Uli Jon Roth

German guitar innovator Uli Jon Roth will be touring Australia next week.

Roth first etched his name into rock and metal music history during his tenure as lead guitarist with German hard rockers The Scorpions between 1974 and 1977.

After his departure from the group, Roth pursued a long line of varied projects, including his own group Electric Sun.

This will be his first visit to our shores.

“I don’t know why it’s taking so long to get down under, but finally, we’re making it,” Roth tells Musical Musings.

“So, I’m going to take it all in, and play it by ear.

“When I come to a country I haven’t been in, I just try to soak up the general vibe.”

Roth says his live set will see him perform a good selection of material from his extensive body of work, including a deep dive into his Scorpions catalogue.

“The promoter requested that I basically play the set I play at festivals in Europe,” he says.

“Which is mainly very early Scorpions-era material along with some Electric Sun, and a couple of Jimi Hendrix numbers, and one by my deceased guitar-playing brother Zeno.”

The Scorpions were recently green lit to have a biopic made about them, and it is currently in production.

Though Roth believes the film focuses more on their later career than the period he was in the group.

“I think it’s mainly about, from what I’ve heard, the Winds of Change kind of story,” he says.

“It does touch on the early days, though I’m either not in it or I’m just a side figure, like the guy who left the Scorpions.

“But I have to wait and see.”

In hindsight, Roth believes his decision to leave the group when he did — the group would later go on to achieve international success on a grand scale — was the right one.

“I needed to just move on,” he says,

“Their goal was to be really, really successful, and they did that.

“And at the time when I was there, it was quite clear that they would become really successful because we were on this kind of trajectory, everybody felt it.

“I felt it wasn’t for me anymore, and I needed to jump ship, and basically be my own captain of my own ship, and that became Electric Sun.

“And that band was another apprenticeship because then I had to suddenly learn how to be a producer, and also run the show.

“Whereas before, with the Scorpions, all I had to do was play guitar and write songs.”

Roth is credited with pioneering the use of classical music elements into the framework of heavy metal music.

“I was always fascinated by the language of the classical music,” he says.

“I had studied classical guitar intensely before I joined the Scorpions.

“Initially, I earned classical trumpet and that’s where I learned how to read music and all that.

“I was puzzled that nobody made a connection between that entire vast realm of classical music, which had a history of 400 years.”

For tour info go to hardlinemedia.net/uli-jon-roth

Music news

Cheap Trick have announced that their 21st studio album, All Washed Up, is scheduled for release on November 14.

The album was recorded during 2024 in Nashville and Los Angeles.

Also receiving a release in November is The Beatles Anthology 4, CD and vinyl box sets that contain remasters of the original anthology volumes 1 to 3, alongside anthology 4, a new volume featuring previously rare and unheard material.

New album releases coming in September include Rob Thomas, All Night Days; Yusuf/Cat Stevens, On the Road to Findout: Greatest Hits; 38 Special, Milestone; and Robert Plant, Saving Grace.

Foo Fighters are currently in the studio working on a new album.

Behind the song

The Winner Takes It All (1980), ABBA

Released in July, 1980, The Winner Takes It All was the lead single issued from the album Super Trouper by Swedish pop superstars ABBA.

While it reached number one in several countries, including the UK, in Australia it peaked at number seven.

At the core of The Winner Takes It All, lays a simple repetitive musical structure that’s based around the variation of two piano melody lines that alternate, an element that can be traced to Benny Andersson’s love of classical music, where variations on a theme and the melodic content are common.

The lyrics were written by Björn Ulvaeus in an hour after having downed a few shots of whiskey; feelings about his divorce from Agnetha Fältskog came rushing to the surface and on to the paper.

Yet, Ulvaeus has stated the lyrical matter is purely fictional, though Fältskog’s heartfelt vocal performance injects such an authenticity and intensity of emotion into the song that Ulvaeus’ claim is open to debate.

The Winner Takes It All is one of the finest pieces of pop music ever put to tape.

ABBA had already penned the greatest pop song ever written with 1975’s SOS but with The Winner Takes It All they repeated that achievement, and elevated the evolution of pop music to the next level.

This week in music history

This week in 1975, Queen began recording their operatic masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody. They entered Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales to begin recording their album A Night At The Opera, which included their musical opus, Bohemian Rhapsody.

It would take almost four months for the album to be completed, and recording sessions would later move to several other studios for sessions, too.

This week’s number ones around the world

Australia: Golden, HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami

US: Ordinary, Alex Warren

UK: Golden, HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami

Sweden: Tusen Spann, Tjuvjakt & Fanny Avonne

Canada: Ordinary, Alex Warren

Fun fact

The Rhodes piano, which achieved popularity during the Seventies, was invented in 1942 by Harold Rhodes, who created it as a way to help wounded soldiers during World War II to practice piano as a form of therapy.

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Tuesday, 21st February 2023

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