If someone were to publish a book on the "what would have happened ifs" of rock 'n' roll, Michael Schenker would deserve a chapter. Showing as much potential at the time but less well-known now than Jimi Hendrix or Pink Floyd's Sid Barrett, the German guitar prodigy disappeared in the late 1970s, right when his group UFO was about to hit it big.
The British hard rock band had just started playing arena-sized venues and was about to release the commercially successful Strangers in the Night, now regarded as one of the most influential live rock albums of the late 1970s. But tensions were brewing between Schenker and UFO front man Phil Mogg. These erupted in June of 1979 before a concert in Leeds, England. Schenker vanished and was feared to be dead or gone into hiding like Barrett. He resurfaced in Germany half a year later, explaining he quit the band but didn't speak English well enough to announce why. Though he would return several times for reunion concerts, UFO was never the same.
"He would walk around and fight people," Schenker said of Mogg in a 2001 interview with the Chicago Daily Herald. "I told him, 'If you ever punch me, I will leave the band.' I guess he wanted to try to find out and he punched me, so I left. And I have no idea what was in his head — but he didn't really get very far afterwards."
It wasn't the only time Schenker — whose band plays Neihu's Liberty Square Convention Center (自由廣場大樓國際演藝聽) next Saturday — passed on that kind of opportunity. He left the Scorpions while still a teenager to join UFO and later rejected offers from Ozzy Osbourne and Aerosmith.
"Michael to me has always [gone] wherever he feels directed or he feels guided to go," Wayne Findlay, backup guitarist and keyboardist for the Michael Schenker Group, said in a phone interview on Wednesday. "He definitely has a vision … but his means of getting there are open to interpretation."
What's not open to interpretation is that critics regard Schenker as one of the most influential rock guitarists of all time — No. 22, according to a recent Guitar World ranking.
His band's music, which has been described as "melodic hard rock with progressive undertones," is more accessible than that of other hard rock legends who have visited Taipei in recent years, sounding a lot like something that would have made the charts if grunge had never happened.
Schenker is master of tone and vibrato, with a blues-based sound that demonstrates classical influences. He's known for using the "wah" pedal in the back position as a filter to create what can be described as an almost nasal tone. Even if you don't know what a "wah" pedal is, you'll probably recognize his signature black-and-white V-shaped guitar.
His band has just released a new CD, Tales of Rock 'n' Roll, and, at age 51, Schenker shows no sign of slowing down.
"He's pushing for more," Findlay said. "He's got many, many more ideas and many, many things that he wishes to accomplish. He'll be doing albums for many, many years to come."
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS