How long is it since you played in the UK?

We were here promoting the HOLY album in 2000, we played here at the Underworld and it was very good, it was the first time in over 11 years and I think it was 86 last time that Accept toured here. But then again I was here with Accept in 93 or something like that, with did a reunion show in London, but it was a long time since I'd played here and it went very well.

So you are on a European tour now to promote the MAN & MACHINE album.

Yes, we have already played Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Germany we did France, Spain and Switzerland and now were doing England with one more show to do tomorrow in Dudley, then we go to Belgium and back to do one more show in Germany and finally the chezch republic, then thats the first part over and it's the world cup so nobody really wants to do any concerts, and after that we'll be spending the summer doing festivals all over Europe.

Do you still enjoy touring after being in the business for so long?

Yes, I mean I still love to play live music it's still fun being on tour, you can see the direction of the audience when you have a new album so you can see how it works, to see the reaction is the best part of it all.

Tell us about the new album.

The new album's called ' Man & Machine', it's not a concept album what we have is the three songs 'Man & Machine', 'Private Eye' and 'Network Nightmare' they're all about new technology. 'Man & Machine' is about computer & Robot stuff, the main lyrics are around the fact that the humans were created, who created the machines and that we had better keep an eye on the Machines so that they don't end up running the humans. I think this new album is definitely back to the roots from the Accept days and that was something we wanted to do, now that Accept is over and theirs no reunion planned or anything like that.

Are you still in contact with the guy's?

Yes, I am still in contact with Peter and Wolf, they are both living in America now but they're both out of the music business, Wolf did a classical instrumental album but it wasn't released in Europe, it was selling over the internet. It's a shame but when we did the last album with the reunion tour we could all feel that the spirit was gone, it was going in two different directions and we had all been together for such a long time that when we were doing the album we could all feel that it was really over, so before we destroyed the name 'Accept' we agreed to do the last record and tour and that would be it. So now in U.D.O we have Stefan Kaufman with me who was the drummer in Accept, he now playes the guitar, he's been playing guitar since he was four years old so I new he was always into guitar, and when he had his back problem he couldn't play the drums anymore so I asked him if he wanted to be my guitar player and he said he would love to do this.

Was Mathias Dieth who played on the 'Faceless World' album interested in doing more work with you?

I would have loved to have had him back when I started U.D.O again, but he is now a lawyer, and is totally out of the music business. I still see him, but he was a really great guitar player.

Who is in the band now?

Stefan Kaufmann on Guitar, Lorenzo Milano on Drums he's from Switzerland, Igor Gianola is on the second guitar also from Switzerland and the Bass Player is Pitty Wienhold he is German but he is living in Spain so in a way it's a European Band. Stefan and me are still living near Cologne and with Stefan having his own studio then in a way everything is so easy for us to record an album without any pressure.

You have also set up your own label 'BREAKER' what was your reason for that?

When I started with U.D.O. again I did two albums with Gun Records in Germany, they did a good job but we told them that it's not only Germany, we wanted to tour every where and they did a very bad job in all the other countries. So after the two albums I said OK I don't want to be with them anymore so I had a choice to control everything so I set up my own Label. We work with SPV who do the distribution for us, so it's a lot of hard work but if you have the right organization it works.

It's always been difficult to get U.D.O albums over here, do you now have a licensing deal here?

Now we work alongside SPV who will be pushing things over here, that was the thing with Gun it was a big problem you know, I didn't have deals in a lot of countries like France for example for at least five years so now at last with SPV everything is working out.

Your Brother Peter has his own band which you signed to your Label.

Yes that was the only chance for him it's so hard to get a deal, it's not easy for him, I mean he's always the little brother of Udo, he has a great band and the albums have done well but it's always a problem. He did a tour with us in Scandinavia and Spain but at the moment they are starting to work on their new album.

Another German band who seem to be doing very well is Rammstein.

I like them very much, the shows they are doing are great and their music is pretty good, but now I think they are coming to a point with the last album where it's going to go very commercial. I first saw them when they were playing in front of one hundred and fifty people, they did pretty much the same show with the flames and Pyro's etc.

Many bands who enjoyed success in the 80's & 90's are touring again now. Do you feel that there could be a revival of these types of bands like Dokken, Mike Tramp & Bonfire?

It's interesting, when we toured last time with the Holy album I was surprised when they asked us to go to America and do headline shows, I wasn't sure about it but they agreed to let us do some small clubs so we agreed, we'll give it a try, we were over there for nearly two Months. Some places were quiet, but in New York for instance we had around 800 people and in Chicago we had around 1000 people, it was great to see this kind of music becoming popular again. What is interesting for me having been in the business so long is the amount of young people coming to our concerts, very young people fifteen sixteen year olds singing along to 'Balls To The Wall'. it shows that this music is not dead and never was.

Do you still include some Accept songs in your set?

Oh yes, we still play all the classic stuff and some very old stuff, we try to mix it up say 50% of the set is Accept songs.

When you opened for Judas Priest in the 80's I remember Wolf Hoffman saying that he could not believe how cruel the UK fans could be around that time. Do you still feel this way?

Yes in a way, it was a really hard time for us, but by the end of the shows they always ended upstanding and applauding our performance. But in a way we learned a lot, the guys from Judas Priest told us that at the end of the shows we had a good reaction from the UK. That tour really helped to promote us over here, we knew a lot of German bands that didn't want to play in England because they were really scared to play here.

One of the big music magazines over here recently gave you some bad press, Does that sort of thing get to you?

A lot of people say that we are doing the same music, that they don't need this anymore but I've been in this business for thirty years and I've seen many bands come and go and I'm still here, there is a reason for that. But thankfully with this new album we have had such fantastic press all over Europe.

Well good luck with the rest of the tour Udo, thank you very much for talking to Fireworks.

It's been a pleasure.