RockBox - Uli Jon Roth - Symphonic Rock For Europe

Uli Jon Roth - Symphonic Rock For Europe

Ulrich Roth (born 18 December 1954), more commonly known as Uli Jon Roth, is a German guitarist and one of the earliest contributors to the neo-classical metal genre. He is also the founder of Sky academy and inventor of the Sky Guitar. He is the older brother of fellow guitarist and artist Zeno Roth.

In the early 1970s, Roth formed a band called Dawn Road. In 1973 he joined Scorpions, replacing guitarist Michael Schenker (brother of Scorpions guitarist Rudolf) who had left to join UFO. Michael had a reputation as a highly skilled technical player; Scorpions disbanded after he left the group. The "new" Scorpions were, in effect, a merger between the four members of Dawn Road, (Uli Jon Roth, Achim Kirschning, Francis Buchholz, Jürgen Rosenthal) and the two remaining Scorpions members, Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine. During his tenure as lead guitarist and a main songwriter for the Scorpions, the band released five very influential records, including the live album Tokyo Tapes, which sold nearly one 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, much as his influence Jimi Hendrix had done towards the latter half of his career. Roth left the Scorpions in 1978.

Roth 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 Dannemann, Jimi Hendrix's 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), featured a song called "Enola Gay" which was about the atomic bombing of Japan, and cover art by Monika Dannemann.

Interviews with some original Scorpions members after the release of these albums demonstrated how far the two parties had grown apart. Matthias Jabs, the guitarist who replaced Roth, told the press that he thought Roth was "lost" musically. This may have referred to the commercial success Roth had stepped away from that the Scorpions were still experiencing. Roth's records were released on the much smaller German Metronome Musik label. Roth's 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 1980's era fantasy heavy metal settings. The two band's public images were starkly different: the Scorpions favored skin tight leotard style clothing typical of the 80's while Roth leaned more towards a loose, flowing Hendrix-influenced style of dress.

In 1985, Roth released his third and final Electric Sun album, Beyond the Astral Skies, dedicated to Martin Luther King and to Roth's fans. At that time, Roth entered a new phase of creative work, composing a.o. four symphonies and two concertos, and sometimes performing with symphony orchestras throughout Europe.

Online there are some excellent videos of jams with Randy Hansen covering tunes by Jimi Hendrix, each player unique in style , interpretation and creativity.

The untimely death of Roth's girlfriend and spiritual partner Monika Dannemann on 5 April 1996 was ruled a suicide; she had just lost a legal battle with another former Hendrix girlfriend and was due to be described in a book about the last days of Hendrix in a negative light. However, Roth publicly stated his opinion that her passing had been the result of foul play. Roth dedicated later works to the memory of Ms. Dannemann.

Roth appeared in concert at Castle Donington in 2001 with original Scorpions lead guitarist Michael Schenker, and critics noted the healthy appearance of Roth and his mastery of his material, but described Schenker as past his prime. These reviews ended comments of Roth being "lost" musically by his former Scorpions bandmates, now that Roth had developed into a polished and successful artist. He joined Scorpions onstage at various venues in 2005- 2008.

On 2 June 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 26 February 2008.

According to Roth's official site by 21 December 2007 he had begun working on a new full-length studio album, which was to be released before the summer. The title of the album would be "Under A Dark Sky" and was going to be the first official release in the long-awaited series of Symphonic Legends, this series of Symphonic Legends is a cycle of music written by Uli for his all-encompassing Sky of Avalon project.

Uli Jon Roth first debuted songs from "Under A Dark Sky" on 18 July 2008 in his headline set at the G-TARanaki Guitar Festival in New Zealand, Roth's debut concert in the country. In the week previous Roth had taken his "Sky Academy" tuition classes to regional Taranaki towns in Waitara, Inglewood and Opunake with guests Vernon Reid and Gilby Clarke.

The new studio album "Under A Dark Sky" was released as stated on his official website in Japan on 20 August 2008 via Marquee records. The European and USA releases followed a month later on 20 September 2008 (SPV record label Symphonic Rock For Europe - 3 hour concert with Brussels Symphony Orchestra and choir, performing Uli's first symphony "Europa Ex Favilla" and other pieces. The show featured 4 Rock singers: John Parr, Tommy Heart, Michael Flexig, Peter Goalby. Broadcast by German TV.Here is the regular version (1 Hour) which was broadcasted in 93' and is one of the rarest Uli Roth videos. ENJOY

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2.04 GB

8 files

21/06/2009

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27/12/2024 10:26:51