Scorpions Have Rocked The Planet

Whether you consider their albums sales in excess of 80 million or the impressive number of locations around the world where they have performed as their most impressive accomplishment, the Scorpions are surely a band that has gone global.

When your hear reports of children on the banks of the Amazon River singing one of your songs, I suppose it is safe to assume you have made it, and that satisfaction has not come for these German rockers without logging a lot of miles and playing a lot of shows for their fans across the globe.

In addition to venues you would expect them to appear at in Europe and North America, they can lay claim to having performed at some exotic locations that a lot of other well-known rockers are unable to match. Among them is a show in Shillong, the capital of a state in India that is near the Himalayas, where the townspeople where all given the day off in honor of the event.

They have also performed during a snowstorm in the notoriously frigid Siberia where the temperature hovered around –10 degrees at the time. “With music there are no borders,” says lead singer Klaus Meine.

Although the Scorpions have an impressive list of accomplishments to be proud of, Meine says that he is most proud of the success that their song “Winds of Change” has achieved. The song has come to be viewed as an anthem of peace when the group has performed at various locations in the Middle East.

“People in Beirut told us they had only an hour of electricity a day but listening to our music gave them strength. That’s what music can do,” Meine says.

The Scorpions are scheduled to appear at Wolverhampton Civic Hall in the U.K. on Sunday.

For more, head on over to The Birmingham Mail.

Tags: India, Russia, Scorpions, tour, Winds of Change

Deep Purple High on Russian President’s List of Favorite Groups

I’ve heard my share of TV journalists have a bit of trouble with the pronunciation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s name, but I doubt that the Russian politician has any trouble singing along with Deep Purple’s hit songs. It turns out that Medvedev is a huge Deep Purple fan and even boasts a large collection of the group’s LP’s, which he spent many years searching for.

“Not reissues, but the original albums,” Medvedev insists.

Whether or not the Russian President had anything to do with or not, Deep Purple plans a tour of Russia this fall, which will include 12 of the country’s largest cities, culminating on October 27 with a “grand concert” at the Olympiisky Stadium. I don’t think I could have come up with a better name for a Russian concert venue if I tried!

The tickets are already on sale and do not come cheaply, ranging in price from 2,000 rubles ($86) and 10,000 rubles ($430). I guess concert ticket prices are up all over these days.

Back during the days when we knew that part of the world as the Soviet Union, or, as former President Ronald Reagan once called it, “The evil empire,” many rock groups were banned from performing there. For some reason Deep Purple was not among those with a “nyet” next to their name on the official list of banned rock bands during those days.

Other groups were not so fortunate, with the likes of AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath and the Talking Heads all blacklisted by Soviet leaders.

Fortunately for rock fans in that part of the world, walls that divide cities occasionally do actually come down, and Communist régimes bite the dust.

Enjoy the show Mr. President.

For more check out the original story from the Russian News & Information Agency.

Tags: Deep Purple, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia, tour