Michael Schenker & Wytch Hazel, KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton, 08.05.25
My Years With UFO 1972-1978: 50th Anniversary Celebration
Tonight’s entertainment is courtesy of a guitarist that for some reason rarely appears in “Greatest all time” lists. I know these lists and polls are very subjective and depending on whoever is conducting the survey, what their target audience is made up of, but an AI generated list which scours the net still doesn’t place Schenker in a top 40. Just goes to show, the internet can’t be right all the time!
But seriously though, we are here tonight to enjoy Schenkers shredding as he celebrates the years he spent with classic rock legends UFO. And whether you think he should have a top ten ranking in any list, or you don’t care as long as he keeps mesmerising us with his skills, the fact is, he’s bloody good!
First though is a warm up set from Wytch Hazel (8), one of the new wave of NWOBHM bands that keep the heavy metal flag flying high and proud. They’ve been around for getting on 15 years now and as with many bands in this genre, they love to put on a good stage show, with matching outfits, guitars and stage props.
Although their songs have Christian themes and lyrics, and their stage is full of religious iconography ans symbols, they claim not to be a “Christian” band, but who cares as long as the riffs are heavy and the tunes are good, which they are. Songs like I Am Redeemed, Archangel, and Healing Power are proper heavy metal bangers.
The crowd are loving it, plenty of head banging going on with plenty of cheers and applause. Not too bad a start to the evening.
Onto the main event and Michael Schenker (10), digging deep into his long and colourful career to perform some of the tracks he was involved with during his time with the classic British rock band UFO. In some ways it seems a bit strange to have a celebration of this time as it wasn’t always smooth, the man could be petulant at times and was known to have walked off stage during concerts, a pretty turbulent time with the band, but there’s no denying it, a golden era for the band with some of their greatest tracks coming from that era.
For this tour, Schenker has enlisted the vocal skills of Erik Gronwall, the Swedish singer who won their version of Pop Idol or whatever and went on to front H.E.A.T and more recently Skid Row. This was all put on hold though when he developed leukaemia and had to take time out to receive treatment. Hopefully he is well on the road to recovery and judging by tonight's energetic performance he’s doing ok.
So when you’ve got five albums worth of material to choose from it must be difficult to put a set list together. There will be the obvious bankers – Doctor, Doctor Only You Can Rock Me, Lights Out… Rock Bottom, Shoot, Shoot and of course Too Hot To Handle worth the money just for those! But those albums are all classics and full of fantastic tunes, so what to pick! I’m guessing this was a set list that would have been Schenkers dream list back in the day, some of the guitar solos are simply sublime. Tony was very happy they included Love To Love in the set and I was just happy to witness a guitar god perform some of the greatest rock songs from the last 50 years.
Schenkers skills are beyond comprehension at times, that signature Flying V seems to be an extension of the man himself. I’ve always rated the sound here at KK’s but tonight it was another level. The tone was magical.
Gronwall has taken on the role with his usual bombastic energy. I wasn’t sure how he was going to fit with this more classic rock sound, but he handle the songs with aplomb, especially the aforementioned Love To Love
So with the triumvirate of three of their biggest hits as the encore – Rock Bottom, Shoot, Shoot and Too Hot still ringing in our ears, we once again leave KK’s thinking how is anything going to top that! This year so far has been a high quality year for gigs! Long may it continue!
No comments:
Post a Comment