The rock band The Scorpions are set to split up at the end of an upcoming world tour that will top off a successful and sometimes controversial career that spanned more than four decades.

A new studio album, "Sting In the Tail," will be released on May 15 - four days after the group embark on a three-year world tour across five continents.

On their official Web site, band members thanked fans and said that they remained as enthusiastic about music as ever. But, they said, the time had come to consider a change.

"We're not getting any younger," singer Klaus Meine told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.

"We'd rather go out with a killer album and follow our hearts. We achieved everything you can achieve with a rock band," he said.

Long history

Guitarist Rudolf Schenker and drummer Wolfgang Dziony started the band in 1965 and were joined by Meine four years later. In their time together, the musicians have had four bassists, six drummers and two guitarists.

They sold more than 100 million recordings, scoring their first big hit "Still Loving You" in 1984.

Among their other singles were "Rock You Like a Hurricane," "No One Like You" and "Send Me an Angel."

Anthem to fall of wall

Internationally, the band is perhaps best known for the hit "Wind of Change," widely associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall. They were even invited to play at the Kremlin in 1991 by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

In 1976, the band ran into controversy with the artwork for its album "Virgin Killer," which featured a picture of a naked young girl.

The band begins its world tour in the Czech capital Prague on March 15 with other dates planned so far in Switzerland, France and Russia. The first of eight appearances that the band has announced in Germany is in Leipzig on May 7.

rc/apn/AFP
Editor: Kyle James