Page 3 - The Jams

Based on UK leg of tour including: May 16th Manchester Apollo, May 17th Birmingham NEC, May 19th Wembly Arena, May 20th Croydon Fairfield Halls, May 21st Cardiff International Arena.

All photos on this page (c) 1998 Dave Wood.

From l-r: Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth.

Every night, at the end of Satriani's set, the audience is treated to a jamming session featuring all the guitarists from the gig... namely Uli, Michael and Joe, along with David (Van Landing) coming back out on stage for vocals. For three of the five nights I attended (Manchester, Birmingham and Croydon) they were also joined by Keith More, who although an obviously talented guitarist, did seem a little out of his depth among such 'superstars', not really technically, but in experience. By the third date however he did seem a lot more at home in the jam, and for my money produced his best performance on this occasion.

The Wembly gig was memorable for the guest appearance of Brian May, who stood out for not being at all like I'd imagined (given his 'Legendary status).. what a nice guy! His contribution to the jam wasn't outstanding, but due to the totally recognisable sound of his guitar you could at least tell exactly what he was playing at any time; of course it was still good. (It didn't help that at the time I had five cameras on me from the guys in MSG to take photos from the pit.....). To be honest he could have spent the whole time playing one note and it would still have been great to see him up there. The final night it was down to just the three main players, which seemed to work a lot better than four even just because it kept the whole thing under more control.

From l-r: Michael Schenker, David Van Landing, Brian May, Uli's leg.

Scaramouch scaramouch will you do the Fandango....

Every night it was the same two songs: The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King) and Voodoo Child (Hendrix) the latter most definitely in there for Uli's benefit! Performances from the guitarists varied every night, and it was never going to be easy getting all three to give their best efforts on the same night. Michael indeed seemed to pick his best night when the other two most certainly didn't and for the first few nights it didn't help that the V's mix was a lot lower than the others. Every night though it was fantastic to hear Michael playing the blues.. I may be biased, but it seemed that he was putting the most feeling into it, while Satch still seemed to be trying to impress everyone with his technique.. that isn't what the blues is about! I can definitely live with hearing more of the same from Michael... I guess only time will tell if this will be realised! David's performances were again top-rate, although he too suffered from some extremely bad mixing on a few nights. He didn't seem that bothered by it, seeing himself as an accessory to the events rather than a major part, but when you could hear him clearly, and all the guitars were mixed right it was quite a spectacle.

Everyone on stage seemed to enjoy it anyway!

From l-r: David Van Landing (sorry Dave!), Satrianis drummer, Stu Hamm, Joe Satriani, Michael Schenker, Uli Jon Roth, Brian May.

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