Metal Shock Finland's Alison Booth recently caught up with Uli Jon Roth ahead of his six date UK tour. A fews excerpt from the chat follow:

Discussing his 50th anniversary shows, Uli stated: “I haven’t done such an ambitious programme in many years. I’ve got such a big rertoire from over the years, so I had to think hard about what not to play. There’s certain contenders that are always there like ‘Sails Of Charon’, certain Scorpions tracks, but I haven’t performed any of the Electric Sun stuff in years and that will be very interesting for me because that music is very demanding to play – although it should sound easy when you’re listening to it.

"So we’re basically playing a best of Electric Sun, a best of my period with the Scorpions from the seventies, to doing some of my Sky Of Avalon, which is a little bit more adventurous, more melodic symphonic rock I guess. And it’s a long show, it’s a mission, so it’s an evening’s worth. I’m also playing a little acoustic set, just solo on my eight string Flamenco Sky guitar and I’m going to play some new pieces that I’ve written this summer which I love playing. And we’re also playing something that I particularly look forward to – some music of my deceased brother Zeno, who you may know, he died earlier this year unfortunately. He was a great songwriter and great guitar player himself, so we’re going to honour his memory and his legacy by playing two of his best songs."

Looking back over his long career, Uli expressed: “Innovator is probably true because I’m always interested in coming up with new ideas and I prided myself in loving each solo that I’ve recorded on albums, different from the other ones you know – trying to break new ground, technically, musically or whatever. So for me, it’s been largely a journey of discovery and also seeing how far you can push the guitar, unlocking some of those mysteries and there are still so many in the guitar. It feels like sometimes I’ve barely grazed the surface, because each time I pick up a guitar I have new ideas and it feels completely fresh and new, it’s just great.

"I think the secret to that is that I play really very rarely, you know, I don’t play very often these days. Lots of the time it’s just on stage so that’s why I guess I don’t get bored and it doesn’t get repetitive to me ever.”

Regarding the future, Uli revealed: “Next year will be very busy because I’m also working towards some orchestra shows, which is very labour intensive with score writing.  We’ll probably have to spend some time in the studio editing the DVD and making that. I have written by now a considerable amount of new music and to my eternal shame and disgrace, I’ve recorded very little in recent years and I know a new album is long overdue.

"Having said that, it’s not an easy undertaking for me because I’m not so keen on recording studios, because I don’t like the medium as such. I prefer writing music, maybe even writing it down, that as a score I prefer playing it live. But actually making it so that you have an album, you know the final like pinning down the butterfly once and for all. I’ve always had a problem with that you know, so we’ll see. I’ll do my best to come up with a new album.”

Read/hear the complete interview at Metal Shock Finland.

Uli Jon Roth's UK tour starts at the Corporation in Sheffield tomorrow, Thursday, November 29th. The two hour-plus programme will consist of carefully selected highlights from Uli’s entire musical career, which - by now - is spanning no less than five decades.

In recent times, Uli has successfully revisited the early music of his celebrated Scorpions days which resulted in the superb Scorpions Revisited double CD and Tokyo Tapes Revisited DVD/Blu-Ray releases. The 50th Anniversary set will naturally include the best of that timeless material, including "The Sails Of Charon", "In Trance", "Fly To The Rainbow" and many other songs.

Dates:

November
29 - Corporation - Sheffield, UK
30 - ULU - London, UK

December
1 - Kasbah, Coventry, UK
2 - Academy 3 - Manchester, UK
3 - Òran Mór, Glasgow, UK
5 - The Stables - Milton Keynes, UK

Get tickets via the following links:

- seetickets.com
- stables.org
- ulijonroth.com/tourdates