Michael Schenker Fiftieth Anniversary and Doro, Shepherd Bush London 2021 – Review by Dawn Osborne

Wearing her Warlock T after gaining the rights to the name back recently Doro looked youthful and beautiful as she opened with classics ‘I Rule The Ruins’ and ‘Burning The Witches’. Half of the originals in this short set are from the Warlock era a testament to the impact of that period of her work. Always one to get the crowd going with ‘Raise Your Fist in the Air’ and ‘Blood Sweat and Rock n Roll’ she constantly appeals to the crowd for connection and reaction calling with her arms and doing the horns seemingly with her whole body.

 

There’s no sign of Nick Douglas, bassist for over 30 years as he presumably is stuck in the USA, but the band interacts on stage like they have been a unit for much longer. Longtime Drummer Johnny Dee can always be relied upon to put on a show spinning sticks and posing in the air. Doro, of course, always sounds great. Not following trends she always delivers old skool style and with tracks like. ‘Forever Warriors Forever United’, ‘All For Metal’ and ‘Revenge’ she bonds with her metal tribe.

 

She remembered to thank MSG, the crew and the crowd ‘in difficult times’ and her influences Saxon, Maiden, Motorhead and Priest before doing ‘Breaking The Law’ making it her own with a softer voice driven start before completely going for it. The Guitarists circled the drums for the big finale ‘All We Are’. She went on at 6.30 and it was a short set. I think everyone was left wanting more.

 

Michael Schenker is in a very good mood tonight with no rants against his brother or anything negative at all clouding his smiley and seemingly relaxed mood. Joking ‘Fiftieth anniversary – it’s what you get when you play guitar for 50 years’ he actually looks about 30, thin as a rake and the embodiment of Peter Pan. He can also still deliver the goods with knobs on. Over 20 songs in over 2 hours. No one can say they did not receive tremendous value for money tonight both in quality and quantity.

 

Of course tonight is all about Michael Schenker, the man himself and he clearly commands a  tremendous amount of respect from the rest of his band. Ronnie Romero is enough of a front man to provide a show, but not too much to ever detract from the main man. Smiling and enjoying the ride Schenker graciously acknowledges, introduces and involves his band. They seem like a happy ship.

 

Opening with instrumental ‘Ascension’ the set is a balance of older material like ‘Assault Attack’ , ‘Armed and Ready’, and ‘Rock You To The Ground’ and new material like ‘Warrior’ ‘Sail the Darkness’ and ‘After The Rain’.

There was on nod to The Scorpions ‘In Search of The Peace of Mind’ and a huge section devoted to old UFO material ‘Rock Bottom’ ‘Shoot Shoot’ ‘Let It Roll’ ‘Natural Thing’ ‘Too Hot to Handle’ and ‘Only You can rock me’ which gets the crowd singing along and provides that natural high to all involved when everyone in the building is giving their all with passion.

 

Frankly tonight for me was not about the songs, however, I barely took my eyes off the blonde bombshell phenomena of a guitarist, the man, the myth, the legend. When you realise that you have been transfixed and snake charmed, almost to the point that you were so much in the moment you remember less what happened, but how it felt and time passed like a flash,  you realise that you have been lucky enough to witness something rather special indeed.

 

Dawn Osborne