Uli Jon Roth live in Athens December 2010

Up until 2010 I had seen Scorpions twice. The problem was that at both gigs they only played songs from their "recent" period (meaning from 1979 onwards). To be more precice, I can say that the carεer of Scorpions can be divided into 2 periods : The era before "Lovedrive" (until 1978) and the era after it (after 1979 when they changed both their record company and their guitarist). During their first period, their guitarist was Uli Jon Roth. He quit the band when he met (and fell in love with) Monika Dannemann, who, by the way, was Jimi Hendrix's last girlfriend (but that, as they say, is another story). Two songs from that period were extremely popular in Greece: "Pictured Life" and (mainly) "In Trance". And since Scorpions didn't play these songs neither in 2006 nor in 2010 at their "last ever" concert, Uli Roth himself came to Athens on Wednesday the 1st of December to play them himself.

 

 

The gig's flyer, which was given to me outside the Peace & Friendship stadium before the Scorpions concert, was advertising an acoustic set. But, as he told us himself on the night of the gig, he decided to get a band together and play an electric rock set.

 

He sang some of the songs himself, but he also had a singer in his band especially for the Scorpions tracks. 

And he played a lot of those as we can see from the setlist.
Support was provided by the Greek band "Leaving Tomorrow" who, among others performed a 12 minute song! 

 As for Scorpions... they would in fact return for an MTV Unplugged set in 2013. SETLIST: 

01. Pictured Life
02. Catch Your Train
03. The Sails Of Charon
04. Fire Wind
05. All Along The Watchtower
06. If 6 Was 9/Little Wing
07. I've Got To Be Free
08. Enola Gay - Hiroshima Today
09. Solo Keyboards
10. We'll Burn The Sky
11. In Trance
12. Fly To The Rainbow
13. Polar Nights
14. Dark Lady
Encore:
15. Kojo No Tsuki
16. Catch Your Train 

 

Pavlov's Dog live in Athens November 2010

Pavlov's Dog were popular in Greece back in the late 70's and most people believe that was due to the presence of an "unusual" (by rock'n'roll standards) instrument in their line up: The violin. (The same thing that had happened with City). That's when I first heard of them, their most popular song back then being "Julia" and they had only released two albums.  Anyway, Pavlov's Dog reformed at some point and they started coming to Greece. In November 2010 they appeared at Zygos in the Plaka district and this was, if I am not mistaken, their 3rd appearance in this country (but the first I had attended). I learned about that gig while waiting outside the Peace And Friendship Stadium for the Scorpions concert a few days earlier. There were older (like the singer's wife), and also newer members in their line-up (like the bass player and the obligatory... violin player). They had finally released a new album, plus a live one that was only available at their gigs. They played old, new, and even older but unreleased songs (because, as their singer told us, they could only fit 36 minutes of music on a vinyl record. I thought it was 45, but never mind).

They finished their set with "Julia" and then came out again to sign tickets, CD's, posters and books. That's how I managed to have a chat with them where they told me that although they might want to come every year, this was not up to them but up to the promoters. And the promoters of their previous gig in Greece had cheated them out of their earnings as they claimed, and that's why they had chosen Zygos this time around. Meanwhile, the two girls (violin and bass player) grabbed the chance to wear souvenir t-shirts for tourists with "Hellas" inscriptions. The gig was opened by "Rock & Lace" from the town of Trikala who also played "Because The Night", a song written by Bruce Springsteen and made famous by Patti Smith.

SETLIST:
01. Natchez Trace
02. Late November
03. Angeline
04. I Don't Need Magic Anymore
05. Fast Gun
06. Episode

07. Lost In America
08. I Love You Still
09. I Don't Do So Good Without You
10. Suzanne, I Love You
11. Don't Rain On Me
12. Ava Gardner's Bust
13. Only You
14. Brown Eyes
15. Theme From Subway Sue
16. Standing Here With You (Megan's Song)
17. Angel's Twilight Jump
18. Valkerie
19. Song Dance
Encore:
20. Breaking Ice
21. Julia