According to an update from Noise11, the Scorpions will play Australia for the very first time in their 50 year history this October. They will perform at The Palais in Melbourne on October 18th, tickets go on sale on Friday, July 29th. Rock Zone fan club members have an exclusive ticket pre-sale starting 25th July at 10:00am (local) to get access to the best seats.

Few rock bands were as successful as the Scorpions by the mid '80s - headlining arenas/stadiums worldwide, scoring two mega-selling albums (the platinum-certified Blackout and the triple-platinum certified Love At First Sting) and two hit singles/videos ("No One Like You" and "Rock You Like A Hurricane). But what quite a few newcomers to the band didn't realize was that the Scorpions had been regularly recording music since 1972, and that throughout the remainder of the decade, featured two guitarists (Michael Schenker and Uli Jon Roth) at separate points that are considered legendary amongst the heavy metal masses.

And while such albums as Lonesome Crow, Fly To The Rainbow, In Trance, Virgin Killer, Taken By Force, Tokyo Tapes, and Lovedrive did not come close to obtaining the commercial success of the aforementioned '80s era efforts, they inspired and influenced countless renowned musicians.

German Metal Machine: Scorpions In The '70s is the first-ever book to focus solely on this period of the band. Interviews include such former members as Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Francis Buchholz, and Herman Rarebell, longtime Scorpions producer Dieter Dierks, plus members of other bands that are major admirers, including KK Downing (Judas Priest), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Joe Satriani, Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Alex Skolnick (Testament), and Eddie Trunk (That Metal Show), among many others, while Kirk Hammett (Metallica) provides a foreword.

Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, who has written for Rolling Stone, Songfacts, and Vintage Guitar, and has authored such books as Survival Of The Fittest: Heavy Metal In The 1990's, Iron Maiden: '80 '81, The Eric Carr Story, and Touched By Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story. German Metal Machine is his 19th book overall.

German Metal Machine: Scorpions In The '70s is available as a paperback version [222 pages, $16.99], a Kindle download [$9.99], a Nook download [$9.99], and an iBook download [$9.99].

Also available via Nook and iBook.