September 28, 2024
UDO
Time: 6:30PM
Venue: The Forge
Address: 22 W Cass Street
State: IL

Udo Dirkschneider is rock musician, vocalist and one of the founders of the heavy metal band Accept. After leaving Accept in 1987, he formed his own group U.D.O. He was born 1952 in Wuppertal in Western Germany. His family owned a factory for the production of various parts and tools. By the time Udo started school, the family moved to Solingen. Udo’s love for music began with a parental gift: The Beatles records “I’m down” and a portable tape recorder donated in 1964. Somewhere around the same time, he heard the Rolling Stones and began to prefer them to The Beatles. Udo, like many teenagers, decided to try himself in music, preferring keyboards. In 1966, he had a modest model of the instrument, and learned to play using his own self-instruction manual. He rehearsed with Michael Wagener, a classmate, the future guitarist of Accept and the future famous producer and sound engineer. For the slightest group, one way or another, was needed a singer. Udo had to sing, and the result was quite impressive. Moreover, Udo liked to sing. In the end, the guys created the Band X group, the forerunner of Accept. Udo’s parents objected to his music lessons, considering in him the successor of the family business. By the age of 17, Udo was considered to be already a qualified worker and left the parent company only after the release of the third studio album “Accept”, “Breaker”. In 1971, the Accept group was created. By 1986, Udo had gained worldwide fame as part of the Accept group, but was forced to leave the group, because the rest of the group decided to focus on the American market and exploit commercial music, and Udo, in turn, was convinced that Accept play uncompromising heavy metal. After leaving the group, Udo created his team, “U.D.O.”. Udo Dirkschneider has a unique powerful tenor, which is difficult to define.