Axel Rudi Pell: XXX Anniversary Live version on vinyl 3LP/2CD in Standard edition. This particular edition was published in Europe in publishing company Steamhammer in cooperation with SPV on 28. June 2019.

Does anyone else remember 1989? When Axel Rudi Pell launched his solo career on December 1st with the release of his first album "Wild Obsession", the Berlin Wall had fallen shortly before. That was an eternity ago. The world has changed, but Axel Rudi Pell has not. For three decades, this guitarist from Bochum and his band have been releasing one quality hard rock album after another like a Swiss watch. Even the anniversary album, a live recording from the last tour, is being released by the same record company as in 1989; the SPV contract has lasted longer than most marriages. "With SPV, we've grown up together, experienced and handled the ups and downs," sums up the now 58-year-old. "Never change a winning team" is the secret of his success. The German musician has sold more than 1.6 million physical records to date and his songs have been streamed a total of more than 37.5 million times. Numbers he wouldn't have dared to dream of 30 years ago. "If the whole thing hadn't worked out, I'd probably still be bored in my skilled job as a clerk in an industrial college." Make it or break it: when his fourth album, Between The Walls, first hit the charts at number 90 in 1994, Pell knew he was on the right track; he hasn't strayed from it yet. One of the reasons is his good intuition: "There were and are almost no singers in Germany who fit my music." That's why he's been building on the international scene from the start, and on his first albums he can lean on world-renowned frontmen Charlie Huhn (ex-Ted Nugent, -Gary Moore, -Victory, now Foghat), Rob Rock (ex-Impellitteri, -Driver) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, -Talisman, now Sons Of Apollo). Since 1998, Pell has led a creative symbiosis with former Hardline singer Johnny Gioelli, with no end in sight. With the addition of former Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Blue Öyster Cult drummer Bobby Rondinelli in 2013, the band took another leap in quality, and keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg (since 1998) and bassist Volker Krawczak (since 1989) are equally responsible. The fact that Pell approaches his career with heart and soul is appreciated by the greats of the genre: when Pell and the band are allowed to support Black Sabbath offshoot Heaven & Hell in Germany in 2009, their singer Ronnie James Dio (who died in 2010) praises the support: "You got the gig because you're good." You can spin it any way you want: For the past 30 years, Pell has been one of the stalwarts of international hard rock. Apropos: He also has a long history with Wacken Open Air: Since 1999, Pell has played the biggest heavy metal festival in the world six times, "always on the main stage" Because: "Wacken and I also grew up together. It's fascinating to see how you can hold your own in front of so many fans with your own songs." Pell is now a star in Russia too: he'll perform at the Kremlin Awards at the end of March 2019 alongside Chris De Burgh, Michael Bolton and Leona Lewis, and the following night he'll thrill more than 2,000 fans at a show that's been sold out for weeks. "People were singing all the lyrics, I couldn't move freely outside the hotel, I had to sign everywhere and they wanted selfies." And that's not all: in July 2019, Pell will also perform at the famous White Nights festival in St. Petersburg. It's fitting that before that, "XXX Anniversary Live", now the 30th album of his 30-year solo career, will be released, a worthy milestone and record of a last tour he didn't plan at all, but the routine recordings from Bochum and Budapest, among other places, quickly turned out to be a worthy successor to "Magic Moments", the three-hour show from 2014's 25th anniversary "Bang Your Head" festival. Pell plans to release another studio album in the fall. The Swiss clockwork machine from the Ruhr area keeps on running.

Album spans genres Rock, Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. 180g 3LP + 2CD.