UFO bassist Pete Way once told this writer that when Paul Chapman took on the herculean task of replacing Michael Schenker in UFO in 1978, “he did a damned good job of making it a good rock’n’roll band. Paul was a great guitar player, more in the Gary Moore mould”. And just as Moore’s permanent return to Thin Lizzy that same year galvanised Lizzy to follow Live And Dangerous with the stellar Black Rose, Chapman’s arrival helped UFO land a knockout after Strangers In The Night with No Place To Run (1980).
Recording with producer George Martin at AIR Studios in Montserrat overran, forcing Way, Chapman, and vocalist Phil Mogg to fly from an already scheduled European tour to AIR London every few nights for mixing. Chapman later told me: “Our ears were knackered,” and he felt that subsequent remasters improved Martin’s original mix.
This newly remastered edition heightens the effect, outstripping its 2009 predecessor with a more focused balance of frequencies, adding clarity to Mogg’s passionate vocals and Chapman’s white-hot solos.
At their best, as this album presents them, UFO’s stage-drilled dynamism informed their songwriting, allowing them to segue effortlessly from the rampant hard rock of Lettin’ Go and a runaway take on Elvis’s Mystery Train to radio-friendly hit Young Blood and the title track’s seething menace. Disc 2 gives UFO’s mettlesome November 1980 Marquee performance its first full release, with freshly mixed highlights from No Place, sneak previews of its classic follow-up, and Schenker-era favourites.
