Back in the dim, dark, distant past i.e. the seventies UFO were a band seemingly always on the brink of breaking into rock music’s big time. They had a lot going for them, an insanely talented guitarist, a vocalist who didn’t feel the need to ape anyone else’s style, a showman bassist, rock steady drummer and a keyboardist/rhythm guitarist who could hold it all together. They even had managed to gain a foothold in the notoriously difficult American market. Like many others at the time however they failed to make that step up and fell apart in quite spectacular fashion. To make matters worse rather than giving things up as a bad job they continued through the years with various line-ups dragging their name through the mud. In all there must have been well over 30 different line-ups of UFO through the years.
The mid nineties saw something of a renaissance in UFO’s fortunes when the classic 70’s line-up were tempted to reform by the lure of rich Japanese fans throwing shed loads of money at them. Of course it couldn’t last and their insanely talented guitarist lived up to his insane tag and left the band mid tour on at least three occasions causing said tours to be cancelled. The other guys put up with this for about 10 years only because Michael Schenker, for it was he, owned 50% of the UFO name and the others couldn’t tour as UFO without him. They finally lost their patience and bought him out about 2 years ago replacing him with Vinnie Moore a much vaunted American with, importantly, no history of psychiatric problems. He joined the classic core of Phil Mogg (v), Pete Way (b) and Paul Raymond (k/rg), with new boy Jason “I’m Johns son you know” Bonham on drums.
This incarnation of UFO had been stable for about 18 months and complete a number of tours throughout Europe and the US before deciding to record a DVD on one of the German dates during this year’s spring tour. They chose Wilhelmshaven as the lucky venue and invited fans from across the globe to attend. Being the sad fan boy that I am I spent ages on the internet trying to work out how I could get over for the filming? However, I soon discovered that apparently it is the most difficult place in the world to travel to and wasn’t prepared to pay the several hundred pounds it would have set me back. I know, fair weather bloody fans, eh? I was, however, prepared to spend £15 on the resulting silver discs.
So what is it like I hear you ask? Well for a fan boy like me anything they put out would have its merits somewhere and it is a well put together package. But, oh I don’t know, it just doesn’t work for me. I see the pretty pictures and hear the lovely sounds but none of it really moves me. I want to be there smelling the sweat, feeling the crush up front with some 20 stone German breathing stale lager into my face. Perhaps that’s what it is supposed to do, make me wish I was there but I wanted something else, more immediate. I want some connection but the disc doesn’t give it to me. Look, it’s not a bad DVD, I would quite happily show it to someone as an example of what my favourite band were like and be quite proud of the lads. It has all the classic songs present and correct as well as 4 tracks off their latest CD to keep you happy…but…maybe my current health situation is giving me a different perspective on things and I’ll grow into enjoying it as things improve, we’ll see.
Oh, and by the way, in typical UFO fashion Jason Bonham has left the band since the DVD’s recording.
The mid nineties saw something of a renaissance in UFO’s fortunes when the classic 70’s line-up were tempted to reform by the lure of rich Japanese fans throwing shed loads of money at them. Of course it couldn’t last and their insanely talented guitarist lived up to his insane tag and left the band mid tour on at least three occasions causing said tours to be cancelled. The other guys put up with this for about 10 years only because Michael Schenker, for it was he, owned 50% of the UFO name and the others couldn’t tour as UFO without him. They finally lost their patience and bought him out about 2 years ago replacing him with Vinnie Moore a much vaunted American with, importantly, no history of psychiatric problems. He joined the classic core of Phil Mogg (v), Pete Way (b) and Paul Raymond (k/rg), with new boy Jason “I’m Johns son you know” Bonham on drums.
This incarnation of UFO had been stable for about 18 months and complete a number of tours throughout Europe and the US before deciding to record a DVD on one of the German dates during this year’s spring tour. They chose Wilhelmshaven as the lucky venue and invited fans from across the globe to attend. Being the sad fan boy that I am I spent ages on the internet trying to work out how I could get over for the filming? However, I soon discovered that apparently it is the most difficult place in the world to travel to and wasn’t prepared to pay the several hundred pounds it would have set me back. I know, fair weather bloody fans, eh? I was, however, prepared to spend £15 on the resulting silver discs.
So what is it like I hear you ask? Well for a fan boy like me anything they put out would have its merits somewhere and it is a well put together package. But, oh I don’t know, it just doesn’t work for me. I see the pretty pictures and hear the lovely sounds but none of it really moves me. I want to be there smelling the sweat, feeling the crush up front with some 20 stone German breathing stale lager into my face. Perhaps that’s what it is supposed to do, make me wish I was there but I wanted something else, more immediate. I want some connection but the disc doesn’t give it to me. Look, it’s not a bad DVD, I would quite happily show it to someone as an example of what my favourite band were like and be quite proud of the lads. It has all the classic songs present and correct as well as 4 tracks off their latest CD to keep you happy…but…maybe my current health situation is giving me a different perspective on things and I’ll grow into enjoying it as things improve, we’ll see.
Oh, and by the way, in typical UFO fashion Jason Bonham has left the band since the DVD’s recording.
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