AXEL RUDI PELL To Be Joined By Former BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW Members At BANG YOUR HEAD!!! Concert

German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell will celebrate his 25th anniversary as a solo artist by performing a very special show on July 11 at the Bang Your Head!!! festival in Balingen, Germany

Says Pell: "This year we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of my solo career. My first solo album, 'Wild Obsession', came out in 1989. Therefore, we will play a very special and unique show at the Bang Your Head!!! festival in Balingen, Germany on July 11th to celebrate this and we will headline the festival on that day!

"This will be no regular show by far! Of course, we will play a lot of songs with the recent AXEL RUDI PELL lineup featuring Johnny Gioeli, Bobby Rondinelli, Ferdy Doernberg, Volker Krawczak and myself, but this will only be 1/3 of the complete show approximately. As this year also sees the 30th recording anniversary of my former band STEELER (the first record was released in 1984),we will reunite in the original lineups (Peter Burtz, Tom Eder, Jan Yildiral and both bass players Roland Hag and Volker Krawczak) to perform a couple of songs for you. The reunion will only happen on that day and it will be an exclusive one-off! Furthermore, we will have a few AXEL RUDI PELL vintage members there and we're proud to announce that both vocalists Rob Rock and Jeff Scott Soto among original drummer Jörg Michael will enter the stage too to play a few older AXEL RUDI PELL tracks. As this ain't enough, I invited some other musical guests and friends to play a few cover tracks together and I'm really proud to announce the following guests in no particular order:

* Graham Bonnet (RAINBOW, MSG, ALCATRAZZ)
* Joe Lynn Turner (RAINBOW, DEEP PURPLE, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN)
* Doogie White (RAINBOW, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, MICHAEL SCHENKER'S TEMPLE OF ROCK)
* John Lawton (URIAH HEEP, LUCIFERS FRIEND)
* Tony Carey (RAINBOW)
* Vinny Appice (BLACK SABBATH, HEAVEN & HELL, DIO)

"Be there at very very special show, which will be a lifetime event and will last for more than three hours."

Pell last year parted ways with drummer Mike Terrana (TARJA, RAGE) "due to scheduling conflicts with [Mike's] other commitments." Terrana has since been replaced by Bobby Rondinelli (RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT).

Axel Rudi Pell's latest album, "Into The Storm", registered the following first-week chart positions:

Germany: #5
Switzerland: #9
Austria: #40
Finland: #44

In Germany and Switzerland, these represent the highest chart entries ever in Axel's solo career.

"Into The Storm" was recorded with engineer and co-producer Charlie Bauerfeind and features Pell alongside singer Johnny Gioeli, drummer Bobby Rondinelli, keyboard player Ferdy Doernberg and bassist Volker Krawczak.