Thirty-five years have passed since the Michael Schenker Group released their legendary 1982 live album, One Night at Budokan.

However, last summer, Schenker—one of rock’s most respected guitarists—returned to Japan with three of the vocalists who helped him achieve worldwide success in the Eighties to record a new live disc.

The show, which was shot and recorded in front of 5,000 fans at Tokyo’s International Forum, will be released March 24 as Michael Schenker Fest Tokyo on CD, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally. The album reunites Schenker with MSG vocalists Gary Barden and Graham Bonnet, plus Robin McAuley of the McAuley Schenker Group. Also performing were MSG alumni Chris Glen (bass), Steve Mann (guitar) and Ted McKenna (drums).

The album celebrates the music and guitar wizardry of Schenker—and gives longtime fans a chance to re-live some incredible rock and roll moments.

I recently spoke to Schenker about Michael Schenker Fest Tokyo and more in this new interview.

How did the Michael Schenker Fest come together, and when did the idea for this live album begin?

It started about two years ago. A promoter had the idea of having Graham Bonnet and his band support Temple of Rock and sing a couple of songs with us. When we did that, I was like, wait a minute. There are so many songs from different eras and I’m playing all of this past material with different singers. I thought that if I could put Robin and Gary and Graham together I could do all of the Eighties material and perform those songs with the original singers—and it would be fantastic!

So I started thinking about a group of musicians: Steve Mann, who is a fantastic guy and player and was connected to McAuley and myself from the McAuley Schenker days, and Chris Glen and Ted McKenna, who had both worked with Graham and were also the original rhythm section [after Cozy Powell] for the Michael Schenker Group with Gary. It couldn’t be better than that.

A promoter in Japan eventually found out about it and set us up on tour. One of the shows was Tokyo, a beautiful place that sold out immediately. I decided to record it and make sure it would be captured forever. In a way, it’s like a déjà vu of Budokan.

You can read the rest of my
Interview with Michael Schenker by Clicking Here!