UFO // The Waterfront - 28.03.2012
"His playing was tasteful, without ever being flashy, and he has been the main reason for the bands upturn in fortunes over recent years..."
I arrived at the Waterfront with something approaching a sense of trepidation. I’d seen UFO once before at the UEA and despite the presence of original guitar wunderkind Michael Schenker in the band, they really weren’t up to much. Initial signs were promising though as the venue was packed, almost a sell out I would guess.
The band came onstage and opened up with Mother Mary, a classic from the old days, which immediately got everyone singing along. The band have been touring and recording since 1969 so it was great to see singer Phil Mogg looking and sounding so good. Although suffering from a cold he hit all the notes, and looked relaxed and happy to be lapping up the adulation. The guitarist in the band now is Vinnie Moore, one of the wave of guitar shredders who emerged in the 80s. UFO are not a guitar shredding band so I wondered how his style of playing would fit. I needn’t have worried – he was sublime throughout. He truly was the star of the show – his playing was tasteful, without ever being flashy, and he has been the main reason for the bands upturn in fortunes over recent years.
The reason for this tour is to promote their latest album Seven Deadly (their 21st!) so new tracks were inevitable. The cynic in me thought these would provide the perfect opportunity for trips to the bar, and whilst they did to a certain extent, in fairness all of the new tracks played were good solid rockers, which didn’t sound out of place amongst older more familiar material.
One issue the gig suffered from was the sound. I never understand why we don’t get massive, filling rattling volume, and whilst we could clearly see a bass player on stage, sadly we couldn’t really hear him. With each passing song the atmosphere was building – Let It Roll got heads shaking, Love To Love was epic and Too Hot To Handle was a massed beery sing-along. Lights Out and the incredible Rock Bottom ended the main set in classic style. We all knew what was coming next and sure enough the band returned and floored everyone with the stone cold classic Doctor Doctor. Doing another track after playing what is their best known song was a nice touch and so it was that Shoot Shoot rounded off the night to a sea of sweaty smiling faces – everyone was loving this.
So after just short of 2 hours the band left the stage for the final time to rapturous applause. I found it hard to believe that just a few hours earlier I’d actually had doubts about this gig. They were every bit as good as I hoped they would be and completely justified their classic rock tag. If the name of the band is unfamiliar but you have a thing for 70’s rock in the style of Thin Lizzy, then you could do worse than giving the Strangers In The Night live album a listen. Personally I had a brilliant night and will absolutely be seeing them again the next time they play in Norwich.
Stuart Preston
