Four on the floor – UFO.

So, here we go the first musical one of the year and it features UFO, now this concentrates on studio albums, “Strangers in the night” will surface in another blog somewhere down the line. Let’s get this started.

 

UFO – Obsessions 1978.  9/10.

The first album I ever heard by them (oh how quickly that changed) and I can remember my brother arriving home with the album with a weird cover, my jaw dropped when I heard the contents of the album, I bought my own copy later that same week as well as the bulk of the back catalogue over the next few weeks, thanks to the fact Chrysalis records were selling them cheap at the stunning price of £2.99.

Back to this beauty, all 36.00 minutes of this was devoured on a daily basis with only the instrumental Arbory Hill annoying me, come on I was 13 for gods sake, and for a point of reference I do like it now, the standout track for me is Cherry, but to be honest there wasn’t a bad  track on the whole package, lovingly produced by Ron Nevison, this should really of knocked the band into the major leagues and although they skirted them for a few years they were always able to shoot themselves in the foot!

 

UFO – The wild the willing and the innocent. 1981. 8/10.

After the disappointing George Martin produced “No place to run” the band decided to produce this themselves and I think it works, only 8 tracks and even a bloody saxophone on the album didn’t deter me, Neil Carter from Gilbert O’ Sullivan and Wild Horses had settled in and helped them produce yet another cracker to be honest this was the start of the terminal rot, some cracking tracks including Profession of Violence (sounding like a rewrite of Try me from lights out) and its killing me (recently covered acoustically by Metallica) help the flow of the album.

 

UFO – Force it 1975. 7/10.

I was a typical teenage boy, I bought the album based on the cover but I loved the album anyway and it was the album I bought after Obsessions, I was just starting to getting heavily into reading credits and seeing who did what, I probably should have bought Lights out, but hormones got the better of me, Produced by Leo Lyons it’s a little rawer than the polished Ron Nevison approach but there are still some cracking tunes on it including Let it roll, Mother Mary and This kids, the album bounces along, was I glad I bought it at the time,? yes but it wasn’t anywhere near the levels of Obsessions, I blame the production on it maybe the boys needed that little extra polish to help them along.

 

UFO – Lights Out 1977. 8/10.

I bought this about a week before Strangers in the night, I’m so glad that I did, as it reaffirmed what I thought of the band, I had bought Phenomenon and No heavy petting thanks to Chrysalis records cut price deal, surprisingly my two fave tracks there were Rock Bottom and the instrumental Lipstick traces, it took me a while to care for No heavy petting, I get it now but didn’t at the time, but it was a stepping stone to what was to come, their first proper production with strings and the such like, and again some simply stunning songs all eight of them, even the cover fits right in the groove.

 

I avoided the albums before Schenker joined the band (thankfully) and followed them Diligently up to Making Moves, I reconnected when it should really have been the Phil Mogg band for Misdemeanour! I kind of drifted along after that and I probably put the reunion album with the classic Obsessions line up for Walk on water but they rerecorded a couple of extra tracks (for the Japanese market, but we all got them) it was to be the last time I was to see them live although it was a weird vibe throughout the gig, after that I kind of got the albums when they popped up cheap. I have followed the current line up and do like them I find that they are just a tad workman like for me and if I’m being honest I couldn’t name you one of those songs, solid but not memorable, they ended on a covers album and unfortunately its like their first couple (something to avoid) over the years I have met all the band and whilst they were all nice, I didn’t get a nice vibe of Pete Way, he always seemed to be on the lookout for drugs, he was lovely every time I met him but I was always wary, as for the rest of the band they were all true gentlemen, including Phil Mogg whether he was sober or not!