U.D.O. Concerts Setlist

U.D.O. is a German heavy metal band. They were formed in 1987 in Solingen, West Germany. The sole founding member was lead singer Udo Dirkschneider (born in 1952 in Wuppertal, West Germany).

Dirkschneider was one of the founders of another popular German heavy metal band, “Accept”. He was there for their formation in 1976 but he left them behind in 1987, after he felt that opening to the American commercial market was compromising the band’s commitment to the heavy metal genre. So, he decided to create a new band and name it after himself, calling it “U.D.O”. However, he too went with English-language songs for his new band. He recruited four musicians: guitarists Mathias Dieth and Peter Szigeti, bassist Frank Rittel and drummer Thomas Franke. Given Dirkschneider’s prior success in the industry, it was relatively easy for the band to hit the ground running.

They released their debut album titled “Animal House” within a year of their formation, in November 1987, through the major American label RCA Records. To promote it, they went on an U.D.O. concert tour with appearances from such world-famous acts as Guns N’ Roses or Lita Ford. However, despite all that, the album only managed to get on the charts in Sweden. They put out 3 more albums together between 1989 and 1991 before Dirkschneider decided to put the project on hiatus to reunite with his old band Accept in 1992.

That hiatus lasted until 1996. That year, Dirkschneider got his band back on an international U.D.O. concert tour with a brand new line-up. They also contributed a song to the metal compilation album “A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal” in 1997, and released a new U.D.O. album of their own in March 1997 with the title “Solid”. Overall, the German metal band has no less than 16 full studio albums in their discography. The best selling one among them is one of their most recent ones, “Steelfactory” from August 2018, which peaked at #7 on the GfK Entertainment charts in Germany, while also reaching #27 on the rock & metal albums chart in the UK.

The biggest hits by U.D.O. to date are “Man and Machine” (2002), “Cry Soldier Cry” (2005), “I Give as Good as I Get” (2011), and “One Heart One Soul” (2018). After many, many changes, heir current line-up is made-up of the founder, lead singer, and only constant member, Udo Dirkschneider; as well as guitarists Andrey Smirnov and Dee Dammers, drummer Sven Dirkschneider, and bassist Tilen Hudrap.