UFO: Live Sightings (4CD box set)

The English Hard Rock royalty that is the band UFO, have had a long and winding road throughout their complicated career. This new Live Sightings Box Set contains (4) CD's featuring the excellent Paul (Tonka) Chapman years. As a 12 year kid in 1979, I was very fortunate to have witnessed the power of UFO in just their prime (with a Bon Scott fronted AC/DC opening up!) with Chapman now fully planted as the replacement for the Guitar God that is Michael Schenker. This Strangers In The Night tour lineup of Chapman on guitar, Phil Mogg on vocals, Andy Parker on drums, Paul Raymond on keyboards and rhythm guitar and the one and only Pete Way on bass, would be the same lineup that would produce the first studio album with Chapman at the helm, the amazing No Place To Run album.

Disc 1 was recorded in Chicago in 1980 while UFO was out on the No Place To Run tour and it finds the band in great form. What needs to be stated is that all four of these discs are LIVE in the real sense of the word. No overdubs are found here and the mistakes and mishaps, along with Mogg's on stage bantering, makes these recordings so special and real. Standout tracks on Disc 1 are easily the killer title track to "No Place To Run", complete with a total mistake at the end of the song that the band pulls together, as well as Chapman simply tearing it up on the solos in "Lights Out", which was always a Schenker era highlight, and Paul Chapman makes the song his own with some pure nasty riffing on this extended version. Other songs from the No Place To Run record that make it to the stage are "Mystery Train", "Lettin' Go" and "Young Blood".

Disc 2 was again recorded in UFO's favorite US city of Chicago in 1981 on The Wild Willing & The Innocent Tour. This tour finds Paul Raymond now replaced with Neil Carter, who was also on the studio album and this disc features old classics like "Love To Love", "Doctor Doctor" and the UFO standard "Rock Bottom". While new tracks from The Wild, Willing & The Innocent like "Making Moves", "Lonely Heart" and "Long Gone" are go over well with the receptive Chicago audience. UFO sound like a force to be reckoned with on this disc, for sure

Disc 3 was recorded in St. Louis in 1982 on the Mechanix tour and the show opens with the killer ,"We Belong To The Night", straight into another new track from Mechanix, "Let It Rain". UFO are off and running on this 3rd disc and that famous Andy Parker drum tone is alive and well and you can just imagine Pete Way running around the stage in St. Louis with that famous Gibson Firebird bass of his slung low and looking like one of the coolest bass players in Hard Rock history. The ballad, "Terri" makes an appearance and the crowd just eats it up. UFO were just a beast in the early 80's.

Disc 4 was recorded in Cleveland in 1982, also on the Mechanix tour, but this disc features a shorter set. Mixed with classics like "Too Hot To Handle" and "Only You Can Rock Me" and also featuring new songs like "Doing It All For You", UFO blaze through the 9 tracks on this disc.

This is a great live collector set for any UFO fan and especially for those fans that love the Chapman era, as I do. As mentioned before these are live recording in the true sense of the word, which means that the mistakes and sometime scratchy recordings are all here in their glory. I for one think that this CD set is awesome and if you pick up the physical "Live Sighting Box Set" you'll get all of these goodies:

A gorgeous 16 page booklet plus carefully duplicated printings of two vintage tour programs!

Each CD with its own mini LP jacket with printed inner sleeve!

And a bonus live LP of unreleased recordings from 1972 with legendary Pink Fairies / original Motörhead guitarist Larry Wallis

Long Live the UFO Paul Chapman era!

Track List:
DISC 1: Chicago 1980
1. Lettin' Go
2. Young Blood
3. No Place to Run
4. Cherry
5. Only You Can Rock Me
6. Love to Love
7. Mystery Train
8. Too Hot to Handle
9. Lights Out

DISC 2: Chicago 1981
1. The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent
2. Only You Can Rock Me
3. Long Gone
4. Lonely Heart
5. Cherry
6. No Place to Run
7. Love to Love
8. Making Moves
9. Mystery Train
10. Too Hot to Handle
11. Lights Out
12. Rock Bottom
13. Doctor Doctor

DISC 3: St Louis 1982
1. We Belong to the Night
2. Let It Rain
3. Long Gone
4. No Place to Run
5. The Wild, The Willing & The Innocent
6. Only You Can Rock Me
7. Terri
8. Making Moves
9. Doing It All For You
10. Too Hot To Handle
11. Lights Out
12. Mystery Train

DISC 4: Cleveland 1982
1. We Belong To The Night
2. Let It Rain
3. Long Gone
4. The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent
5. Only You Can Rock Me
6. Terri
7. Doing It All For You
8. Too Hot to Handle
9. Lights Out

Added: April 4th 2016
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 5466
Language: english

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