FRANCIS BUCHHOLZ - Classic Era Bassist Caught In Dream (Tide)
by Martin Popoff

Francis Buchholz is known as the bassist on all the SCORPIONS albums you love and cherish. After an acrimonious split with the band in the '90s, he's kept a low profile. But we wanted to remind folks that he is still out there, having recently found new enthusiasm through a project called DREAMTIDE.

"Yes, I am busy doing promotion for Dreamtide's album, Dream And Deliver," begins the big blonde fat-stringer. "Here comes the story: the first time ever I heard about Dreamtide was during the European and USA Tour 2006, which I did together with ULI ROTH, the former lead guitar player of Scorpions. The band was called 'ULI JON ROTH'S SKY BAND.' Our singer Olaf Senkbeil gave me his iPod and said, 'Listen to this; that is my band Dreamtide!' I listened to Olaf's little band and was impressed by great songs, extraordinary guitar work and singing."

"Then, after coming home from touring with Uli, I met Dreamtide's guitar player Helge Engelke at a party of a friend of mine. Helge and I discussed Dreamtide's music for the first time and he invited me to his studio in the summer of 2007 to listen to some of their new stuff. I went there and I was - again - impressed. I told Helge, that I liked the songs very much and that I was interested in becoming involved in the production of the new Dreamtide album. We started off and had a great time working together on ideas and sounds.

After a couple of weeks it turned out that Dreamtide's former bass player was not available for the recordings. Helge asked me whether I would take over and do the bass parts, and because I liked everything with this band, I started working on the bass lines."

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