McAuley Schenker Group - Gimme Your Love

Any discussion of the McAuley Schenker Group has to begin with the Mad Axeman himself, Michael Schenker.  The guitar protégé started performing with his older brother Rudolf in the Scorpions at 15 before joining the British hard rock band UFO in 1973 as an 18 year old.  His work in UFO established Schenker as a premier guitarist but his behavior became increasingly erratic, primarily due to alcohol issues, and he left the band in 1978.

After a brief stint with the Scorpions in 1978-79, Schenker decided to form his own band, appropriately named the Michael Schenker Group (MSG).  While MSG showed flashes of strong material, the group's album were also notoriously inconsistent, plagued by the continued alcohol abuse of Schenker (which also led to significant turnover within the band).

In 1986, Schenker recruited Irish vocalist Robin McAuley and was so impressed by the songwriting that he re-named the band the McAuley Schenker Group.  This version of MSG would go on to release three studio albums, one EP and one live album before McAuley left the band (to get married and temporarily retire from the industry) in 1993.

The McAuley Schenker Group's sound was more commercial than most of Schenker's other work.  This was not accidental; the group moved to Los Angeles and tried to cross over during the heavy metal heyday of the mid to late 1980s.  Unfortunately, significant commercial success eluded them.

For the blog, we went with "Gimme Your Love" from the first McAuley Schenker Group album, 1987's Perfect Timing.  The song did not break to top 100 (though it did hit #40 on the Mainstream Rock Charts), while the album peaked at #92.

Schenker remains active in the industry to the present day, and has been involved in occasional reunions with UFO.  McAuley also remains in the industry, and was the lead vocalist for Survivor from 2006 - 2011.  He has also performed with Schenker, notably on his 2012 tour.

Cool trivia fact:  At different points in his career, Michael Schenker was asked to audition for the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and Ozzy Osbourne.  Obviously, none of the auditions worked out.