1 May 2023

Uli is now on Patreon, featuring seven different tiers of support. I've participated in several group video chats already, and they have been a lot of fun, and very insightful where Uli has discussed what he's currently working on, future projects, past bands, and thoughts about the arts, humanity, and the world.

10 September 2022

As the world tentatively moves out of the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, musicians have been returning to performing live. The Uli Jon Roth website reports that Uli has a special concert announced for 2023 called The Alpha Experience.

Uli Jon Roth is proud to present the world premiere of his brand-new symphonic multi-media project, The Alpha Experience. The 3-hour plus event will take place live on the enchanting island of Grafenwerth in the river Rhine on June 8, 2023. Uli will direct the concert, which is featuring the Symphony Orchestra of Cologne, his rock-ensemble, a classical choir, and rock- as well as opera vocalists. Star guest of the evening is none other than Nigel Kennedy, who will perform part of his recent violin concerto “Für Ludwig Van”. Nigel and Uli will also share the stage together, performing an extended orchestral version of “Sails of Charon” among other things, and the evening will be concluded with a Mega-Midnight Jam. Further guest artists include the brilliant flamenco virtuoso guitarist El Amir (World of Hans Zimmer), and Esmeralda, from St Petersburg, dazzling with her fiery gypsy violin playing, star percussionist Luis Ribeiro.

The music presented is essentially a journey traversing three centuries of music and it features some of the most well-known master works of the classical repertoire, including excerpts from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, which Uli interprets on his Sky Guitar. Most of the evening’s music was composed by Uli himself and includes new orchestral arrangements of some of his most important pieces such as “Hiroshima” and “Eleison”. It will also premiere several pieces from Uli’s “Requiem for an Angel”, written for Monika Dannemann.

The overarching theme of the evening is mankind’s search for identity. It revolves around the age-old conflict between the forces of good and evil which is forever unfolding on the battleground of the human soul. Our deepest questions for what is right and wrong; our insatiable quest for superficial knowledge, while disregarding the distant voice of higher wisdom; our struggle for survival of the human race as a species in the face of an impending mass extinction. Uli is convinced that we have all that it takes to find the answers, but it is up to us to find these, and this search comes at a price. Only if we manage to raise the frequency of human consciousness to a much higher level – that of compassion, love and selflessness – can we safeguard our passage into the future. We must learn to respect our mother planet Earth and transition from being parasites of nature to guardians of nature. The odds seem overwhelming at times, and the doomsday clock is ticking at an ever faster pace in the background of our lives, but we must stay positive in the face of adversity and give it our all to make a difference. Each and every one of us is important in this, because we are all in the same boat together – the ship of mankind!

28 October 2021

Due to the pandemic, Uli's scheduled tours from 2020 were cancelled and have not been rescheduled yet. On his Facebook page, Uli did mention that the extra time has been spent well working on his Sky Academy book on the Metaphysics of Music and of Life.

In more interesting news, there is a site dedicated to purchasing a new line of Sky Guitars.

4 July 2018

There's some good news and bad news in regard to Uli's North American tour for 2018. The bad news is that due to the delay in securing work visas in time, the summer tour had to be postponed. The silver lining to this dark cloud is that it gives Uli time to record some music. Below is Uli's Facebook post on the difficulties in obtaining their visas.

Dear Friends,

We’re very sorry, but our Tour of North America will have to be postponed now until a later date.

We are forced to do this, because our work Visas unfortunately didn’t get issued on time to do this tour. As soon as we have the Visas cleared we will set up replacement dates and will keep you posted. All VIP passes will remain valid indefinitely until we get to play these shows. We hope that your schedule allows you to attend these new dates!

We were all really looking forward to playing this special Triple Anniversary program for you! But I promise we will make this happen as soon as possible.

The Visa situation has been getting worse year after year in recent times and this makes it very difficult for foreign artists to perform in the US now. The same thing is currently happening to a lot of other artists, too, and several tours like ours had to be cancelled last minute at great expense to the bands and their American partners.

We were told, the percentage of work Visas to the US not being issued on time has suddenly increased by 1400 % (!!!) since February this year… If this is true, this figure speaks for itself. It seems, now for the first time, we are caught out by this, too. (There was a Visa delay on a tour with Yngwie in 2014 which resulted in a cancellation for me, but that was because of technical reasons and the Visa was not denied.)

We have played everything by the book, applied as early as we could, paid to have our Visas expedited, employed the best immigration attorneys, have moved mountains, jumped through a veritable amount of hoops and STILL got delayed this year so far! …

We are confident that the Visas will come through sooner or later, but until then we must be patient and move on to other things. I know that some of you had already booked flights and hotels, which must be very disappointing and annoying. I’m truly sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you!

Please keep your fingers crossed that we receive the work Visas soon!
Stay tuned!

Your friend
Uli

Fortunately, he was able to get his work visa, so the tour dates will be rescheduled for later in the year. Keep an eye on the official tour dates page to check for the new concerts.

5 March 2017

Uli has kept himself busy with touring during the past several years, and this year has been no exception as he is touring to support his new live album Tokyo Tapes Revisited. Last night, Uli played at the Arcada Theater in St. Charles, Illinois, USA for the third time. The accompanying acts were Frank DiMino and Graham Bonnet. I'm not familiar with Frank DiMino or the band Angel, but he was most lively and played around 45 minutes to warm up the crowd. Graham Bonnet was up next and played for about an hour. He is far from being a spring chicken, but he was still quite spry on stage and still has the power in his voice. I would say he is the Humphrey Bogart of vocalists — he only has one style, but what he does, he does very, very well. (Side note: I love Bogart, so this is not a criticism. Graham Bonnet sounded great.) Graham did an excellent job introducing each song, and often added a little banter between songs, including joking about not playing "Since You've Been Gone". The following is the setlist for the Graham Bonnet Band:

1. Eyes of the World
2. All Night Long
3. S.O.S.
4. God Blessed Video
5. Will You Be Home Tonight?
6. Into The Night
7. Night Games
8. Jet to Jet
9. Island In The Sun
10. Since You've Been Gone
11. Assault Attack
12. Lost In Holywood

For Uli's set, one thing which was different was the singer/guitarist Niklas Turmann was playing bass guitar instead of rhythm guitar, but it was later revealed that Dean Guitars CEO Elliot Rubinson was originally slated to play bass again, but Rubinson sadly passed away this past February. Highlights of this concert were hearing live versions of "Just Another Rainbow" and "Yellow Raven". Upon hearing live renditions of songs like "Hell Cat" or "Just Another Rainbow", one can certainly hear the Jimi Hendrix influence which snuck through during Uli's earlier albums. Uli Jon Roth's setlist:

1. All Night Long
2. Longing For Fire
3. The Sails of Charon
4. Sun In My Hand
5. Just Another Rainbow
6. We'll Burn The Sky (Dedicated to Elliot Rubinson)
7. In Trance
8. Rainbow Prelude
9. Fly To The Rainbow
10. Hell Cat
11. Dark Lady
12. Yellow Raven
13. Pictured Life
14. Catch Your Train
15. All Along the Watchtower
16. Little Wing

10 January 2017

A decade after it's release, I have finally added the compilation album The Best of Uli Jon Roth to this site's discography. This is an album I had (oddly) held off from purchasing for many years since this album did not offer much that was new besides the slightly modified version of Enola Gay - Hiroshima Today?, a song I had already purchased online. This album does display an interesting collection of Uli's post-Scorpions material, which has been grouped into similar arrangements. There are a couple of interesting items to note about this album. The cover of this album was taken from a photo from a House of Blues concert in Chicago from 11 September 2004. For me, this is quite exciting since I was at that very concert.

Of even more interest are the comprehensive linear notes which make reference to a fourth Electric Sun album which was never recorded. Back in 2005 I had made a joking reference to a secret fourth Electric Sun album, and had compiled a list of nine songs which could have appeared on this spectral album. The beautiful ballad Starlight was one of these potential songs. This song was written in late 1984, after the recording of Beyond the Astral Skies, but it was later played on that same tour, along with other unrecorded songs such as On That Night, God Is Light and Daughter of the Evening Sun.

1 January 2017

In 2016, the new live album Tokyo Tapes Revisited was released, which includes both CD and Blu-Ray.

1. All Night Long 4:49
2. Longing For Fire 3:23
3. Crying Days 5:43
4. The Sails of Charon 10:07
5. Sun In My Hand 5:10
6. Virgin Killer 4:40
7. Kojo No Tsuki 5:22
8. We'll Burn the Sky 8:54
9. In Trance 7:51
10. Rainbow Dream Prelude 8:37
11. Fly to the Rainbow 10:56
12. Top of the Bill 4:38
13. I've Got To Be Free 11:45
14. Polar Nights 10:09
15. Dark Lady 15:11
16. Pictured Life 3:05
17. Catch Your Train 4:41
18. All Along the Watchtower 7:56
19. Little Wing 8:24

Uli will be touring in support of the new album this year.

On a side note, this site will be turning 20 years old this year, which is practically an eon as measured in Internet time.

29 January 2015

Despite what one article mentioned, Uli's newest album Scorpions Revisited is already available (at least through digital channels). If you have been fortunate enough to have seen Uli on tour in the past few years, this album captures the magic of his performances, which is capped off by a beautiful and cosmic version of "Fly to the Rainbow" which has an almost Pink Floyd edge to it.

Uli was also on the December 2014 cover of Young Guitar magazine, which is filled with tons of great Scorpions riffs, plus a full transcription of "Catch Your Train". If you are a guitarist, it is well worth it to try and get a copy.