For a band with 23 studio albums, 15 live albums and 18 ‘collections’ of songs in various forms already out there its hard to see why another UFO collection is warranted. Anniversaries though are always times for old labels to cash in and Chrysalis (sold to EMI in 1991 , then bought by Universal and subsequently sold to Warners in 2013 before being bought by Blue Raincoat Music in 2016) are no doubt looking at the 50th Anniversary to shift a few more units.
2019 of course sees both the band’s 50th Anniversary and Phil Mogg’s last shows as a frontman, but it’s still unsure at present whether UFO as an entity will continue after Mogg hangs up his ‘tap shoes’ (as he might say). The interesting thing of course is that Chrysalis only had the band for the period of 1973-1985 and whilst that is considered by many to be the bands peak for a 50th anniversary collection there’s another 38 years unaccounted for!
Not only that in 2011 the wonderful compilation “The Chrysalis Years: 1973–1979” came out and included all of the albums recorded for the Chrysalis label during the period (Phenomenon (1974), Force It (1975), No Heavy Petting (1976), Lights Out (1977), Obsession (1978), and Strangers in the Night (1979)) as well as a previously unreleased live set from t Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom in Atlanta, and a number of singles and B-sides not previously released on CD, plus tracks recorded with the BBC’ Bob Harris and John Peel.
This new compilation only adds a handful of post 1979 songs – 9 from the generous 33 here and it’s 1982’s ‘Mechanix’ that is best represented with 4 of those tracks. The last Chrysalis album- 1985’s ‘Misdemeanor’ isn’t represented at all and 1980’s ‘No Place to Run’ only warrants a single track- ‘Young Blood’ (overlooking the rather fine ‘Lettin’ Go’). If I’m honest I think I’d have preferred a “The Chrysalis Years: 1980- 1985”
What you get here is not sequential and starts off with arguably the band’s most famous song ‘Doctor Doctor’ then proceeds to roll out the big guns. UFO were a great band in their 70’sand 80’s pomp and if you’re casual observer I hope you’re happily blown away by the quality here.
UFO though didn’t stop making great music after 1985 and released a further 11 studio albums (including one of covers). Over that period they changed labels regularly until landing with SPV/Steamhammer in 2004 for ‘You Are Here’ and staying for six albums up until 2017’s ‘The Salentino Cuts’ which may well end up being their swansong. There’s plenty of great music especially on those SPV releases.
Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of Paul Raymond the UFO guitarist and keyboard player died on April 13th of a heart attack. He was 73 years old. Paul gave joy to millions with his music not only in UFO but also with Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, MSG, Waysted and his own Paul Raymond Project.