Planet Rock - USA (2020-04)

PLANET ROCK 117

10 UFO 1

(Beacon, 1970)

I0

In some ways,

UFO’s primitive, if

fully felt debut,

would sit nicely

alongside ’60s US

psych compilation

Nuggets. This

being a very British band,

however, there’s more of a

whiff of brown sauce and

motorway service station.

Though the single Boogie

With George struck a chord

with Scorpions’ Rudolf

Schenker, no less, guitarist

Mick Bolton’s chops are as

workaday as his name is

here. Still, UFO 1 provides

a useful – and fascinating

• yardstick by which to
  measure the band’s
  subsequent development.

Phenomenon

(Chrysalis, 1974)

4

“They didn’t speak

German and I hardly

spoke English, but we

let the music do the

talking,” Michael

Schenker recalled of

his first album with

UFO, aged 19. Even if Leo

Lyons of Ten Years After’s

production lacked balls in

places, Phenomenon’s

chugging stand-out Doctor

Doctor, re-tooled by Mogg

from a Schenker instrumen-

tal, would become absolutely

central to the band’s live

shows. Rock Bottom,

meanwhile, houses the first

truly great riff Schenker

brought to UFO, while on

Time On My Hands, Mogg’s

voice has a delicious Rod

Stewart-like rasp.

No Place To Run

(Chrysalis, 1980)

9

“I once had a flirtation

with heavy metal, and

I regretted it very

much,” recalled

Beatles producer

George Martin of

overseeing NPTR.

Revolver it ain’t, but this

album’s gutsy title track, its

rip-roaring cover of Junior

Parker and Sam Phillips’

Mystery Train and the minor

UK hit Young Blood all cut

the Colman’s. Poor George

had to get UFO off the white

rum at AIR studios on

Montserrat, but replacing

Michael Schenker, former

Lone Star guitarist Paul

‘Tonka’ Chapman sounds

anything but intimidated.

Mechanix

(Chrysalis, 1982)

8

“Mechanix: it will

tighten your nuts”, ran

the press ads that

accompanied UFO’s

10th studio album.

True enough, there

was something of the

Kwik Fit Fitter about its best

material, We Belong To The

Night possessing real

urgency, and the chorus of

Doing It All For You proving

indelibly hooky. The album’s

take on Eddie Cochran’s

Somethin’ Else some three

years after Sid Vicious had

covered it was an odd

choice, though. Soon, Pete

Way left temporarily to form

Fastway with Motörhead’s

‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke.

No Heavy Petting

(Chrysalis, 1976)

7

A UFO member for

this one album,

Argentinian keyboard-

ist Danny Payronel

penned Highway Lady,

the kind of track that

could have saved

David Brent songwriting time

in Life On The Road. Thank

the Lord, then, for Schenker,

Mogg and Way’s Natural

Thing and Frankie Miller/

Andy Fraser of Free’s A Fool

In Love, which is covered

here with aplomb. I’m A

Loser, too, became a great

live favourite and rightly so,

even if Mogg’s offer of a

night on his couch because

“lots of people do it” hardly

smacked of high romance.

The Wild, The

Willing, And

The Innocent

(Chrysalis, 1981)

5

A bona fide lost gem,

this was the

mid-period UFO

record on which

everything came

good, Mogg’s tales of

folks in the gutter

looking at the stars

especially lived-in and

potent. Hell, they even made

it onto Top Of The Pops

playing Lonely Heart. Paul

‘Tonka’ Chapman proved

himself a truly formidable

presence on Long Gone,

Makin’ Moves and epic

stand-out Profession Of

Violence, while former Wild

Horses keyboardist/

saxophonist Neil Carter

replaced Paul Raymond.

Force It

(Chrysalis, 1975)

6

Controversial because

of its sex-charged

vibe, the cover design

was a pun on faucet,

the US word for tap,

and featured later

Throbbing Gristle

members Genesis P-orridge

and Cosey Fanni Tutti

getting it on. What were

those wags at Hipgnosis

thinking? Great music,

though. Witness the Blonde

Bomber’s classy lead work

on Out In The Street, Mogg’s

commanding presence on

Mother Mary, and witness

Shoot Shoot, which motors

along like a man intent

on hitting his local before

last orders.

Strangers In

The Night

(Chrysalis, 1979)

1

Even by 1979, UFO had

played literally

thousands of gigs,

hence this seasoned

in-concert landmark;

Slash’s favourite-ever

live album and the final,

brilliant document of Michael

Schenker’s initial tenure with

the band (he would return in

1993). Listening to Love To

Love – a song so flagrantly

amour-struck it could mist

the eyes of the hairiest,

surliest biker – you can

easily picture a sea of

ciggie lighters, while the

groove on Natural Thing

is tight as the proverbial

gnat’s chuff. Lucky old

Chicago, Illinois and

Louisville, Kentucky.

Lights Out

(Chrysalis, 1977)

2

Arranger Alan

McMillan’s lush string

and horn parts

brought finesse to

UFO’s most

consistently fine

studio record, but

there’s a taut economy to

magnificent fan favourite

Too Hot To Handle, Iron

Maiden’s Steve Harris has

said lovely things about Love

To Love, and Phil Mogg’s

intuitive, somewhat unsung

pop nous is well to the fore

on deep cut Just Another

Suicide. Lights Out is also

home to UFO’s rather

excellent cover of Love’s

1967 classic Alone Again

Or, a song you can’t imagine

too many of their hard rock

peers tackling.

Obsession

(Chrysalis, 1978)

3

Few things say

“good times!” quite

so definitively as Paul

Raymond’s swirling

Hammond organ

entry on Only You

Can Rock Me, a song

that’s also home to a

majestic Schenker solo.

Elsewhere there’s an

almost Zeppelin-esque

swagger to Pack It Up

(And Go), Cherry is a gritty

Mogg/Way tale of on-the-

road passion, and strings-

laded ballad Lookin’ Out For

No. 1 is a lost classic. Not

bad considering Obsession

was recorded in an

abandoned Los Angeles

Post Office for less money

than Poison would spend on

hairspray.