Scorpions - Live Reading Festival 25-8-79

[rush77]

MANY THANKS TO RIOT1002 FOR THIS SCORPIONS BOOT!

SCORPIONS

LIVE - READING FESTIVAL,
READING,
ENGLAND
25-8-79

SOUND - SOUNDBOARD

SETLIST

01 BACKSTAGE QUEEN
02 WE'LL BURN THE SKY
03 LOVING YOU SUNDAY MORNING
04 LOVEDRIVE
05 ALWAYS SOMEWHERE
06 HE'S A WOMAN SHE'S A MAN
07 ANOTHER PIECE OF MEAT
08 ROBOT MAN

CD ARTWORK INCLUDED

LINK - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V69VX9HF

ENJOY

[Steve28]

Put ze spotlights on ze people !
PUT ZE SPOTLIGHTS ON ZE PEOPLE !!

You'll just have to listen to it to find out what the hell I'm on about.

[greenbill]

Thanks !!

[taku501]

Thanks!
Very nice!

Who was on the guitar?
Michael Schenker?

[rush77]

YES Michael Schenker WAS ON GUITAR

RUSH77

[Metal Mania]

I thought MS was already out by the time they hit Lyon, France in April 1979. I could be wrong though,he probably guested in these show though.Nice boot anyway!Thanks.

[David Lee Rocks]

Is this the infamous "Turn ze schpotlitz on ze peoplez?"

[steve67]

Great band,great show.Thanks for posting this.CHEERS.

[rush77]

HI METAL MAINIA YOU ARE RIGHT MICHAEL SCHENKER WAS NOT IN THE SCORPIONS AT READING,THE INFO. THAT I HAD SAID HE WAS BUT I HAVE FOUND THIS INFO. THAT WILL CLEAR EVERYTHING UP.

The Scorpions 8-25-79

Backstage Queen
We'll Burn The Sky
Loving You Sunday Morning
Lovedrive.
Always Somewhere
He's a Woman. She's A Man
Another Piece of Meat.
Robot Man
( setlist incomplete ) Bootleg in circulation sbd


Klaus Meine - Vocal ,Matthias Jabs - Lead Guitar ,Rudolf Schenker - Rhythm Guitar ,Francis Buchholz - Bass Herman Rarebell - Drums Langley

CHEERS RUSH77

[JUZZI]

Thanx

[PE_35]

in '79 michael schenker made only a few dates of the french tour and germany i think.

he already had in mind to make his solo career with billy sheehan and denny carmassi as so much people knows but they finally didn't made the recordings for the 1st album.

mo foster and simon phillips (friends of roger glover, the producer) made a great job on this very first album of michael but i wonder to listen the first versions with sheehan and carmassi but unfortunely, also as so much people knows there's only a rehearsal probably recorded with a cheap tape who was exists.

[vtmishka]

There's conflicting information as to whether MWS played Reading (alas though, it would seem that the answer is no).

Look here for a "yes" answer:
http://www.dreamwater.com/music/owtaction/scorpions.htm

it mentions Michael on guitar.


I'm trying to confirm with Ritchie Araki if he, in fact, played or just was present. His site would indicate a "no":
http://www.rbaraki.com/brief.htm#SCO7

I'll post if I find out.

Meanwhile, if anyone has the Paris show....
:-)

I've heard the Berlin show that was posted here a while ago. It's almost unbearable due to its poor quality but still a great find for what it is. Michael's leads are certainly identifiable on that one.

Maybe a listen to the Reading show will provide some clues?

Thanks for posting!

[Metal Mania]

Wow, this subject is interesting. Ok, I read some post regarding this situation at the Scorpioms official website forum.Someone posted this, apparently taken from a german autobiography of the scorpions in 1980.

Early in 1978:
First contact between Matthias and Rudolf. Rudolf rings him up, tells him about a solo project that he is planning and
asks him if he wants to play the solo guitar on this record. But this co-operation never came about because of date problems.

Later in 1978:
Rudolf calls him again and says: you may have heard about Uli's separating from the band, what do you think? Besides
Matthias the Scorpions check lots of other guitar players and Pete Tolson from England is put on the short list. Matthias
doesn't believe in his chance anymore and goes on holidays with his girlfriend Susanne.
Before he has bought all the Scorpions albums and practiced their live set, especially Uli's solos.
After a few days on his holidays he gets a telegram that says that he has to come back immediately. He takes a flight back
and practices like a madman because there 2 festivals in 2 and a half weeks. Those are the festivals in Ulm and Saarbracken
with Ten Years After, Genesis, Frank Zappa, Joan Baez and others and the band has the chance to play in front of 60.000 people.

October 1978 until release of Lovedrive in early 1979:
The band goes into the studio to record Lovedrive, all the songs were already composed completely. Matthias realizes that
it's very difficult to do this job without having any experiences and the fact that he was quiet new to a team that is used
to one another made it even harder. Besides there was an enormous pressure of time because the closing date for the record
was near (this was their first album for EMI).Then Michael leaves his band UFO and the band thinks about letting him play
one or two songs for the album. Firstly they would save time and secondly Matthias could concentrate more on the rest of the
songs. And besides there would be a certain promotion effect. Matthias understands the situation and says to himself: ok,
maybe it?s better this way and maybe I can learn something from Michael. In the end Michael played the solos in three songs.
After they finish the recording Rudolf says to Matthias: we rather want to play with Michael again. Matthias is not really
surprised and he has already prepared for this. He feels a kind of set free from all the pressure of the last months.

February/March 1979:
To get relaxed from that he goes on holidays with his girlfriend to Spiekeroog (a german island). Susanne's parents own a
holiday home there;no cars, no telephone, no television,best conditions to relax.Michael leaves the band again during the
tour in Germany and the band tries to contact Matthias. From one of Matthias? friends who is also a friend of Francis they
get to know where Matthias is and that there's no chance to call him on the phone. So they call the police of Spiekeroog
and tell them to bring Matthias a message. He weighs it up, on one hand he would like to do the job and on the other hand
he doesn't want to be a stopgap. Everybody tries to convince him and finally he says yes. Time was running short, he should
be on stage already on the next day and no ferry was going on the same day. So a helicopter brought him to Bremen, in Bremen he took a taxi to the main station, then with the intercity train to Hannover. Then with a taxi home, grab some things and then to the airport, flight to Frankfurt where the band was waiting for him.
Then he did as much practicing as he could for the next day and the concert worked out very well. So the Scorpions finished
the german tour with Matthias as lead guitarist.

April 1979:
The german tour ended in the middle of April. Matthias had told the band before that he would help them only for this
german tour but now the band wanted him to go on because a tour in France was on the schedule. In the meantime Michael
had recovered and tried to make the French tour but after a few concerts he broke down again. At that time Matthias
sat at home and played guitar when he suddenly had to think of the guys in France and a weird feeling crawled up inside
of him. Five minutes later the phone rang and Francis told him: Michael is gone again, could you do it once again?
Matthias could and the next day he was in Lyon.

May 1979:
The band had realized that it wouldn't work with Michael in the future and they wanted Matthias to stay.
They toured England then and after that Japan. Some time on the Japanese tour Matthias decided to stay for good.

I've read somewhere abt Michael appearing during one ( or a few ) of the Scorpions gig later, when Rudolf recommended him to CCC management.So probably he guested on a few songs during this gig.Another way to distiguish between Matthias and MS playing is, Matthias seems to play the solo's to the old songs more closer towards the original, as requested by the band while MS seems to improvise more towards his own rendition (He admitted it's hard for him to do that and thats not what he excactly wanted to do).Anymore info would help though.

[vtmishka]

Great post - thanks!

That sums up the story as I've always heard it too.

As far as I know, Michael played a couple of 1979 gigs in Germany (one poor recording from Berlin is available somewhere on this forum) and a show or two in Paris (I've never found a copy, although I'm looking hard!). It's really a shame that the Berlin recording isn't better because from what I could hear Michael was on fire that night!

I know he was a guest again in 1993 when he, Rudolf and Matthias did a nice acoustic set together.

In between though, I can't see where they played together (other than a few times when they were guests at each others shows and played Doctor, Doctor like Super Rock Japan in 1984).

After listening to the Reading gig, it was hard to tell conclusively. The use of the wah seemed to be like Michael (I'm not a Jabs expert, but I don't seem to recall Matthias using the wah for tone the way that Michael does). At the same time, the leads just didn't seem quite as melodic or complete as I'd expect from Michael, especially the solo on Lovedrive (please, no flames from Matthias Jabs fans).

I've emailed Michael asking him directly but I don't think I'll get a reply.

I'll listen back to the Berlin show with Michael as well as the Chicago show (1979) with Matthias since they contain some of the same songs and try to compare the lead breaks. At this point, I'm leaning toward it being Matthias.

[vtmishka]

Listening back to the Reading show - those pinch harmonics on Always Somewhere sure sound like Matthias to me...I don't believe Michael was doing that back in 1979.

It's a tricky one.

If it is, in fact, Matthias, he sure does a good MS impression (while adding his own touches).