Great gig - Uli Jon Roth in St Albans

[gwEm]

I went with the missus to see Uli Jon Roth playing a small venue (The Horn) in St Albans last week.

Great gig!!! It was a fine rock show, filled with Scorpion's classics and Hendrix covers.. nothing too weird or self indulgent. I took my 23 fret WezV strat ("looks like a fine Stratocaster, are you sure you want me to ruin it for you?") for him to sign, which he happily did. I was stood right in the front row in front of him... made those string skipping licks look like childs play. Even my missus said "that was better than I thought it was going to be".

Gear was Dean Sky Guitars, Blackstar amps, and a motley selection of pedals with some really sh1t looking cabling. Sounded great ;)

Hes playing in Chislehurst in October and I'm thinking of going again if anyone here is keen (Philly, Jonathan?)

[Philly Q]

I might be up for it - where the hell is Chislehurst?  :lol:

Sounds great!  He's a funny old chap but I'm glad he's still around and playing well.   Despite being a bit hippy-dippy he always seems thoroughly professional and on top of his game.  :D

I've seen him a couple of times, not headlining but guesting with the Scorpions and, years ago, on a G3 tour with Michael Schenker and Joe Satriani.  Uli was the star of the show at the latter, IMO, although, to be fair, Schenker was in one of his "dark periods" (quite literally - he'd dyed his hair and beard black for some bizarre reason)

[gwEm]

I might be up for it - where the hell is Chislehurst?  :lol:

 :)

Its on Oct 9th in Kent.. looks very trainable:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=beaverwood+club+chislehurst&hl=en&ll=51.439243,-0.005836&spn=0.110856,0.291138&sll=51.420486,0.094242&sspn=0.013863,0.036392&hq=beaverwood+club&hnear=Chislehurst,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=12

edit:
It was a far better show than the time I'd seen him supporting the Scorpions. He appears to be in a bit of a no messing about rock phase at the moment, hes got a good band too..

edit 2:

some of the setlist:

a day late and a dollar short (from the Gillian solo album)
pictured life
catch your train
fly to the rainbow
in trance
we burn the sky
dark lady
sails of charon
i've got to be free

etc..

[d1dsj]

The bass player and singer is my mate Owen, he's got to be the most enthusiastic musician I know!

[gwEm]

The bass player and singer is my mate Owen, he's got to be the most enthusiastic musician I know!

defo - he seemed like a cool guy ;)

[Stevepage]

i was gonna go to this gig but what with trying to sort out papers for a mortage approval, i completely forgot about it. I'm sure it was a great show

[TheyCallMeVolume]

Sounds cool, hope he comes to the States soon. I love Uli's playing.

[d1dsj]

The bass player and singer is my mate Owen, he's got to be the most enthusiastic musician I know!

defo - he seemed like a cool guy ;)

Yeah he's a good'un. Here's the story, Owen is just a regular local (Birmingham/ West Brom) guy who's been playing in bands forever. He wanted to do something different and started his Glen Hughes/ Trapeze tribute band who got alot of great reviews and quickly gained a good local following. Anyway, there was a woman there who really enjoyed the show and said she had to bring her husand along to a show as he was a well known guitarist. So Owen calls me up and said "Know any guitarists called Uli?". I just laughed and said yeah I know one famous one who is a virtuoso and plays with the likes of Satch, Vai, Schenker etc... Uli Jon Roth is his name... he said yeah that's him, he's coming to the next gig! I was pissing myself laughing, but then he is a bass player! Local lad done good I'd say.

[gwEm]

He didn't look like he should be able to sing, but he sure can! Did a very good Ian Gillan impersonation. I liked the tone of his P-Bass, the Jazz bass sounded less good.. needless to say his playing was top drawer. Great story :)

They had got this 16 year old in as 2nd guitarist, and he was nearly as good as Uli himself - played alot of the harmonies and took a couple of solos too. I wonder where Uli found him..

[d1dsj]

? Not sure about the young lad, I'll have to give Owen a call. I do know that they auditioned a fair old few players, and asked alot of local guys who are great guitarist with big egos but no one wanted the pressure of playing alongside Uli!  :lol:

[richard]

I used to live (25 years ago) very near to Andy Dimitriou who built the original Sky guitars. Andy used to service my guitars and I got to noodle on a couple of the Sky guitars before Uli picked them up. Never played them through an amp but I do remember they felt really awkward compared to my old SG junior.

[Philly Q]

I might be up for it - where the hell is Chislehurst?  :lol:

 :)

Its on Oct 9th in Kent.. looks very trainable:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=beaverwood+club+chislehurst&hl=en&ll=51.439243,-0.005836&spn=0.110856,0.291138&sll=51.420486,0.094242&sspn=0.013863,0.036392&hq=beaverwood+club&hnear=Chislehurst,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=12

Looks a cool venue, and they're got some good acts coming up:  Pat Travers, Popa Chubby, Buddy Whittington, Marcus Malone(!)