The Scorpions

In 1965 Rudolf Schenker started up the SCORPIONS in Hanover. Rudolf’s younger brother Michael Schenker was, like Matthias Jabs, smitten by beat music and the burgeoning rock culture. Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine teamed up to form the accomplished Schenker/Meine songwriting duo, so laying the foundations for a spectacular success story.In 1972, the SCORPIONS released their remarkable début album, Lonesome Crow, produced by Conny Plank in Hamburg. In one respect, the SCORPIONS were unique on the German rock scene of the period. Because, right from the start, the band was aiming for the very top of the international hard rock business, Klaus Meine wrote all his lyrics in English. In the creative partnership of Rudolf Schenker and Klaus Meine Germany had finally found its answer to the famous beat and rock composing teams of the English-speaking world.The first album Lonesome Crow set the band on the path to international success. The SCORPIONS toured as support band with Rory Gallagher, Uriah Heep and UFO. Throughout their history Rudolf Schenker has been the unshakeable driving force behind the SCORPIONS. Right from the foundation of the SCORPIONS, he had only one declared ambition: "one day the SCORPIONS will be one of the best heavy rock bands in the world!" The SCORPIONS were constantly on the lookout for fresh challenges. With Ulrich Roth, the SCORPIONS continued unwaveringly to explore the hard rock genre.In the 1970s, the SCORPIONS undertook tours of Western Europe, playing countless venues and conquering one country after another. The SCORPIONS went on to record their next four studio albums with Ulrich Roth. Fly to the Rainbow, (1974) features a solid, high-energy brand of heavy rock never before heard from a German band. The title track Speedy’s Coming typifies the SCORPIONS style of ultra-hard rock combined with catchy melodies. In Trance was the best-selling RCA album in Japan, where a regular SCORPION mania broke out.In 1975 the SCORPIONS toured Europe, sharing top billing with KISS. Gigs at the renowned London venue, the Marquee, were further highpoints of the mid-1970s.The SCORPIONS achieved their ambition to be the top German hard rock band, when their fourth album Virgin Killer (1976) won the "LP of the Year" award in Germany. Ulrich Roth left the band after the 1978 Japanese tour. In 1980, he founded MSG, the Michael Schenker Group. In Matthias Jabs, the SCORPIONS had finally found the lead guitarist whose creativity, virtuosity and enthusiasm continue to make a decisive contribution to the band’s success. Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs still form the musical backbone of the band.

As a rock band working on the international scene, the SCORPIONS had long since created their own musical identity. In Chicago, the SCORPIONS swapped the headliner billing with Ted Nugent, since the SCORPIONS had more fans in the city. On this first American tour, the SCORPIONS quickly learned the rules of the game in the international rock business.Their seventh album Lovedrive was released in the USA in 1979, and was the first SCORPIONS production to receive a Gold Disc there. With the two albums, the band finally made their North American breakthrough. On their second US tour the SCORPIONS were top of the bill. The era of SCORPIONS monster tours had begun.After more successful world tours, in 1981, while recording Blackout, Klaus Meine lost his voice. It was Klaus Meine who in 1989 composed their smash hit Wind of Change.In 1982, on their second US tour as headliners with Iron Maiden as support act, the SCORPIONS promoted their groundbreaking album Blackout, with Helnwein’s stunning sleeve design. One hit followed another, and in the 1980s the SCORPIONS captured the hearts of hard rock fans around the world.In 1984 the SCORPIONS became the first German hard rock band to play three successive gigs in front of 60,000 fans at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The SCORPIONS had finally scaled the Mount Olympus of rock. Hanover’s heavy metal band played all the main rock venues in North, Central and South America and Europe. To US audiences, the SCORPIONS, with their polished, hard-edged "melodic rock" and Klaus Meine’s dramatic power singing with its dizzying top notes, came to epitomise the best in heavy rock.

Love at First Sting became one of the most successful albums in rock history. The SCORPIONS were admitted to the exclusive club of the world’s 30 greatest rock groups. Their ballad Still Loving You became an international rock anthem. Here, the SCORPIONS shared the stage with other international hard rock acts, including Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, Cinderella and Ozzy Osbourne and the Russian band Gorky Park playing to 260,000 Soviet rock fans in Moscow’s Lenin Stadium. One year later, in 1990, the SCORPIONS played in Potsdamer Platz where a section of the Wall once stood, in Roger Waters’s spectacular production, The Wall.The SCORPIONS recorded a Russian version of Wind of Change. At the end of the 1992 Crazy World tour, the SCORPIONS parted company with their long-time bass player Francis Buchholz. The 1993 CD Face the Heat (co-producer: Bruce Fairbairn), featured the band’s new bass man, conservatoire graduate Ralph Rieckermann.In 1994 the SCORPIONS again received a World Music Award. James Kottak became the first American to play in the German rock band. With the two new members, bass player Ralph Rieckermann and drummer James Kottak, the SCORPIONS had introduced a new generation of musicians into the group.On the Pure Instinct world tour, the SCORPIONS proved that they were still among the global players on the international rock scene. In November 1996, the SCORPIONS were the first international hard rock band to play to fans in Beirut after the end of the civil war in Lebanon.On the 1999 recording of Eye to Eye, produced by Peter Wolf, James Kottak worked in the studio with the SCORPIONS for the first time. The cover of Eye to Eye marked a change of image for the SCORPIONS. Only the founder members of the band, Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine and Matthias Jabs feature on the front cover. As early as 1995 the SCORPIONS began their preparations. In January 2000, the SCORPIONS and Christian Kolonovits began studio recordings in Vienna. Klaus Meine's voice sounds pure and unadulterated rocking, together with Matthias Jabs and Rudolf Schenker playing their acoustic guitars.
The "US"-Festival, Rock in Rio, the Monsters of Rock Tour with Van Halen and Metallica in 1988, Pink Floyd's The Wall in Berlin 1990, the many performances associated with "Wind of Change." 1000 fans, came to see the Scorpions rock Poland in 2000.
Klaus Meine surmises that the Scorpions will be remembered for that above all.