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This tour has been a bit of fixtures clash with the Euro 2004 footie competition throughout June. Tonight though
there’s no contest. Nothing in the world is going to compete with the prospect of Phil Mogg and the boys back in town, well at least, back in the city of Cambridge, that is.
The band has undergone many
personnel changes over the years but tonight’s line-up combines the best of the old with the new. On the drums, Mr Jason Bonham, need I say more? On lead guitar, the mellifluous tone of Mr Vinnie Moore. On rhythm
guitar and keyboards is Mr Paul Raymond, the band’s rock. On bass is Mr Pete Way who with lead vocalist and fellow founding member, Phil Mogg complete tonight’s squad.
Tonight, we are a long way from the
halcyon days of great albums such as ‘UFO 1’, ‘Flying’ and ‘UFO Live’. Yes, the band did release a live album before 1979’s seminal live ‘Strangers in the Night’ selection. Sadly, ‘C’mon
everybody’ and ‘Prince Kajuku’ are not on the tonight’s setlist.
The set combines the best of the new (tracks from the band’s new album ‘You are here’) with the old but nevertheless classic.
There are several cuts from the band’s exquisite 1975 ‘Force it’ collection with its lead guitar parts supplied by Mr Michael Schenker and backing vocals from the late great James Dewar.
‘Let it roll’, the riff-tastic ‘Mother Mary’ and ‘This Kid’s’ are absolutely spot on tonight even if they all nearly 30 years old. These
songs prove tonight, as they did back then, that you can play it heavy even with keyboards. Also providing light and shade in the middle of a song gives the whole thing more shape and helps to emphasise your
original riff!
There is much here for fans of ‘Strangers in the Night’, one of the best double-live albums in rock history ever. ‘Only you can rock me’, ‘Lights out’ and ‘Rock Bottom’, which
closes the set, are delivered with the band in refined fettle.
The band’s signature tune ‘Doctor Doctor’ is the encore, arriving on cue for a packed and delighted house and for fine measure this
classic tune is followed by another ‘Shoot Shoot’.
UFO are back! Catch them if you can, next time. This band has only just begun!
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