Comment:
In Herb's original words ...
In the afternoon of 19 April 1973 my friend and me arrived at the local
ballroom „ Zur Grille“ in Minden, Germany. The location had a capacity
of 900 listeners, standing. It had a long tradition for dancing on
weekends with local bands playing live. From around 1970 more and more
progressive bands payed a visit to Minden, in 1973 I already had seen
Ton, Steine, Scherben and Nektar, ( missed Status Quo, Franz K, Birth
Control, Alexis Korner). We were in time for the soundcheck,
positioned my Uher reel to reel machine in the middle of the hall, next
to me my microphone on its stand, high above the heads of the audience.
A normal situation in those days, all bands I had recorded so far were
very supportive and seemed to be flattered, that I wanted to record
them live. The bands announced for that evening were Hannover based
Eloy and Scorpions, headliner were UK band UFO, who had have a minor
hit in Germany with their single Prince Kajuku. From what I know, this
was the very first date of the tour, a warm up in a small town with low
risks. During the soundcheck we had an very unpleasant meeting with the
tour promoter, in harsh words he let us know, that we had to leave
immediately and that he did not tolerate any recordings. My friend and
me were very disappointed but also offended by the guy´s bad behaviour
and packed our equipment in anger. Right hand, on the back of the hall,
there was a bar, closed for that night, and hidden behind a heavy
curtain. When we felt unobserved, we set off to leave the hall, but
turned left in time and disappeared behind the curtain. I installed the
tape machine and climbed up on the counter, with a few grips the mic
was attached to the curtain rod and we were ready for the concert
evening. Ok,the view in the middle of the hall would have been perfect,
but anything was better than going home empty-handed. I knew all three
bands by name, but musically I only knew UFO, but I didn't like them.
At that time, I was only 15 years old, I took every opportunity to see
a band play live, I was very enthusiastic! The Scorpions opened the
evening, with their album Lonesome Crow they had just established
themselves among the progressive Kraut bands, my expectations were low,
I'd seen their name on posters in the region many times, so they hardly
were superstars. Their first song, a rock & roll number, took away
my last hopes of musical delicacy. But right after that, a catchy motif
caught my attention, the guitar solo in the same piece, hardly to be
surpassed in melodic elegance, made a look over the curtain urgently
necessary! A guitarist very young in appearance, just 18 years old was
the origin of these tones, which made not only me sit up and take
notice. Eloy, who played afterwards, were much more to my taste at the
time, but the Scorpions had gained a lot in my esteem and Michael
Schenker and Lothar Heimberg, their bass player, became real heroes for
me! The fact is, and this was also mentioned again and again in
interviews: Ufo discovered Michael Schenker for themselves that
evening, because they also needed an urgent replacement for Bernie
Marsden, who had been refused entry to Germany for lack of valid
papers. I can't say whether Schenker was really on stage with Ufo that
evening. After endless breaks, it must have been almost midnight when
the Brits played could finally begin, my musical interest in them was
more than low, I was satisfied to have secured Eloy on tape, so we took
advantage of the darkness and the commotion in the hall to leave the
bar unseen. What remains is a unique document of the old Scorpions in
the original line-up live on stage.
P.S. I just asked my colleague from that night, he said that it was
Bernie Marsden on the guitar in UFO that night in Minden - NOT Michael
Schenker.
Few notes of interest about the rarity of this performance/recording;
1. Earliest "known" Live Recording Of the SCORPIONS
2. Earliest "known" Live Recording Of MICHAEL SCHENKER
3. Earliest "known" Live Recording Of the song "Hey Little Woman" latter played Live in 1974 - 1975 with Ulich Roth on Guitar.
4. Earliest "known" Live Recording Of the song "Far Away" latter
released on "Fly To The Rainbow" in 1974 with Ulich Roth on Guitar.
5. Earliest "known" Live Recording Of all the other songs !!
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