< 11. MARCH 2008 >
a program featuring Billy Corgan & Uli Jon Roth
for its long-standing, critically acclaimed TV series
"Durch Die Nacht" - Au Coeur de la Nuit
Two camera teams followed Billy and Uli for an entire evening
a series of free-ranging conversations, as well as jam sessions.
and can be received all over Europe via satellite.
Uli Jon Roth is currently working on a new full-length
studio album, which is to be released before the summer.
The title of the album will be "Under A Dark Sky".
This is going to be 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.
The new album is featuring a cast of rock singers as well as Uli's band,
a classical choir and Sky Orchestra.
The main lead singers are Mark Boals and Liz Vandall.
Further vocalists and guests are still to be announced.
Uli Jon Roth will take his band on a world tour next year, starting in July.
This is going to include Japan, Asia, North-and South America, Europe, New Zealand and India.
Additionally, several Sky Academy Seminars are going to be held in various countries.
These are going to be announced on the Sky Academy Website.
< 27. NOVEMBER 2007 >
A DVD featuring the re-union concert of Scorpions & Uli Jon Roth
Live at Wacken Open-Air in 2006 will be released before X-mas.
The title of the release is "A Night To Remember - A Journey Through Time".
< 24. OCTOBER 2007 >
An original oil-painting featuring Uli Jon Roth is currently
being exhibited at Gallery K in Tokyo. The artist is ULE W. RITGEN,
who is well known among Uli fans for being a founder member of
ELECTRIC SUN. He later went on to be a member of ZENO,
followed by FAIR WARNING.
Ule also recently participated at SKY ACADEMY 2007 in Los Angeles.
His painting is shown in conjunction with a collection of limited edition
prints featuring his works. Date of the exhibition: 25th Oct - 6th Nov 2007.
http://www.gallery-k.net/artist/others/index.html
< 2. SEPTEMBER 2007 >
CLASSIC ROCK REVISITED.COM has just featured
an in-depth review of the 2007 SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS
in Los Angeles featuring ULI JON ROTH & FRIENDS.
The article was written by the editor, Jeb Wright.
< 20. AUGUST 2007 >
It has just been confirmed that PAUL GILBERT
will perform several songs together with ULI at the
upcoming SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS in Los Angeles.
PAUL chose three JIMI HENDRIX songs for the occasion,
including the lesser known "Highway Chile".
SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS 2007
proudly present
ULI JON ROTH & FRIENDS
LOS ANGELES - AUGUST 24th & 25th
The special guests confirmed so far are:
(in no particular order)
JOHNNY HILAND - CHRIS POLAND - ROY Z
JOE STUMP - DON DOKKEN - TONY FRANKLIN
MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO - KOFI BAKER
SEYMOUR DUNCAN - STUART SMITH
JEFF SCOTT SOTO - MARK BOALS
ULE W. RITGEN - PIERO LEPORALE
ROB PAGLIARI - PHIL WOODWARD
EVAN MARSHALL - CORVIN BAHN
STEVE SMYTH - ADRIAN GALYSH
RICHIE ONORI - MICHAEL EHRÉ
A N D R E W S H U L M A N
G E O R G E B E L L A S
P A U L G I L B E R T
< 12. AUGUST 2007 >
ROBBY KRIEGER - legendary guitarist and song writer for the DOORS
will appear on one of this year's SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS as guest
of honour to play with ULI JON ROTH & FRIENDS.
Last year's inspiring jam session with ROBBY and ULI at the UCLA
featured extensive renditions of no less than three DOORS classics
(L.A. Woman, Roadhouse Blues, Riders On The Storm).
< 16. JULY 2007 >
One of the world's leading Cello players and classical conductors,
ANDREW SHULMAN,
will participate in the SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS this year.
Uli Jon Roth & Friends will also perform one of Andrew's compositions,
which is going to feature Andrew on electric cello and Uli on guitar.
SKY ACADEMY is also thrilled to announce that Andrew is going to share
the stage with Uli during one of the master-classes in order to talk about
his musical insights together, as well as demonstrate certain things on the cello.
Uli said "we are extremely lucky to have Andrew there!
Our students will gain a new perspective about guitar playing
and music making through this encounter with such a true master of the cello.
I know that Andrew feels music on a very deep level, and I'm really
looking forward to having him as our guest at the academy.
Here is a quote by Andrew Shulman about Uli's teaching:
"Uli Jon Roth is unique. The sort of artist that emerges perhaps once in a generation,
he is a genuine 'all round' virtuoso musician. Equally at home in the worlds of Rock
and Classical, his insights into musical performance, preparation, understanding
and inspiration provide his students with an invaluable fund of knowledge.
I myself was fascinated and riveted by his classes and lectures when my son
attended the first Sky Academy last year. Able, by turns, to inspire and intellectualize,
comfortable talking about Mahler, Beethoven, Hendrix, The Blues, improvisation,
and able to find common links between them all, help to provide us with
a once in a lifetime, intensive musical experience.
< 7. JULY 2007 >
SKY ACADEMY 2007 will take place on August 22nd- 26th in
The seminar and master classes will be conducted by ULI JON ROTH
and will also feature joint appearances with notable guest teachers.
The Academy is taking place in the auditorium of the
Musician’s Institute and will culminate in two
SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS
Continuing the same exiting format, which gave us last year’s very successful
SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS, both shows will feature an inspiring choice
of special guest artists, who are going to share the stage together with Uli as
ULI JON ROTH & FRIENDS
Each of the two
Each show will be at least three hours long and is going to include an intermission.
Last year’s series of concerts was enthusiastically received by both - audiences
and performers alike – and each of them was a truly unique concert.
Please, don't miss this chance to be there!
Further guest announcements are imminent.
For information about the seminar - please click here
< 24. MAY 2007 >
GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE is paying homage to
ULI by devoting an in-depth, seven page article to some of his
playing techniques and innovations in their June issue.
< 9. MAY 2007 >
ULI JON ROTH will appear as special guest of
T H E S M A S H I N G P U M P K I N S at two major festivals
in Germany on June 2nd - ROCK AM RING FESTIVAL, Nürburgring
and June 3rd - ROCK IM PARK FESTIVAL.
Uli is going to join the band during the encores and will guest
on a couple of songs.
Uli and BILLY CORGAN earlier this year in Los Angeles.
Billy is holding Uli's favourite Sky Guitar "Mighty Wing".
(pic by John Kornarens)
< 30. APRIL 2007 >
ULI JON ROTH is going to appear as special guest of his former band
S C O R P I O N S during their up-coming tours of France and England,
The band will also head-line the SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL in June and
a festival in Athens, Greece, later that month with U.J.R. on stage.
Uli is going to play during a sizeable part of the set, performing
mainly pieces from the early Scorpions days.
please click here for the dates
< 28. MARCH 2007 >
ULI is taking part in a series of impromptu jam sessions at the
2007 Frankfurt Music Fair. The jams will take place each afternoon
at the TRONICAL POWERTUNE stand (Hall 4 - H 38).
http://www.tronical.com/
A series of artists have been invited to take part in the improvisations,
including MICHAEL ANGELO, MARTY FRIEDMAN,
GUS G, CHRIS ADAMS, ROB PAGLIARI
and MICHAEL EHRE, among others.
< 13. FEBRUARY 2007 >
ULI has been invited to talk about the album covers
of his career from the early Seventies until now, at the
MUSEUM HÜLSMANN in Bielefeld, Germany, on
February 23rd, 2007. The discussion will provide in-depth,
behind-the-scenes glimpses into the genre and is open to the public.
The language of the talk is going to be German, and the presenter of the
event is Heiko Hasenbein.
There is only a limited amount of tickets available.
Please order either by phone: 0521-513766
or E-mail:
further info :
< 29. DECEMBER 2006 >
ULI JON ROTH will present a revolutionary new invention at the
2007 NAMM Music trade fair in
He has recently come across a new self-tuning guitar technology,
which was developed in
Uli was so intrigued and fascinated by this landmark invention that he
had it installed on his favourite white Fender Stratocaster guitar last week.
The auto-tune technology is currently only geared for 6-string
Strat- or Gibson-type guitars, but Chris Adams has promised to extend
the system for his 7-string SKY GUITARS in the near future.
When asked to endorse the new invention, Uli immediately agreed
and had the following to say: “This is something I totally believe in.
I can’t remember getting as exited about new technology as I am about this one.
Uli calls the TRONICAL POWERTUNE system the fulfillment of a long-held dream.
"This was one of the last frontiers to cross in the development of stringed instruments;
until recently, before I met Chris Adams, I thought I might never see the day…
a solution seemed so far off because of all the technical difficulties,
but Chris has absolutely thought of all the angles and has designed
something here that is just perfect !"
"Because I don’t use a locking system on my guitars for reasons of sound,
I sometimes have annoying tuning issues on stage, particularly,
since I often like to play a whole set on one guitar only.
All this is going to be behind me from now on - and what’s even better:
now I can tune down the guitar to E-flat or even D and C# within a split second.
This opens up a whole new world of musical possibilities. For example,
when we’re performing some of those old Scorpions tunes on stage –
as we have done recently – I can fret the songs the way they were originally written,
instead of having to transpose them, say, from A to G#, in order to hear the same result.
Due to the lack of open strings in some keys that is sometimes musically awkward.
In those days we used to tune down a semi-tone, and I like to play
the songs in their original pitch. Up to now, detuning on stage
was a complete impossibility, because it takes a long time for the strings
to settle when using conventional manual tuning. Powertune achieves
this result flawlessly within seconds! In my mind this is clearly
the most significant technical development on the guitar since the invention
of the pick-up. It’s THAT groundbreaking - and the best thing is that it
absolutely works, and that it’s beautifully thought through
in its economy of means.”
< 27. NOVEMBER 2006 >
Swedish band THERION have invited ULI JON ROTH
to attend their charity orchestra concert in Bucharest, Romania in December
as special guest of honour.
On the previous day, December 8, Uli will hold a speech and press conference
at the Student's House Conference Room at 17.00 hours. He will be joined
on stage by CRISTOFER JOHNSSON of THERION in a question and
answers session.
The "ARS MUSICAE - ARS MEDICINAE - MUSIC AGAINST CANCER PROJECT"
is sponsored by the AQUARIUS FOUNDATION of ROMANIA.
Uli has been asked to talk about the "fusion" of rock and classical music
in his speech as well as the link between music and medicine.
Further information can be found here:
http://megatherion.com/
http://www.concerte.fundatia-aquarius.ro/
< 7. OCTOBER 2006 >
Uli's long-time record company
Uli's long-time record company, SPV is going to release a
"BEST OF ULI JON ROTH"
to coincide with the up-coming European tour.
The double CD contains no less than 32 songs drawn from all of the
official U.J.R. releases since his departure from Scorpions to the present day.
The album will give those listeners who are not yet familiar with Uli's music
a chance to get acquainted with it. The booklet contains mainly hitherto
unpublished photographs and comes with pretty extensive liner notes.
The choice of songs was made by Uli himself, who also newly re-mastered
some of the material especially for this compilation.
Furthermore the CD contains two video bonus tracks and will be released in
Germany on November 3rd followed by a European release on November 6th.
New concert dates have just been added to the up-coming
ULI JON ROTH - BAND Of SKY tour in autumn 2006.
These now include Scandinavia, i.e. Sweden and Denmark.
These are going to be Uli's first full-length concert appearances
in Sweden since the days of Electric Sun.
Further dates may still be added.
Please find the current tour dates by clicking on the link below:
http://www.ulijonroth.com/sky/current/concerts_tours_1.htm
< 5. JUNE 2006 >
This is to all the participants of the 2006
First of all I just wanted to say a heartfelt thanks to all my students
who showed so much dedication and who all contributed to the whole
not only through just being there, but also by fully applying
themselves in mind and spirit. I really, really enjoyed this week
tremendously and am already looking forward to the next seminar.
Many thanks also to all those who were instrumental in getting this thing
off the ground against the odds, foremost to my friend Jeff Agins,
our production manager, who made it all happen, but also our crew, band and friends,
Olaf Senkbeil, Francis Buchholz, Michael Ehre, Ferdy Dörnberg, John Boswell,
John Kornarens, Anthony Kornarens, Stephen Claps, Tonio Neuhaus, Ivan Lang,
Mathias Dittner, Ralf Winter, Justin and Al Myers, Bobby Gervais,
Johannes Neumann, George Hernandez, Phil Woodward and Alan Cyr.
Many thanks also to the kind staff of the University Campus
particularly to Jeff Wachtel, who were extremely helpful, professional and supportive
during our 5-day stay in the hall on UCLA campus, the Ralph Freud Theater.
The “icing on the cake” for me was getting to jam with all the great guest musicians
on stage during the three concerts. I want to thank all of them for donating
their precious time in participating and making this a week of inspiration for us.
Many special thanks, of course, also to all of you who went to see and hear
the concerts and for your patience in sitting through four hour plus shows –
we couldn’t have done it without you !
We intend to hold another seminar next year in the same location
some time in April / May 2007, which will be announced shortly.
Uli Jon Roth - June 5th, 2006
The very special guests for the three
LOS ANGELES 2006 - SKY ACADEMY CONCERTS
were (in no particular order):
CHRIS IMPELLITTERI - CHRIS POLAND - ROY Z
DON DOKKEN - ROBBY KRIEGER - TONY FRANKLIN
DAVID PAICH - KOFI BAKER - ROB PAGLIARI
FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ - EVAN MARSHALL
JEFF KOLLMAN - PHIL WOODWARD
ADRIAN GALYSH - STUART SMITH
SAMMY JAY - DYNA SHIRISAKI
JOE STUMP - DOUG DOPPLER
WARREN DE MARTINI
GRAHAM BONNETT
DAVE WATERBURY
JEFF SCOTT SOTO
RICHIE HONORI
< 7. MAY 2006 >
The ULI JON ROTH - SKY BAND
Don't miss this chance to see Uli and his band in concert !!!
Each show is going to be at least 2 hours long, sometimes even longer.
At the end of most shows there is going to be an informal "Meet & Greet".
The shows on the East Coast will include "THE LIZARDS" as special guests.
who will share the stage together with Uli as ULI JON ROTH & FRIENDS.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR
S P R I N G - 2 0 0 6
|
12.05. 2006 |
VIRGINIA |
SPRINGFIELD - J a x x |
U L I J O N R O T H & F R I E N D S
S K Y A C A D E M Y C O N C E R T S
|
24.05. 2006 |
CALIFORNIA - |
LOS ANGELES - Ralph Freud Theater |
< 17. APRIL 2006 >
The album "GILLAN'S INN", which is featuring
IAN GILLAN & FRIENDS has now been officially released.
< 6. APRIL 2006 >
The official cut-off date for student applications to the
L.A. Sky Academy Seminar is May 5th, 2006.
After that date we will be unable to consider any
further applicants. The gates are closing fast;
we have almost reached full capacity, and we advise
all potential students to make their reservations
sooner rather than later, if they want to be part of
this unique event. If you leave it too late,
you simply may not be able to get in.
There is also no possibility for walk-ups to the
Sky Academy Seminar including the Master Classes.
Tickets for the concerts, however, will be available at the venue
unless they are sold out. Please note that there is a reserved
seating policy in place at the Ralph Freud Theater.
The sooner you get advance tickets the better
your seats.
< 14. MARCH 2006 >
Tickets for the LOS ANGELES
SKY ACADEMY - CONCERT SERIES
U L I J O N R O T H & F R I E N D S
on May 24th, 26th, 27th - 2006
at the Los Angeles University UCLA
Ralph Freud Theater
are now officially on sale at
Ticketmaster.com
PLEASE NOTE that there are going to be
RESERVED SEATS ONLY available.
http://www.ticketmaster.com/artist/1019029
The Sky Academy Seminar will be attended by several
Guests of Honor, who will also participate in the concerts.
Among the very special guests confirmed so far are:
CHRIS IMPELLITTERI - CHRIS POLAND - ROY Z
DON DOKKEN - JOHN LEVIN - TONY FRANKLIN
DAVID PAICH - KOFI BAKER - HOWARD LEES
FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ - JÜRGEN ROSENTHAL
ANDY ALEDORT - PHIL WOODWARD
ULE W. RITGEN - LORI CARPENTER
ADRIAN GALYSH - STUART SMITH
SAMMY JAY - DYNA SHIRISAKI
JEFF KOLLMAN - ERIC SINGER
JOE STUMP - DOUG DOPPLER
WARREN DE MARTINI
JEFF SCOTT SOTO
The list is growing steadily, and there are many
artists who would like to attend, but have not yet
been able to fully confirm due to their schedules.
Note: not all of the above artists may necessarily
perform on stage with Uli on the same day.
< 18. JANUARY 2006 >
The first ever
SKY ACADEMY SEMINAR
&
SKY MUSIC FESTIVAL
is going to take place in
on
ULI JON ROTH will personally lead the guitar and music seminar,
which is coupled with a series of three exclusive
by himself and his new band in the same venue.
Each concert is going to be devoted to a different theme
and will feature music from all phases of Uli’s career, including
SCORPIONS, ELECTRIC SUN, SKY OF AVALON
and TRANSCENDENTAL SKY GUITAR.
The venue for both the Academy and the concerts is the
Ralph Freud Theater at the University Campus of Los Angeles (UCLA).
For further information on the seminar and concerts
please visit the official SKY ACADEMY WEBSITE
at http://www.sky-academy.com/
Tickets for the concerts will go on sale soon,
and a date will be announced shortly on this page.
< 30. OCTOBER 2005 >
Uli Jon Roth's European record company SPV is releasing
two of his previous albums simultaneously.
Both albums have not been available for a long time
and have been digitally re-mastered by Uli himself.
The first one is BEYOND THE ASTRAL SKIES,
which came out in 1985 and was the last-ever album
of Uli's then-band ELECTRIC SUN.
The exiting re-release comes with extensive new artwork
and a Video bonus-track - the original promo-video for the single
THE NIGHT THE MASTER COMES - which has never
been commercially available until now.
The second re-release is
PROLOGOUE TO THE SYMPHONIC LEGENDS
of Uli's SKY OF AVALON project, which was first
released in 1996. The CD also contains a hitherto unreleased
video for CRY OF THE NIGHT from the METAMORPHOSIS
album featuring ULI JON ROTH & SKY ORCHESTRA.
Both albums are available now.
< 28. SEPTEMBER 2005 >
The line-up of Uli's band for the up-coming
European dates will be as follows:
ULI JON ROTH - Guitar, vocals
FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ - Bass
OLAF SENKBEIL - Vocals
FERDY DOERNBERG - Keyboards, guitar
MICHAEL EREE - Drums
Ex- SCORPIONS/ Ex ELOY drummer
JUERGEN ROSENTHAL will join Uli and the band
on stage for some of the shows to play a couple of
songs from the FLY TO THE RAINBOW album.
Uli, Francis and Juergen - who all had been members
of the German Cult band DAWN ROAD before they
merged with SCORPIONS in 1973 - have not shared
a stage together since 1974, and Uli is looking forward
very much to playing with his old friends again.
The program for this tour is going to be extensive,
as Uli intends to play material from all phases of his
career, including many early SCORPIONS and
ELECTRIC SUN songs. Quite a few of these have
actually never been performed live so far. Since there are
so many songs to choose from the program may vary
substantially from night to night.
< 10. SEPTEMBER 2005 >
Tonight SCORPIONS and ULI JON ROTH
performed their first concert together in
since they had been on stage together in
For many of U.J.R. and SCORPIONS fans, this was
a very emotional and truly historic event which they had
long been waiting for.
The Parc Expo amphitheatre was virtually sold out with
approximately 8000 people in the audience. After two support bands,
Uli took to the stage just after dusk at 20.30hs with a new band,
which he had put together especially for this event and which was
well rehearsed. (Rehearsals took place in Hanover, Germany,
in the week leading up to the show.
For the line-up, please refer to the previous news post.)
Uli and his band played a 70 minute plus set, which
featured 3 songs from REQUIEM FOR AN ANGEL
alongside material from his ELECTRIC SUN and SCORPIONS days.
For the last two songs he was joined by his old Scorpions buddy,
RUDY LENNERS, and they performed “Catch Your Train”
and "Polar Nights” together. Uli dedicated the first of these
two songs to Klaus and Rudolf.
The audience responded enthusiastically throughout the virtually flawless U.J.R. set,
which premiered two beautiful new songs from the Requiem - the unique
and powerful rock-epic “
“Forgive”, which Uli had written especially for that show 2 weeks ago.
The intensity of Uli’s performance and that of his band in connection
with the images on the screen was palpable. Further highlights included
“Sky Overture”, which was the opener, a full-length version of "Winds Of War",
a mind-blowing “Enola Gay – Hiroshima Today?” and the new orchestral
version of “The Sails Of Charon”, which was particularly well received.
The set also featured a brief version of "Virgin Killer", followed by
another Scorpions classic from the Uli era, "Fly To The Rainbow".
The SCORPIONS sound check took place at 1.30 in the afternoon,
and it was a sweltering day in
jam session onstage before the sound check proper, which lasted for about an hour.
Scorpions and Uli rehearsed four songs at the sound check and the feeling onstage
was great from the word go. Briefly before the concert it was decided
to also include "Kojo No Tsuki" in the set.
Following U.J.R., SCORPIONS played an amazing set, and Uli
joined them half-way through to play the four songs together.
KLAUS MEINE gave Uli a very warm welcome onstage
and there were smiles all round when Klaus said,
“Please give a big welcome to the legendary Uli Jon Roth!”
The audience were spellbound and went wild with the excitement
of this once-in-a-lifetime moment.The first song was “In Trance”,
which Uli kicked off with a haunting improvised guitar intro and when
Klaus started to sing, the audience immediately chanted along with him.
The guitar lead was shared by Uli and MATHIAS JABS in
harmony, and the two guitarreros sounded great together while
RUDOLF SCHENKER was blasting his famously energetic
and relentless power chords underneath.
The next song on the menu was “Pictured Life”, which the band
hadn't played for ages. This was followed by the sort-of
impromptu version of “Kojo No Tsuki” from
Klaus dedicated the next song, “We’ll Burn The Sky”,
to MONIKA DANNEMANN, Uli’s deceased girlfriend,
who had written the lyrics to that Scorpions classic back in 1977.
The band then continued their set and Uli came out for the encores
again to play “He’s A Woman – She’s A Man”. RUDY LENNERS
also participated on that song playing along with JAMES KOTTAK.
Previous to the show Klaus, Rudolf and Uli had a joint interview with
one of the French Rock Magazines and gave television interviews.
There was a major glitch before the show regarding Uli’s MIGHTY WING Sky guitar.
One of the tremolo bar springs at the back of the guitar had come off and rendered
the guitar practically unplayable. Luckily – literally in the last moment -
Rudolf’s guitar technician and repair whiz - PETER KIRKMAN - performed 30 minutes of surgery
and repaired the damage just in time for Uli to restring the precious instrument before the show.
Uli had no spare guitar with him and would have had to pretty much cancel the show without
MIGHTY WING since none of his new material can be played on a standard instrument.
Thank You, Peter !!!
Both Uli and Scorpions were very happy about the event, which came about
rather unexpectedly and at pretty short notice under the auspices of French
promoter Joelle Kilhofer of Music Forever.
During their joint interview in the afternoon Klaus and Uli already
hinted to the press that they would like to see more of these events in the
future and possibly go on tour together.
Pictures and possibly video clips of the event will follow later.
http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/
http://www.stargazer.it/daniele/scorpionsrothcolmar2005/index7.html
Here is the line-up of Uli's band for the
up-coming two shows in September:
ULI JON ROTH - GUITAR
OLAF SENKBEIL - VOCALS
OLIVER PALOTAI - KEYBOARDS
PETER PICHL - BASS
CHRIS LOWE - DRUMS
SCORPIONS ex-drummer RUDY LENNERS
will join U.J.R. as a special guest during his set in Colmar.
The first ULI JON ROTH NEWSLETTER has now gone out.
It contains a lot of interesting info regarding up-coming releases and tours
as well as on SKY GUITAR ACADEMY and was largely written by Uli himself.
Please click on the link below to receive it.
http://www.ulijonroth.com/sky/mailinglist/mailinglist.php
The ULI JON ROTH VIDEO ARCHIVE has now been added to this site
and offers some free downloads including videos which have never been
available until now. Please click on the link below to check it out.
http://www.ulijonroth.com/sky/archives/video/nav.htm
The American Tour and SKY ACADEMY have been put back
until the beginning of 2006. ULI JON ROTH will first play some
shows in Europe instead.
The first of these is going to be in Colmar, France,
(September 10), at an open-air arena, where Uli is going to be on the
same bill as his former band, SCORPIONS, and one other group (t.b.a).
Uli will later join the band during their set and they will
perform a couple of Scorpions classics together,
dating from the period when Uli was still a member of the group.
This will be a somewhat historic and nostalgic occasion for a lot of fans
from the past, who have never had the chance to see Uli with the Scorpions,
because this is going to be their first joint appearance since
the recoding of TOKYO TAPES in 1978.
On the following day ULI JON ROTH will head-line
the GUITARFEST 2005 in Birmingham, England
at the South Birmingham College.
The tour in November will include Germany, France,
Switzerland and Greece.
For a full listing of the European concert dates which have been
confirmed so far, please refer to the link below.
http://www.ulijonroth.com/sky/current/concerts_tours_1.htm
< 6. JUNE 2005 >
ULI JON ROTH will be featured in a guest performance
on IAN GILLAN'S upcoming album "GILLAN'S INN".
The album celebrates Ian's 40 years in the world of rock, and
for this end Ian invited a dazzling number of friends and fellow-
musicians to contribute performances. These include, among others,
all the current members of DEEP PURPLE, furthermore RONNIE JAMES DIO,
JON LORD, JOE SATRIANI, TONI IOMMI, DEAN HOWARD, JEFF HEALEY
and MICHAEL LEE JACKSON. It has been rumoured that LUCIANO PAVAROTTI
might also be part of the equation.
ULI recorded multiple lead guitars for two tracks,
which, by all accounts, came out stunning. The two songs are
"DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT",
and "LOVING ON BORROWED TIME".
This was, in fact Uli's first ever guest appearance on a rock album.
"It was an honour to be asked by Ian to be part of this, and I accepted gladly,
because I have always been a big fan of his singing and I had a lot of fun
recording the guitars for the tracks."
http://www.gillan.com/
Latest News Update: Uli has been focusing mainly on his work in the studio
for the last couple of months and has not given any interviews, which is why
it has been quiet in the news department. But lots of activity has been going
on behind the scenes and we will now fill you in on some of them.
Uli will conduct further recording sessions for REQUIEM FOR AN ANGEL
with the members of SKY ORCHESTRA over the Easter period.
Work on the album, which will comprise of two CDs, has been going
very smoothly recently and a lot of progress has been made.
No release date has been set as yet.
Further developments: ULI JON ROTH will play
a head-lining tour of North America in September 2005.
Uli will bring two very special guests and a band
as well as the large multi-media screen, which was also featured
on the previous US tour.
Further details of the tour will appear on this site in the near future,
and as soon as the first shows are confirmed they will be posted
on this site as well as being published in the NEWSLETTER.
Uli is also contemplating to do tours of Japan, Europe
and South-America following this.
In October we are planning to hold the first ever SKY ACADEMY
seminars, which are going to be held in LOS ANGELES, in GERMANY,
and probably TOKYO as well as HIROSHIMA.
The Sky Academy events are going to take place in a very novel format
and are centred around Uli Jon Roth's teaching regarding the guitar and his
unique approach to music. Special emphasis will be laid on little-taught subjects
such as 'The Way Of Inspiration' and on certain key points which enable the participants
to get to a higher level of playing and overall musical awareness.
These events are essentially 3-5 day seminars, which are going to be held in theatres.
The Los Angeles seminar will be 5 days, whereas those in other cities will run
from three to four days respectively.
They comprise of master classes, informal lectures by Uli, as well as of concerts.
Uli will do most of the teaching himself, but will be aided by assistants and guest tutors.
An official SKY ACADEMY WEBSITE containing all the relevant
information, including dates and how to apply, will be announced soon.
< 14. JANUARY 2005 >
ULI JON ROTH is currently featured in the 25th anniversary
issue of GUITAR WORLD magazine. Uli gave his first ever on-camera
lesson about 'THE SAILS OF CHARON'. He was being
interviewed by ANDY ALEDORT who also did the printed transcription.
For demonstration purposes Uli opted to play with a completey
undistorted sound in order to show how the song should be played correctly.
The footage was recorded last September in New York following Uli's US tour.
There is also an interview cum article in the current US edition of "GUITAR PLAYER".
NEW YEAR's MESSAGE for you in the Forum.
< 31. DECEMBER 2004 >
The 'A R C H I V E S' button has now been activated on this site.
The CONCERT PICTURE ARCHIVE features nice hitherto
unpublished photos from various U.J.R. 2004 shows.
http://www.ulijonroth.com/sky/archives/nav.htm
The Video/Film archive is also going to be activated very
soon and will allow you to download a variety of old
and new U.J.R. related footage and clips.
< 30. DECEMBER 2004 >
The 'LATEST SITE UPDATES' button has now been activated.
< 13. DECEMBER 2004 >
There is an interesting and amusing little story about Uli's jam with
DEEP PURPLE on the STEVE MORSE Official Website written by
Steve himself. You can find it under 'notes from the road - November 19'.
< 26. NOVEMBER 2004 >
U.J.R. played at the JIMI HENDRIX FESTIVAL in
The venue was Stazione Birra in Rome Ciampino. Uli was truly in great form
and played an impromptu set which was largely improvised overcoming a number
of technical problems in the process. The backing band for all the
guitarists onstage were the
whose musicians Uli had never met before.
Before the show at the sound check, Uli was clearly unhappy with the hired
equipment, which was largely not what had been agreed upon before
and was faulty on top of it, but Uli made do with what was there and
decided to make the best of it.
At the brief sound check Uli explored a few of Jimi's songs, but chose to play
different ones during the concert. He was giving cues to the band as he went along,
not all of which were successful as it took a little while for the other musicians
to get used to Uli's free flow improvisational style and they sometimes
had a hard time keeping up with his ideas, which was difficult as the band
was relatively new to the world of Hendrix music.
However, this did nothing to dampen the general excitement of the
audience who clearly honoured Uli's set, which had been preceded by four
Italian guitarists, as the fitting highlight at the close of a very enjoyable night
completely dedicated to Jimi's music.
Since he was last on the bill Uli started to play very late,
but from the beginning he had a great rapport with the audience
as well as with the music.
The sound during the first song, "All Along The Watchtower",
was a bit shaky due to the fact that Uli's hired amp blew up literally minutes
before the show and he suddenly had to play through FABIO CERRONE's
gear, who kindly offered it when the emergency arose.
Initially Uli couldn't get the amp to create a singing tone, but after
a little knob twiddling the problem was solved and Uli's six string
SKY GUITAR (EMPEROR) then sounded superb throughout.
Highlights of the set included a surprise rendition of
"STAR SPANGLED BANNER" - a piece which Uli had last played
at a Hendrix Festival in
"VOODOO CHILE - SLIGHT RETURN", which he hadn't played since
his 1999 concert in
This was the first Jimi Hendrix based concert Uli was involved
in since 1992 and he enjoyed himself enormously, commenting
afterwards "at first when the promoter rang me with the idea
I wasn't so keen, because I wasn't in the right frame of mind
for such an event, but then it began to appeal to me.
It is sometimes good to re-connect with one's past and to
look at familiar things with a fresh eye. Whenever I do this
I seem to learn something new and I'm discovering things
which eluded me before. I grew up with Jimi's music and
it is easy for me to tune into this world and re-connect
instantly, but at the same time it is always a challenge
to breathe new life into his amazing music onstage."
ULI JON ROTH made a surprise appearance
tonight with DEEP PURPLE at
Uli had just attended the show as a back-stage guest, but was
spontaneously invited to join the band for the last encore, which
was the well-known Deep Purple classic 'Black Night'.
Uli played on one of STEVE MORSE's Music Man guitars
and for the first minute of the song the amp didn't work.
Just prior to the first lead Steve gallantly unplugged his own guitar
and handed it to Uli who went into an amazing guitar lead right away.
As soon as the second amp finally did work both guitarreros
played improvised leads and off-the-cuff question and answer phrases
in perfect harmony and were clearly enjoying themselves
which resulting in a lot of big smiles on stage.
Despite a few equipment problems on DON AIREY's side
Purple played a classic set and the sold-out Cardiff Arena
loved every minute of it.
After the show Uli commented "'it was a great honour to be asked