrix and featured cover art by artist Monika Danneman, Jimi Hendrix’s former girlfriend who had been with him when he died in 1970, and who became Roth’s partner afterwards.
A second album released two years later, “Fire Wind” (1981), was dedicated to Anwar el-Sadat (the assassinated President of Egypt who had tried to make peace in the Middle East), and featured a song called “Enola Gay” which was about the atomic bombing of Japan. The album once again featured stunning cover art by his girlfriend Monika Dannemann.
While Scorpions continued to experience mainstream and commercial success, Roth’s records were released on the much smaller German Metronome Musik label. His move into deeper spiritual and political subjects was opposite that of the Scorpion’s foray into more “good-time” subjects accompanied by MTV-style videos showing the band at parties and in 1980s era fantasy heavy metal settings.
In the 1980s, Roth commissioned construction of custom guitars with
additional frets (32). He called them Sky guitars and used them on his last Electric Sun album, “Beyond the Astral Skies” (which was dedicated to Martin Luther King and to Roth’s fans), released in 1985. Since then, Roth entered a new phase of creative work, composing four symphonies and two concertos, and sometimes performing with symphony orchestras throughout Europe.
On June 2, 2007 at the Rock am Ring festival in Germany, Roth joined The Smashing Pumpkins on stage for their epic closing song “Gossamer.” He made another appearance with the Pumpkins upon their return to Germany on Feb. 26, 2008.
For more information on Roth’s latest album, “Under A Dark Sky,” visit his official website at www.ulijonroth.com. For more information on upcoming concerts at Orange Blossom Junction, visit www. orangeblossomjunction. com. The restaurant is located at 20898 Avenue 296 (Highway 198) just east of Exeter.
ULI JON ROTH DISCOGRAPHY:
1974 Fly to the Rainbow (Scorpions)
1976 In Trance (Scorpions)
1977 Virgin Killer (Scorpions)
1978 Taken by Force (Scorpions)
1978 Tokyo Tapes (Live Scorpions)
1979 Earthquake (Electric Sun)
1981 Fire Wind (Electric Sun)
1985 Beyond the Astral Skies (Electric Sun)
1991 Aquila Suite
1996 Sky of Avalon
2000 Transcendental Sky Guitar Vol. I & II
2003 Metamorphosis
2008 Under a Dark Sky
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