SCORPIONS - Lonesome live (earliest Known live recording) 1973 (re uploaded) 🇩🇪

1973-04-19 Grille Minden West Germany. Most early known live recordigs Opening for ELOY (WTE #29) & UFO with Bernie Marsden on Guitar (Not Recorded) Re uploaded with a new different better art cover REPAIRED recorded by Herb Smith in 1973:: ’’In the afternoon of 19 April 1973 my friend and me arrived at the local ballroom Zur Grillei in Minden, Germany. The location had a capacity of 900 listeners, standing. It had a long tradition for dancing on weekends with local bands playing live. From around 1970 more and more progressive bands payed a visit to Minden, in 1973 I already had seen Ton, Steine, Scherben and Nektar, ( missed Status Quo, Franz K, Birth Control, Alexis Korner) We were in time for the soundcheck, positioned my Uher reel to reel machine in the middle of the hall, next to me my microphone on its stand, high above the heads of the audience. A normal situation in those days, all bands I had recorded so far were very supportive and seemed to be flattered, that I wanted to record them live. The bands announced for that evening were Hannover based Eloy and Scorpions, headliner were UK band UFO, who had have a minor hit in Germany with their single Prince Kajuku. From what I know, this was the very first date of the tour, a warm up in a small town with low risks. During the soundcheck we had an very unpleasant meeting with the tour promoter, in harsh words he let us know, that we had to leave immediately and that he did not tolerate any recordings. My friend and me were very disappointed but also offended by the guy�s bad behaviour and packed our equipment in anger. Right hand, on the back of the hall, there was a bar, closed for that night, and hidden behind a heavy curtain. When we felt unobserved, we set off to leave the hall, but turned left in time and disappeared behind the curtain. I installed the tape machine and climbed up on the counter, with a few grips the mic was attached to the curtain rod and we were ready for the concert evening. Ok,the view in the middle of the hall would have been perfect, but anything was better than going home empty-handed. I knew all three bands by name, but musically I only knew UFO, but I didn’t like them. At that time, I was only 15 years old, I took every opportunity to see a band play live, I was very enthusiastic ! The Scorpions opened the evening, with their album Lonesome Crow they had just established themselves among the progressive Kraut bands, my expectations were low, I’d seen their name on posters in the region many times, so they hardly were superstars. Their first song, a rock & roll number, took away my last hopes of musical delicacy. But right after that, a catchy motif caught my attention, the guitar solo in the same piece, hardly to be surpassed in melodic elegance, made a look over the curtain urgently necessary ! A guitarist very young in appearance, just 18 years old was the origin of these tones, which made not only me sit up and take notice. Eloy, who played afterwards, were much more to my taste at the time, but the Scorpions had gained a lot in my esteem and Michael Schenker and Lothar Heimberg, their bass player, became real heroes for me! The fact is, and this was also mentioned again and again in interviews: Ufo discovered Michael Schenker for themselves that evening, because they also needed an urgent replacement for Bernie Marsden, who had been refused entry to Germany for lack of valid papers. I can’t say whether Schenker was really on stage with Ufo that evening. After endless breaks, it must have been almost midnight when the Brits played could finally begin, my musical interest in them was more than low, I was satisfied to have secured Eloy on tape, so we took advantage of the darkness and the commotion in the hall to leave the bar unseen. What remains is a unique document of the old Scorpions in the original line-up live on stage’’ Setlist; 1. Intro: HEY LITTLE WOMAN 2. FAR AWAY (Power Outtage Occurs)/Drum Solo 3. Improv/Jam 4. LONESOME CROW (23 minutes !!) 5. JOURNEY FOREVER 6. IT ALL DEPENDS incl. Bass & Dum Solo’s (Fades Out...) i miss i’m goin’ mad KLAUS MEINE - Vocals MICHAEL SCHENKER - lead Guitar (18 YEARS OLD) RUDOLF SCHENKER - Guitar LOTHAR HEIMBERG - Bass JOE WYMAN - Drums