A box set of the McAuley Schenker Group albums is due to be released on 30th January 2026 under the title of Bad Boys: The McAuley Schenker Group Story 1987-1992.
It consists of their three studio albums – Perfect Timing (1987), Save Yourself (1989), M.S.G. (1991) and the Unplugged live album (1992). All include various bonus tracks.
This phase of Michael Schenker’s career saw him team up with vocalist Robin McAuley – thus allowing the retention of the MSG abbreviation – whilst albums being issued under the name of the McAuley Schenker Group.
Perfect Timing was a move away in style from the typical Schenker stuff with it being somewhat tamer and more AOR oriented.
However the album did spawn some respectably selling singles.
Save Yourself moved back towards familiar hard rocking territory as did M.S.G. with Schenker doing what Schenker does best.
Check out Eve for example:
The late 1980s/early 1990s saw the rise of MTV and the acoustic “unplugged” sessions which became quite popular for a while.
McAuley and Schenker joined the, er fun, with a live unplugged session being released in 1992 with the imaginative titles of, er, Unplugged. This included three classics from Schenker’s UFO days – Natural Thing, Doctor Doctor and Lights Out.
Schenker’s association with McAuley and others involved in this incarnation of MSG has continued over the years here and there in a number of Schenker’s subsequent projects, not least Steve Mann and Bodo Schopf.
This box set is being issued by Cherry Red/HNE who do these things so well. The release date is 30th January 2026.
At time of posting, pre-orders are a reasonable £30 or thereabouts from Amazon:
https://amzn.to/3JMSOav
Other outlets available of course.
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