Drummer JÖRG MICHAEL Talks About SAXON And STRATOVARIUS

SAXON/STRATOVARIUS drummer Jörg Michael has posted the following message on his official web site:

"Probably you guys have heard about the tragic accident of last weekend when Biff's [Byford, SAXON singer] house burnt down in the north of France. It´s very hard to cope with a tragedy like this but on this way I like to send best supporting regards over to Biff and his family and hope they will recover soon! Good news are that nobody got hurt, that is the the most important thing I suppose! Let's cross our fingers that Biff's life is going back to normal as fast as possible!

"Hot news since a couple of weeks is the reunification of STRATOVARIUS. Yes, this is very big news in my life and especially the fact that Timo Tolkki is doing much better, and is able to work again. We are working on the new material, of course I am very excited about what will come of it! At this point I'd like to explain that STRATOVARIUS means something very special to me. I have been together with these guys now for about 10 years. We started really at the bottom and lived a dream together, seeing the band growing and also developing the relationships. I wouldn't lie if I say that we all became friends in this band. We have a saying in German that you need 11 friends to be successful with a football team, but I would say it is very hard even to meet 11 friends in a lifetime.

"I also saw some confusion about this on the SAXON web site and I would like to tell the things from my point of view. I hope it will clear all the fog away and give everybody an understanding about my situation! STRATOVARIUS was in a big crisis at the beginning of last year, and I got a call out of the SAXON camp asking me to do their new record. That was a great honour for me and I packed my drum kit in the van, drove to England and auditioned 2 days and the boys liked what I was doing! Also we were talking about touring at that time. I already said at that point that I don´t know what will happen with STRATOVARIUS, but I promised Biff that I will be there for the whole Lionheart tour and we got a deal! For me it was an absolute great pleasure and almost a dream to play an album and a tour with one of my all time faves. The SAXON tour was an absolute blast for me, after starting the first shows in a kind of safe mood the whole band got more and more beserk so I really enjoyed every single second being on stage. I mean, playing masterpieces like 'Solid Ball of Rock', 'Motorcycle Man', 'Crusader', 'Dogs of War', '20.000 Feet', etc., only to name a few... and I am not even mentioning the 'Lionheart' stuff yet... made my evil little heart jump up and down and blew me away. Everybody knows the heart breaking skull cracking riff blasting guitars, solid pumping pounding iron bass with Nibbs going insane on stage, but I have to say one more thing: Biff on stage as a front man and singer is bloody fucking brilliant and asks for all my respect, bloody English... -:). This is no put honey around Biff's mouth or put my head into Biff's ass, this is my honest opinion! Also I haven't forgotten the metal maniacs visiting the shows who gave me great support all over Europe and a fantastic feel playing in SAXON, thank you very much for that. A point I shouldn't forget big thanx for every single road crew member as everybody gave me support and all the help I needed to feel a part of the family since the first day. Very special thanx go to Django and Duce, both are supermen and probably the best drum technicians in the world!!! Muriel and Emile my friends who run the web page put a couple of photos of the tour on the site, check them out and enjoy them! And as everybody know the Lionheart tour didn't end yet so I am still part of that! I think there will be still a lot of rockin' to do."