Classic rock fans in Bahrain were afforded a rare treat on Saturday evening as German band Scorpions served up a feast of guitar anthems at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Emerging in front of an excitable crowd, the five-piece opened the set with a powerful rendition of Sting In The Tail, which immediately had the densely-packed audience jumping up and down with delight. Lead singer Klaus Meine looked half of his 65 years as he bounced around the elaborate stage under an array of coloured spotlights and led the crowd with various back-and-forth exchanges, hitting some very high notes with relative ease. The band has certainly lost none of its musicianship as they enter the twilight years of their career, as guitarists Rudolf Schenker and Matthias Jabs, bassist Paweł Mąciwoda and drummer Mark Cross performed a medley of hits spanning the band’s 49-year career with energy and aplomb. There was a touching moment during the main set as Meine dedicated hit song Send Me An Angel to compatriot Michael Schumacher, the winner of the first Bahrain Grand Prix in 2004 who remains critically ill in a medically-induced coma after a skiing incident (See Health Weekly Page 15). After almost an hour and a half of frantic rock n’ roll, the band departed the stage to mass disapproval from the crowd, as they chanted in unison for more. Sure enough, they got their reward as a triple-whammy encore of arguably the band’s biggest songs Still Loving You, Wind Of Change and Rock You Like A Hurricane were blasted out from the giant speakers in a cacophony of screaming guitars and pounding drums. It seemed that the majority of the crowd knew the words, as they belted them out with vigour when encouraged to do so by Meine. One encore was not enough, despite the house lights coming on and the band throwing souvenir guitar picks and drum sticks to those gleeful few who had braved the front row. More chanting led to the stars returning for a second time to perform one final ballad, the acoustic When The Smoke Is Going Down. It was unanimously agreed by the patrons who attended that it was the best F1 concert they had seen in Bahrain for many a year. Judging from the stunning performance by the golden oldies, it made a nice change for rock fans who are so often maligned in favour of modern sounds and DJs to enjoy a taste of real live music.
