To celebrate this special anniversary year, Uli Jon Roth is performing a whole series of concerts and tours worldwide with varying programs.
His two-month Triple Anniversary North American Tour – starting at the end of May 2018 – will be devoted to performing a complete set of Songs from Uli’s ground breaking Electric Sun period.
Electric Sun Reborn will consist of an intense 90-minute set by Uli and his band, complemented by multi-media projections. This is followed by an intermission and a shorter set of the highlights from Tokyo Tapes Revisited to round off the three hour extravaganza.
Uli has not performed the bulk of this music for over 30 years. Although, it never enjoyed the overwhelming commercial success of Scorpions, Electric Sun was far more than just a cult band and had a sizeable following on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in Japan. Largely thanks to Uli’s innovative and ground-breaking guitar playing and interesting compositions the band became artistically influential and presented a unique blend, which was sometimes likened to a strange mixture, located somewhere between Beethoven and Hendrix.
Following the worldwide success of his latest Scorpions Revisited releases, Uli will now revisit the spellbinding music of his first solo venture after leaving Scorpions and re-connect with his songs from that prolific era of his long and colorful career.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players ever, Uli pioneered a unique style of guitar playing which – for the first time – combined complete mastery of the instrument with an intensely melodic and emotional appeal. Uli’s Electric Sun guitar solos are both uplifting and often mesmerizing, displaying a very wide variety of textures, colors and novel ideas. They always take you on a journey.
From his earliest days’ onwards, Uli has always been a bold and uncompromising musical innovator of the first order and his Electric Sun period bears ample witness to that fact. Being the first guitar player in rock to incorporate complex melodic arpeggio sequences, Uli Jon Roth – in the eyes of many of his peers – practically reinvented modern guitar-technique almost singlehandedly during his Scorpions tenure, but even more so during his Electric Sun days.
Uli has now taken a fresh look at this material, drawn from the altogether three Electric Sun albums which he wrote some 40 years ago. The three albums – in chronological order – were Earthquake, Fire Wind and Beyond and The Astral Skies. Electric Sun and Uli fans alike will be delighted to finally hear these songs played live again by the master himself.
As a real bonus for his die-hard fans and connoisseurs Uli has a special treat in store which will bring many a tear to the eyes of nostalgic older fans; due to popular request, Uli will finally bring his legendary white Fender Stratocaster guitar on tour again. The famous instrument – which he used during ALMOST ALL the Scorpions and Electric Sun recordings- will make an onstage appearance for a couple of songs after having remained silent for so many years… The guitar has not been played in public since the mid-Eighties when Uli switched over to Sky Guitars for good. He is looking forward to putting this iconic guitar through its paces for old times’ sake. The “White Strat” can be seen on the covers of In Trance as well as Fire Wind. Uli played this guitar on every single Scorpions concert since 1975 and on every single Electric Sun album.
To make the evening even more intense, another very special is reserved for the purchasers of VIP Passes and comes as a big surprise. (VIP passes are only available online at ulijonroth.com). VIP Pass holders will be given a unique opportunity to hear Uli perform his Metamorphosis Of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in its entirety during a private pre-show concert.
Uli has not performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in over 14 years and this is a very rare chance to hear this amazing piece of music played live by the “Master of the Sky Guitar” himself. Uli was the first and only guitarist ever to perform this most famous of all violin concertos on electric guitar note for note, stretching the instrument to the very limits of its capabilities, and beyond. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons concerto was written in 1723 and sounds as fresh and inspirational now as it did 300 years ago. Particularly so in Uli’s truly mind-blowing rendition, which is fiendishly difficult to play on guitar and can only be performed at concert pitch on one of his signature Sky Guitars.
Uli will be accompanied for the VIP event by his two very talented young protégés Niklas Turman and David Kosinski on guitar as well as Corvin Bahn on keyboards who will play the orchestral parts. As an additional treat, Uli is going to perform this piece on his legendary “Mighty Wing” 7-string Sky Guitar, which has not been seen in public for a long time, but which was his main guitar for a period of 20 years.
Triple Anniversary North American Tour
5/31 Dallas, TX Trees
6/1 Houston, TX Arcadia
6/2 San Antonio, TX Rockbox
6/5 Phoenix, AZ Club Red
6/6 Hollywood, CA Roxy Theater
6/7 San Jan Capistrano, CA Coach House
6/8 San Diego, CA Brick by Brick
6/9 Las Vegas, NV Vamp’d
6/10 Ventura, CA Ventura Theater
6/12 Santa Cruz, CA Catalyst
6/13 Petaluma, CA Mystic Theater
6/14 Berkley, CA Cornerstone
6/15 Sacramento, CA Holy Diver
6/16 Seattle, WA Studio 7
6/17 Portland, OR Bossanova Ballroom
6/18 Vancouver, BC Venue
6/26 St. Paul, MN Amsterdam Music Hall
6/29 Joliet, IL The Forge
6/30 St. Charles, IL Arcada Theater
7/1 Detroit, MI Token Lounge
7/2 Toronto, ON Rockpile
7/3 Montreal, QU TBA
7/4 Quebec, QU L’ Anti
7/5 Ottawa, ON Brass Monkey
7/6 Pawling, NY Daryl’s House
7/7 Derry, NH Tupelo Music Hall
7/8 Hartford, CT Infinity Music Hall
7/10 NYC, NY Gramercy Theater
7/11 Asbury Park, NJ Wonderbar
7/12 Sellersville, PA Sellersville Theater
7/15 Anderson, IN State Theatre
Additional dates will be added soon.
Uli Jon Roth online:
2 Responses
I think Uli Roth is a great guitarist and songwriter. My favorite Scorpions period is the era that included Uli Roth. His guitar intro on Sails of Charon is awesome!
This’ll be my third Uli show in three years.
I saw him in Feb, which was mistakenly billed as a “Tokyo Tapes” tour, even though he actually performed only about half that album.
But he still puts on a great show, and he’s one of the few 70s legends that you can see in a club and not feel embarrassed about.
I’d recommend this to anyone.