A xel Rudi Pell, the German guitar wizard (date of birth 06/27/1960), has become a permanent Axel Rudi Pellpart of the German Metal scene since he released his first album with the German band "Steeler" (1984 - s/t). Three more albums followed ("Rulin' the earth" in '85, "Strike back" in '86 and finally "Undercover animal" in '88) until he decided to leave and start a solo career in 1989.
E ven though "Steeler" has been a popular band in the mid-eighties, the solo project became even more successful. Besides the great melodic and fast guitar playing by Axel there has always been a lot of space for other members of the band to show their talents like the fantastic drummer Jrg Michael or new keyboard player Ferdy Doernberg for example.
W ild ObsessionThe first Axel Rudi Pell solo album was released in 1989 and featured the great vocal talents of Charlie Huhn (ex Gary Moore, ex-Victory) on the album, as well as drummer Jorg Michael, bass players Volker Krawczak (ex-Steeler) & Jrg Deisinger (ex-Bonfire) and some more. From this great rockin' record with a weak production though over to the fantastic "Nasty Reputation" with Rob Rock (now in Impellitteri) on the mic to the latest albums "Black Moon Pyramid" and "Magic", both with the great Jeff Scott Soto on vocals, Axel started to develop his unique kind of musical style: fast melodic Hard Rock with a couple of neo-classical influences and sentimental hooks. Also typical for his music are those fantastic epic songs which I personally love so much. Tunes like "Magic", "The clown is dead", "Black Moon Pyramid" and songs like "Oceans of Time", "Ashes from the Oath" from his latest album... show which bands had have some influence on Axel's music. Especially Rainbow have been known for that kind of songs in the mid-seventies. But Axel has got some more stuff to offer and he is a proof that great Hard Rock Music still has a place in the music scene in the late 90's. Pure magic!
F rom 1994 on, all the studio albums have been in the German album charts for a couple of weeks each. The album "Oceans of time" featured new vocalist Johnny Geoli (ex Hardline) and new drummer Mike Terrana (ex- Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MacAlpine).
D ue to the departure of drummer Jorg Michael, new drummer Mike Terrana joined the line-up and played on tour in December 1998. The next album was "Ballads II", released in March 1999. "Ballads II" is a compilation of slower songs, old and new.
A lready in 1999, "The Ballads II" became a big success for Axel in Germany and marks another chart album in the guitarist's long career. The band contributed a song for the tribute album to Axel's favorite singer, Ronnie James Dio: the Yardbirds/Rainbow classic "Still I'm Sad". "Oceans Of Time" became the best selling Pell album of all time in summer. In August, the Pell band performed a successful club show at Bochum's Zeche and two days later the band had the chance to appear at Wacken Festival 1999 in front of 20000 people.
T he next album was called "The Masquerade Ball" - released in Spring 2000.The line-up featured the same musicians as it's predecessor. After the release of this yet again successful studio album, Axel decided to put out a double CD of feat. his best songs until date. The title of that particular album was "The Wizards Chosen Few" which party was compiled out of request's from readers of this site.
I n early 2001 the Pell band went successfully on tour again before they had the chance to perform at one of Europe's biggest Metal Festival - Bang Your Head - in Balingen this Summer.
T he ARP band started to record the next studio album entitled "Shadow Zone" in late 2001. The album was released on April 29th, 2002 with another tour to kick of a week later. "Shadow Zone" hit the German album charts at # 22 and marked the biggest success for the ARP so far. The show in Bochum was recorded for a live 2-CD and DVD release on October 21st, 2003/ on December 9th, 2002.
N o regular touring in the year 2003 but Axel joined Doro & some other friends live on stage with an orchestra on April 29th, 2004 at the Zeche, Bochum during a charity event for "Tiere in Not" (animal care). Here, he played some old classic including Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water". Axel was busy with the song-writing for the coming album all year and the recordings for "Kings And Queens" finally started on October 14th, 2003.
S till no line-up changes around! "Kings And Queens" finally saw the light of day on March 1st, 2004. It contains the killer songs "Strong As A Rock" & "Flyin' High" amongst others and reached #40 in the national German album sales charts and #75 in the Sweden. At the end of May in the same year, the ARP band went out for another European tour which brought them to countries such as Belgium, France, Switzerland and Axel's home country of Germany of course. On June 12th, 2004 the band performed live at one of Europe's leading Metal festivals: Sweden Rock and one more festival in Spain. "The Ballads III" hit the stores on October 24th, 2004 and contained new recordings - amongst them is an amazing version of Rainbow's "Temple Of The King". The official Axel Rudi Pell webshop opened on December 2nd, 2004.
2 005 was the year of the festival appearances (Tradate Iron Fest, Italy; Wacken & Bang Your Head, Germany and Graspop in Belgium) with a lot of rain plus some warm-up shows in advance to these festivals and one more "Classic Rock Night" (April 22nd) with orchestra at the Zeche Bochum - once again feat. some fellow musicians.
I n early 2006, the recordings for the current ARP album, "Mystica" started. Due to singer Johnny Gioeli's sickness, the CD had to be postponed for an August 25th release. The album reached # 27 in the German charts and #56 in Sweden. In between, Axel had married his long-time girldfriend Christina and received a Golden Record from his record company SPV plus performed at some more festivals during the Summer. The regular tour for "Mystica" followed in September 2006 and was the most successful one the band ever did. A second leg of the tour will be scheduled for early 2007.