SPV have sold more than 1.6 million of Axel’s albums, while his songs have been streamed more than 37.5 million times, figures he could never have dreamt of when he first started out. Axel declares that “If the whole thing hadn’t taken off, I’d be bored to tears in my trained job as an industrial management assistant to this very day.” Ever since his very first chart entry with his fourth studio album “Between The Walls” in 1994 (no. 90 in the German charts), Pell has known that he’s been heading in the right direction and would never have to go back to that day job. 

Particularly important has been his flair for talent; Axel states that “In Germany there hardly were and still aren’t any singers who are compatible with my music.” For this reason, he has thought in international terms from the start, his first few albums featuring some of the world’s best vocalists in the hard rock genre: Charlie Huhn (ex-Ted Nugent, Gary Moore, Victory, now with Foghat), Rob Rock (ex-Impellitteri, Driver) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, Talisman, now with progressive super group Sons Of Apollo). When former Hardline frontman Johnny Gioeli joined in 1998, they formed a creative unit that has lasted ever since, no end in sight. And after ex-Rainbow/Black Sabbath/Blue Öyster Cult drummer Bobby Rondinelli joined the Pell fold in 2013, the band – which also features keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg (since 1998) and bassist Volker Krawczak (since 1989) – has made another huge leap forward in terms of quality.

Over the last thirty years Axel Rudi Pell has been one of the constant and eminent figures of the international hard rock circus. Since 1999, Pell has played the main stage of Wacken Open Air in Germany, the world’s biggest heavy metal festival, six times; “Wacken and I have grown together, too. It’s fascinating to see how many fans you can reach with your own songs.” When Axel and his band won the opening slot for Heaven & Hell (the Ronnie James Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath) in Germany in 2009, the legendary singer saluted his support act, saying: “You’ve got the job because you’re good.” 

Even in Russia Pell is a star in his own right. He shared the stage at an award show at the Kremlin in Moscow at the end of March 2019, performing alongside renowned acts such as Chris De Burgh, Michael Bolton and Leona Lewis, before selling out a 2,000-capacity venue the night after. “The fans sang along to all the lyrics; I couldn’t move anywhere without signing autographs and having selfies taken.” That Pell hysteria has led to another Russian adventure; he is now set to perform at the prestigious ‘White Nights’ festival in St. Petersburg in July 2019.

“XXX Anniversary Live”, a stunning document of his most recent tour, was not planned at all, but the recordings, from Bochum and Budapest among others, were so good that Axel felt he just couldn’t scrap them. A more than worthy follow-up to “Magic Moments”, (his 3-hour anniversary show at the ‘Bang Your Head’ festival in 2014, where he celebrated 25 years as a solo artist), “XXX Anniversary Live” is an exhilarating, glorious celebration of Axel Rudi Pell’s monumental career to date.

www.axel-rudi-pell.de / www.spv.de