AXEL RUDI PELL – Magic Moments [25th Anniversary Special Show 3CD Box Set] (2015)

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AXEL RUDI PELL is celebrating its quarter-century with the Blu ray / DVD / 3CD Box Set “Magic Moments – 25th Anniversary Special Show“, out in Scandinavia on April 22nd, in Germany on April 24th, in Europe on April 27th and in the USA on April 28th through SPV/Steamhammer.

Recorded in July of 2014 at the Bang Your Head Festival in Germany, the concert documents Axel Rudi Pell’s 25th Anniversary as a solo artist. For the event, he invited a whole host of special guests to play with him and his band over the course of the night including his old band mates from Steeler, a few former band members and a whole myriad of Hard Rock stars.

The first of the 3 CD-set opens up with a total of four Steleer songs. This band was in the same league of Pretty Maids back in the ’80s, but with lesser luck. Together 2015 they sound pretty tight and impressive when you bear in mind that they haven’t played together for a 3 decades.
Next we have three songs from Axel’s back catalogue featuring two of his former vocalists, the awesome Rob Rock and Jeff Scott Soto. Rob sings “Nasty Reputation” with power and conviction, but next Soto kicks some serious ass on “Warrior” and “Fool Fool”. This man simply Rocks.
Jörg Michael from Stratovarius also guests on these 3 tracks behind the drum kit.

The second disc comprises of a total of 12 songs (two medley) featuring his current band mates including Johnny Gioeli on vocals, Volker Krawczak on bass, Bobby Rondinelli on drums and Ferdy Doernberg on keyboards. Throughout this portion of the show, the band belted out tunes from the newest ARP solo album ‘Into the Storm’ as well as tunes from past records released in the 21st century.

The band sound extremely tight in both their performance and sound as Ferdy’s keyboards are perfectly tuned to the live sound, while new drummer Bobby Rondinelli shows us what he can do by mixing together his experiences with the bands he has played in.
Gioeli shows us not only his amazing vocal talent as a singer which you can clearly hear on the beautifully haunting cover of the Neil Young classic “Hey Hey My My”, but also his charisma as a performer as he knows how to entertain the crowd.

Disc 3 features ARP & Friends performing Classic Hard Rock covers with the performances being divided up amongst various great singers including Ronnie Atkins from Pretty Maids who belted out a terrific cover of “Black Night” from Deep Purple, and John Lawton who rocks in “Sympathy” from his former band Uriah Heep, followed by ZZ Top’s “Tush”.

A great take on “Mistreated” is shared by Doogie White, Gioeli and Tony Carey, Rainbow’s classic “Since You’ve Been Gone” features Graham Bonnet, White & Michael Voss and of course, Axel couldn’t leave it there without paying a tribute to the late great Ronnie James Dio.
“Long Live Rock N’ Roll” from the Dio-Rainbow era was performed with Bonnet, White and Carey in a quite hot triad.

Before the show was over, every single musical guest who played with Axel during the set came on stage to belt out a great big group cover of Deep Purple’s immortal “Smoke on the Water”.
To finish things off and hearing all of those great Hard Rock voices singing such classic song is pretty damn amazing and a track like this is perfect for closing off a special show like Axel’s 25th Anniversary concert.

Overall, this is a pretty impressive recording from Axel Rudi Pell & Friends performing a good, diverse mixture of different songs featuring different performers, most of them in real good form.
Production is fine and polished, perhaps on some parts I would have preferred a little more punch, but all come out loud & clear.
A birthday party couldn’t be much better than this. Cheers and to the next 25 years.

Disc: 1
01. Call Her Princess (feat. Steeler)
02. Night After Night (feat. Steeler)
03. Rockin’ The City (feat. Steeler)
04. Undercover Animal (feat. Steeler)
05. Nasty Reputation (feat. Rob Rock, Jörg Michael)
06. Warrior (feat. Jeff Scott Soto, Jörg Michael)
07. Fool Fool (feat. Jeff Scott Soto, Jörg Michael)

Disc: 2
1. Burning Chains
2. Strong As A Rock
3. Long Way To Go
4. Hey Hey My My
5. Mystica
6. Into The Storm
7. Too Late / Eternal Prisoner / Too Late
8. The Masquerade Ball / Casbah
9. Rock The Nation

Disc: 3
01. Drum Battle
(feat. Vinny Appice, Bobby Rondinelli)
02. Black Night
(feat. Ronnie Atkins)
03. Sympathy
(feat. John Lawton)
04. Tush
(feat. John Lawton)
05. Mistreated
(feat. Doogie White, Tony Carey, Johnny Gioeli)
06. Since You Been Gone
(feat. Graham Bonnet, Michael Voss, Doogie White)
07. Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
(feat. Doogie White, Graham Bonnet, Tony Carey)
08. Smoke On The Water (all guests)

Axel Rudi Pell – Guitar
Johnny Gioeli – Vocals
Volker Krawczak – Bass
Ferdy Doernberg – Keyboards
Bobby Rondinelli – Drums

Steeler:
Axel Rudi Pell – Guitar
Peter Burtz – Vocals
Tom Eder – Guitar
Roland Hag – Bass
Jan Yildiral – Drums

Special Guests:
Jeff Scott Soto (TALISMAN, W.E.T.) – Vocals
Rob Rock (IMPELLITTERI) – Vocals
John Lawton (URIAH HEEP) – Vocals
Ronnie Atkins (PRETTY MAIDS) – Vocals
Michael Voss (MAD MAX, MSG) – Vocals
Graham Bonnet (RAINBOW) – Vocals
Doogie White (TEMPLE OF ROCK) – Vocals
Tony Carey (ex- RAINBOW) – Vocals & Keyboards
Joerg Michael (STRATOVARIUS) – Drums
Vinny Appice (ex- DIO, BLACK SABBATH) – Drums

BUY IT !
www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Moments-25th-Anniversary-Special/dp/tracks/B00TEQML2Q
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