by Chris Willow
— Guest Columnist —
Rock The Coast Festival is a fresh quite new concert project. It is the new edition of Fuengirola Festival and Marenostrum Music Castle Park.
https://www.rockthecoastfestival.es/19/en/home/
The intention of the festival is to deliver heaps of awesome music from a load of hard rock, melodic metal, various combinations of speed and death metal groups at the sunny setting of Mediterranean resort. Rock The Coast Festival will combine first-class rock music event and gorgeous pleasure of sunny beaches of Spanish coast during 14th and 15th of June 2019 – Horns Sun & Beach!
Two main stages just by the sea will be occupied by headliners Scorpions and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow which do not need introduction followed by Europe, UFO, The Darkness, Opeth, Tarja Turunen and other great masterclasses hard rock and metal bands.
The third stage is in the courtyard of an old castle up on a hill, at the Arabian Fortress Sohail, just a few steps from the shoreline. You can enjoy an exclusive festival opening concert of Warduna, a Norwegian metal band there on 13th June. Warduna will be bringing a cold mystical breeze, from the dark ages of Vikings into that scorched night over the Mediterranean Sea.
Amazin landscapes, some fun at sunny beaches, over 40 bands for 15000 people and great music within holiday resort of Fuengirola, Malaga, Spain. All this you can have at Rock The Coast Festival 2019 for the price of an admission ticket.
https://www.rockthecoastfestival.es/19/en/tickets/
It was a pleasure to interview Rudolf Schenker of Scorpions, which together with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow are main Rock The Coast Festival headliners. Rudolf Schenker is a founding member and chief composer and with singer Klaus Meine they have been a core of Scorpions since 1965 when their story has begun. Rudolf Schenker still Rocks You Like A Hurricane and his Gibson Flying V imminent vengeance gonna get you!
Chris: Hello!? Rudolf: You know, I am in the middle of recording. You are too early, too early. Call, please in 20 to 25 minutes time.
C: Oh ! Ok. all right. I appreciate. Thank you.
R: Thank you. Bye!
C: Bye!
25 minutes passed …
R: Hello?
C: Hello! Hi Rudi! Are you ready now?
R: I am ready. One moment, on thing…
C: OK
R: So, let’s go for it.
C: Yeah! Let’s go for it. It is Chris Willow for HardrockHaven.Net On-Line Music Magazine. How are you today?
R: All right, lots of things to do. But that is good, you know, I mean you have so many people here and around the world… to create your staff, your songs it is the way how we live, since over fifty years ….once when I started, my father and other people said ‘find a proper job, how long you want to do that? ‘Ha! Ha!
C: It has been over half of the century since Scorpions been founded by you in Hanover, Germany. How do you feel like being in the band now?
R: Great! I think I made the right decision. Because my father said to me… because I was thinking what can I do… and my mother said to me get a proper job…and I did, I was a power electrician, which was helpful in the beginning when I had to fix my speakers, amplifiers and stuff like this. Dad said to me, don’t think much about it, do whatever you have a fan with and money comes by itself. Tin this case I said yes, I finished my job as a power electrician and then I started making music, tried to find good musician but also people whom I could have friendship with, and I am happy. And it was a reason, I also was writing a book called ‘Rock Your Life’ because I wanted to tell people, don’t be somebody else, be yourself because everybody has something special inside of himself and you only have to find it. I have found it through meditation, by meditation, I noticed what I have to do, and not what people think I have to do…you can find the best way what the best things are for you…I found it and I am happy. And people said we want you to leave the stage in 2010 after the final tour but then nobody let us go. And we found out how many fans we had. But it was too bad for James (Scorpions drummer James Kottak who left the band because of his alcohol problems). James was always that great guy but it was too much for him, all these tours and all his problems with alcohol. But he is now fine, I spoke to him lately and he is all right. And now we have this Mikkey Dee from Motorhead, he lived around the corner and he could go directly to the studio to work with us. Everything is fantastic, And you know, why finish, why stop it? When we had that world tour, the Facebook thing came on and we had one million likes at that time and now we have around 10 min or so, I think and …people who were writing to us were 80% at age between 60 and 28, the new generation, new fans, youth fans in front of the stage, to see this band …
C: Yeah! It’s amazing
R: New generation of fans, in this case, the new generation…. and also one thing that was very important to us, we have been giving an example to other young kids when you believe in something then you can make it. And I did it, and I was writing that book ‘Rock Your Life’ to let the people believe in yourself and then you will find your way and even if you were born in a little city like I came from you will find the way. So that’s the message. It is important for people, especially in our days today, we haven’t a helping hand to go our own way…because most people are laughing when somebody has like a stupid idea but it may be looked stupid at that moment but how many people thought they made stupid decision and later on they changed their mind and later they found it was not stupid, that it was a right decision.
C: Very true!
R: Yeah! Believe in yourself and go for it! That’s the situation, that’s what I feel, that I did everything right and am enjoying it. Especially coming to Malaga now because I spent a lot of time, vacation with my parents in the area of Malaga and Gibraltar and this area around. I was listening to Spanish bands and it was great and it was fantastic and now coming back and making Rock The Coast (Festival) it is fantastic. And by the way, we play ‘Coast To Coast’.
C: So Scorpions are ready to Rock The Coast this June in SPAIN?
R: Of course, we’re looking forward, we can’t wait. C: Any chance we could hear ‘COAST TO COAST’, that old heavy instrumental tune from the ’70s? It fits Rock The Coast Festival by its title, don’t you think so?
R: That’s what I said. Yes, we will play ‘Coast To Coast’, I promise you
C: OK, beautiful. And it fits ROCK THE COAST Festival by its title, don’t you think so?
R: Of course! Perfect! Perfect!
C: Scorpions are the main headliner together with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.
R: Yes, because Ritchie is a good friend of ours. He is a great guy. He is a little bit different than other people. But he is a great guy, great guitar player. He has black and very funny humor. And we have spent a lot of time together because he was married to a German woman. And he speaks a little bit German. And I was running into him often, we played together in the eighties. It was always fun to go on with him on tour.
C: Have you ever met Rainbow on the road before? Any memories?
R: Oh Yes, of course, we have played soccer together. We played with Scorpions in Montreal. We played Scorpions against his Rainbow and we were winning 4:1
C: Oh Ha! Ha! good for you.
R: Yes, But for Ritchie, you know he was very, very upset. Because it is no problem if you beat him in music but if you beat him in soccer he becomes very nasty.
C: Oh Yeah! He doesn’t like it.
R: Ha! Ha! Ha!
C: You are one of the greatest rock composers What is your personal aim as a guitarist? To be the fastest, loudest one or something else?
R: I would always like to be a great composer. I know I started late playing guitar, I was very much into soccer. And soccer playing was always a weekend and playing music was also on weekend and it was a difficult situation for me I couldn’t stop playing soccer and in this case… I tell you one thing, in my job, when I learned the job of power electrician, with some guys we were moving and I had an accident something fell down and broke my middle foot.
C: Oh ! Accidents happen…
R: I couldn’t play soccer. It was destiny. Then I started to play guitar and I noticed I couldn’t play so fast than the other guys like my brother and Uli (Rot, ex-Scorpions guitar player). When Uli was with Scorpions he saw me playing some exercise to play fast. He said, Rudolf does not work too hard and it is better that you be a great rhythm guitar player instead of the average lead guitar player and that kicked my ass. And I said that’s right. That’s the right situation to be a great rhythm guitar player and I would be a great composer.
C: Yeah, you are a great composer, I always liked your riffs and they are sticking in my head all the time. Yeah
R: Thank you! Thank you very much!
C: There are a few well-known rock festivals running in Europe, this summer and RTCF is quite a new one. Why did you choose to appear at this particular one?
R: I think it is up to our agent, up to guys who promoting these things, it is always like this. Somehow you getting a headliner and putting all things around. If you can’t find a headliner you putting all things together first and at its latest point is a headliner. And it is not easy mostly to make a festival really if you don’t have great bands around and it is the same with Rock The Coast Festival. And we are happy to play with Ritchie together, it is good to meet him again because he was doing all this kind of folk music with his wife and now he is playing rock again and it is great. I want to see him, it is fantastic.
C: You are on the same bill and you were on the same bill in the 80s and as far as I remember, Castle Donington.
R: Exactly it was Montreal and yes, Castle Donington and in Dortmund ( Germany) and he was always fantastic and Jimmy Bain (ex-Rainbow bass player) he was a good friend of us and he was fantastic,
C: And he was very good at playing with Dio too.
R: Exactly, perfect
C: He was the engine of the band, you know together with the drummer
R: Exactly with Vinnie Appice
C: SCORPIONS haven’t recorded any studio album since 2015.
R: That was the reason I was in the studio. When you were calling too early I was still into recording
C: So you are working on new material, right?
R: Exactly
C: Are you going to play something new at RTCF?
R: I do not know yet. We play something different but I think at RTCF we are not ready yet to play anything new. When we coming out with something it must be very very good and that’s an important point. And that is the reason that everybody is working on his own things and then we coming together, playing together and we find out what fits perfectly for a new album.
C: Scorpions recorded ‘The Good Die Young’ with Tarja Turunen some time ago. How do you remember your work with Tarja?
R: Oh ! Fantastic! She is a fantastic woman, a very nice woman. I think she has a Spanish manager…
C: Yes
R: I do not know whether if she still has him. But I know we met him a few times and she also played some TV shows with us ( Scorpions). And I think she has a Spanish husband. And she was fantastic, nice, great to do something with her.
C: Yes, she has a heart when singing.
R: Exactly, exactly
C: Tarja performs at the same festival too. Are you going to play that song ‘The Good Die Young ‘ with Tarja? Any chance we could hear it?
R: let’s see, let’s see how the situation is. Because we have to make also sure that Klaus( Klaus Meine, Scorpions vocalist) is not overdoing things because he is singing that is very high kind of voice area we have to save his voice very, very much, because he is very proud when he can give the best he can give and sometimes the audience is so great that he is overdoing things and then he is regretting that he has forced himself too much and we have to think how is his voice and how’s the feeling and of course we would love to do it and lets see, lets see…
C: Yeah! Let’s see what’s gonna happen. And one more question Rudi. How did you find your current Polish bass player Pawel Maciwoda?
R: Actually, that’s the situation I have a Polish secretary, he is a Polish guy Alex Malek. And his father was also in an orchestra in Poland. And he was very much into music, he was a friend of my fan and then somehow I noticed that this guy has some talent and I started working with him, we did some charity acts in South America in India we did some charities for people who got hit by an earthquake in India, we played some charity concerts and the money went to the helping. And Ralph ( Ralph Rickermann an ex-Scorpions bass player ) was more and more into film score writing. And he said that we were looking for a bass player and I had in mind that bass player from that German band ….the band called …I can’t remember ( and he sings the song that band had hit with) oh that guy was Peter Baites! And that Peter when I called him said, Rudolf sorry I would love to come to Scorpions but we have that Accept ( German rock band) reunion and we do Accept again. And I said OK and than Alek came to me and said, Rudolf, I have a good friend in Poland who is a very, very good bass player. What you guys think to try him out. And I said OK, why not. And we tried him out and we knew this guy is rocking and he was in it.
C: Yes, so you guys are getting on well, right?
R: Oh yes, fantastic very, very well.
C: You know, I was asking how did you find him because I am Polish! Ha! Ha!
R: Ah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Oh OK. Then, I tell you one thing. When we have that RTCF come please backstage and let’s have a beer together and you can meet Alex and you can meet Pawel.
C: Oh Yes! Beautiful! Thank you very much, Rudolf! Thank you! We can meet up and chat.
R: Send the message to our management
C: Thank you! Thank you, Rudolf, for your time and for that short interview ! Cheers to you toast to Scorpions guys!
R: Goodbye! Bye! Bye!
https://www.the-scorpions.com/
Stay connected with Christopher Willow’s Projects and Interviews:
Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow Live Project 2017 | Facebook
2.6K likes. The last hard rock hero hits the road again!
https://www.facebook.com/BlackmoresRainbow/
Rainbow Live Project (@Rainbow2016EU) | Twitter
The latest Tweets from Rainbow Live Project (@Rainbow2016EU): “The Sound of Blackmore’s @Rainbow2016EU …”
https://twitter.com/rainbow2016eu
Photo credits photographer: Ralph Arvesen
