In the early 80s there was an official Michael Schenker Group T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan: ‘EARSPLITTENZELOUDENBOOM!’ It was both an affirmation of Schenker’s hard-rocking credentials and a self-deprecating joke from the foremost exponent of what was once described as ‘Teutonic top-string torturing’.
Michael Schenker is a genuine guitar hero. His best work with UFO, MSG and the Scorpions elevated him to legendary status. And his signature style – crunchy riffs and fiery, melodic solos, played on his trademark Gibson Flying V – inspired a generation of guitarists including Slash, Kirk Hammett and Randy Rhoads.
Michael Willy Schenker was born in Sarstedt, Germany on January 10, 1955. He was just 16 when he made his recording debut alongside elder brother Rudolf on the Scorpions’ first album, Lonesome Crow, released in 1972. Just a year later he joined British rock band UFO, with whom he would achieve worldwide fame.
Between 1974 and 1978 Schenker made five brilliant records with UFO, but left the band after recording the classic live album Strangers In The Night. As UFO bassist Pete Way later explained: “We got worn out on the road. Maybe it was the drugs, with all of us.” And it was during the wild days of UFO that Schenker earned the nickname Mad Michael that would stick like glue. As Schenker, now sober, said recently: “I was living on the edge.”
After UFO he returned briefly to the Scorpions and also auditioned for Aerosmith (to replace the temporarily absent Joe Perry) before forming the Michael Schenker Group. In the early 80s he made some of his definitive music with MSG, and at the end of that decade he teamed up with singer Robin McAuley in the rebranded McAuley Schenker Group.
Since then Schenker has worked, on and off, with various line-ups of MSG, made more than a dozen albums as a solo artist, and even buried the hatchet with UFO for long enough to make three more albums.
These are Michael Schenker's best albums.
