AXEL RUDI PELL-XXX Anniversary Live

Steamhammer/SPV

June 6, 2019 by Michel van de Moosdijk - More about our team

Being with one and the same record company for 30 years (and counting) is not an everyday event. German guitarist/composer Axel Rudi Pell released his first solo-CD ‘Wild Obsession’ in 1989 and from that day on found a happy home at Steamhammer/SPV developing his classic rock style the way he saw fit without his record company pressing him to write hit singles or radically change his style. Pell has never took the trust the record company showed in him for granted. The biggest problem he ever faced was that he could not find the right singer for his music in his own country so after working with class act singers like Charlie Huhn, Rob Rock and Jeff Scott Soto in 1998 Hardline singer Johnny Gioeli joined him and is still here to this day together with keyboarder Ferdy Doernberg, drummer Bobby Rondinelli and bass player Volker Krawczak (who has been there since 1989). This line-up has developed into a real tight and unique outfit. After the release of the latest studio album ‘Knights Call’ in March 2018 obviously the group went out on the road, even playing for the first time in countries like Russia. There were no real plans to release a live-album but after hearing the recordings they made during several shows in Budapest (Hungary) and Pell’s home town Bochum and realising that the quality of those recordings were of a high standard plus the fact that Pell celebrates his 30^th anniversary of being with Steamhammer and being active under his own name, triggered the decision to release this 2-CD. I must say that the songs featured on ‘XXX Anniversary Live’ really give a perfect picture of the music of Axel Rudi Pell. There is room for the old stuff like ,,Warrior’’, ,,Carousel’’ and ,,The Masquerade Ball/Casbah’’ as well as more recent tracks like ,,The Wild And The Young’’. It is not easy to collect 30 years of melodic classic rock that completely represents you as an artist but Axel Rudi Pell and his friends have done it with most of the time immaculate performances including drum solo, keyboard wizardry, the sing along parts with the audience, long epic passages, basically everything you expect if you go and see a classic rock band. I don’t expect der Axel to go on rocking for another 30 years but then on the other hand knowing him it would not surprise me either! The man has copped a lot of criticism during the years for sticking to a certain musical formula and being a bit predictable but at the end of the day it is Axel Rudi Pell laughing at that by doing what he does best. Hats off to this artist and his career! Looking forward to his next studio recordings.