ULRICH JON ROTH - Wails In Wales Page 3
by Martin Popoff

But here are the immediate plans: "At the moment, the next thing is a tour with UFO in the U.K.. That starts on the 22nd, and it's going to be 10 shows. And then the next year, I think there will be at least four or five orchestra gigs, in various combinations with various different programs. I'll do a little bit more of Vivaldi, but there will be a performance of my Europe symphony and a few other things. And we're really hoping to come to the states in the new year, because it's high time, and Canada of course too. With UFO, we'll play for one hour, and we'll do some stuff from Transcendental Sky Guitar, but we'll also plays some stuff from the past because the UFO audience is a Scorpions-related audience. So I'll play a few things that I haven't played ever on stage, and also a few things reminiscent of Scorpions, maybe do a few of my old leads."

Will there be vocals, i.e. you or anybody else?

"I'll do a few songs, maybe two or three. I find that the problem is if I have a vocalist in this context, usually he stands around for most of the time and doesn't have much to do, which is not good for them. They come on stage and maybe sing three lines and then they have to leave again. And unfortunately, I'm not blessed with a good voice, but you know, I get by, particularly with my old stuff like 'Polar Nights'. I guess it's authentic, you know (laughs), let's put it that way. I mean, I've just got the kind of voice that a lot of people hate and some people like. I guess that's the best that can be said about it."

Will you actually do full Scorpions compositions from the old days?

"No, but just for old-time sake, because it is a UFO audience, and I actually haven't played with UFO since the early '80s, we'll probably do a little Scorpions medley, so they'll be a little touch of 'Polar Nights', 'Dark Lady', maybe I'll even play a few of my guitar leads like the 'Catch Your Train' one, 'Longing For Fire', string them together in a more or less tasty manner, just for memory's sake. Because some of that stuff can be quite exciting and I think I'll enjoy doing that. For the last 15 years I've played very, very little. There was a tour in '98 with the G3 in Europe, which I did enjoy. And I think that got me back into guitar playing also, because I had lost interest in the instrument to some degree because I was interested more in writing my symphonic stuff. But I kind of rediscovered the guitar and rediscovered completely new possibilities. And I guess that's where this latest album comes from. I wanted to make a new statement, a new departure, something that hadn't been done before on the electric guitar and push the boundaries forward."

ULRICH JON ROTH - Wails In Wales Page 4