Legendary German axeman Uli Jon Roth is this year celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his first ever show which took place in December 1968 while he was aged just 13. As part of festivities he will play six special UK concerts beginning at Corporation, Sheffield on Thursday November 29th and continuing through to The Stables in Milton Keynes on Wednesday December 5th.

The guitarist is perhaps best known for his time with German classic rock icons Scorpions, while he also spent time with acts such as Electric Sun and Sky Of Avalon as well as forging an illustrious solo career. Most recently he has appeared as part of the G3 European Tour 2018 alongside fellow six-string heroes Joe Satriani and John Petrucci.

The two hour plus set list of his upcoming UK shows will see him playing a programme which features music from across his astonishing career, including his aforementioned work with Scorpions, and the groundbreaking Electric Sun in which Roth took the electric guitar to all new places. For this he's credited with inspiring the careers of later trend setters like Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker and Steve Vai - as well as Joe Satriani himself. It's been more than 30 years since Roth performed the music of Electric Sun in the UK - reason enough to check out this special tour.

Roth is also known for his classic work and will include excerpts from his startling Metamorphosis of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concert in the UK shows. He will be joined by his young, talented band including Niklas Turmann, Simon Foster and David Klosinski who each were revelations on the G3 tour. Both Niklas and David were asked by Joe Satriani to join in the final G3 jam - an honour usually reserved for the three headline artists.

I hope that these will be my best and most “comprehensive” shows so far" says Roth of the UK tour, "I’m trying to present the distilled essence of my 50 years’ journey of live performances, which was and still is quite a trip in itself. We will play a large cross section of my very best stuff from those 50 years and a lot of that I have not played for years. I’m looking forward to playing those songs again, including some new ones."

Uli has also recently launched the official UJR SKY-GUITARS website, featuring his signature guitar models. Visit www.sky-guitars.com for the latest.

Uli Jon Roth UK Tour Dates 2018:

Corporation, Sheffield - Thursday 29 November

ULU, London -Friday 30 November

Kasbah, Coventry - Saturday 1 December

Academy 3, Manchester - Sunday 2 December

Òran Mór, Glasgow - Monday 3 December

The Stables, Milton Keynes - Wednesday 5 December

For more info visit: http://www.ulijonroth.com/

Author: Cameron Arndt

Cameron Arndt is a musician and freelance writer from Glasgow, Scotland. He writes for his own music review website (www.rockandrolltraffic.com) and also contributes to Music Talkers.