| Well, this was a bit of a turn
up……..
From what I understand, Schenker spent most of
2007 lurching from one catastrophe to the next, including a truly
embarrassing "performance" with the Scorpions at the Rock & Blues
festival back in the summer, when he could hardly hold his guitar,
let alone play it!!. Subsequent tours of the UK and US also ended in
disaster, with cancellations, crowd problems, further poor
performances and not even significant lumps of cash changing hands
to sort out logistical problems saving the day.
Fortunately, based on last nights evidence
anyway, all this nonsense is behind him. |
 |
|
Kicking off with Assault Attack - yep, the first
track from the commercial disaster that was Schenkers liaison with
ex-Rainbow man Graham Bonnet - it's clear that Mad Mickey does know
how to hold a flying V, and he most certainly can play it too. Ok,
it's not the Gibson from the old days - he's now an endorser of Dean
and plays a couple of their slightly fancier versions in his
traditional split black and white paintjob for the rest of the
evening. And what and evening it was……..
Old UFO songs make up a fair proportion of the
set, with Let It Roll, Only You Can Rock Me, Too Hot To Handle and
Lights Out all getting an airing early on, but it's during this
stuff I'm reminded just how good a player Schenker is, with his
especially fluid vocal-like lead playing being well developed even
by this early stage in his song writing. And remember he was in his
mid-teens when he contributed this stuff to vinyl (remember
that????) back in the mid-70's.
His early era MSG back catalogue gets
plundered too, positioning tonight's set very much in the "greatest
hits" territory, with Armed And Ready and Into The Arena from his
solo debut, plus Ready To Rock, Attack Of The Mad Axemen and On And
On from the follow-up that I've still to actually track down on CD.
Must try and sort that at some point…..
The band that Schenker has assembled this time
around are competent enough, if perhaps a little faceless when
standing alongside the familiar slicked-back blonde locks and shades
of the main man. Also, the small stage at the Thekla doesn't really
give the rest of the guys much room to rock out a bit. The vocalist
looks a little like Jason Lee's character from the film Almost
Famous, but he does a great job with main melodies from the three
different vocalists that were part of UFO or MSG in the old days.
Bass and Drums are rock solid, while the 2nd guitar or occasional
keyboards played by the 5th member of the band add just the right
colour or harmonies depending on what's needed. The sound is good
too, with enough power to make it feel like a real gig for the
healthy crowd that took the chance and pitched up on a cold Sunday
night, while keeping the clarity of what's going on too - at least
from where I was standing.
Come encore time it's the old chestnut of
Doctor Doctor, which for me is one of UFO's worst songs, despite
being one of the most popular. But the formally mad axeman is just
playing with us, as we get an extended version of Rock Bottom to
close things out in style, including the various solo's in a couple
of different styles as per the version on the Strangers In The Night
live opus from UFO - awesome!!
Overall I'd say the punters were surprised at
how good the gig was, including me and a few of the muso/music bizz
types I spent the evening with. Lets hope 2008 continues in the same
vein for Michael - I for one would definitely pitch up to see him
again.
Moose..
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