UFO's 'Force it' and 'Phenomenon' were one of the albums that introduced me to hard rock of the 70's and I loved them from the very beginning. I've always wanted to see the band live, and though it's hard to imagine them without Michael Schenker, yesterday's gig absolutely blew me away.

Vinnie Moore turned out to be not only a wonderful guitarist, but also a great showman with awesome looks and this cheerful atittude that is so important on stage. He didn't copy Schenker, while performing solos his own way, he also played some of the original themes and the effect was incredibly good. He combined great technical abilities with amazing melodies. He enjoyed himself, sang, and had this wonderful contact with the audience. He's made such a big impression on me that there's no doubt he has become my new guitar hero.

The setlist wasn't a big surprise, apart from the fact that they didn't play too many songs (sadly, there was also no encores). Nonetheless, the show lasted nearly 2 hours. They played only one song from the new album - 'Hard Being Me' and we didn't hear 'Natural Thing' nor 'Out in the street'. Apart from the rest of the live album 'Strangers in the night' they played 'Fighting Man'( from 'Sharks') and 'Baby Blue' (from 'You are here'). It was only 14 songs, but each one contained a long and wonderful solo and therefore we shouldn't complain about the length of the gig nor the rather short setlist.

Phil Mogg.. was he really that drunk? I don't quite believe it, and even if it's true it was rather funny.. The important thing is that he did his job, sang well and contributed to the whole show by his odd (in a good way) behaviour and attitude. He spoke in between the songs, and things he said seemed to be really funny, but unfortunately I couldn't catch all of it due to rather bad sound ( or me being deaf )

However the overall sound wasn't that bad, the good thing is that it wasn't too loud. Vinnie's guitar sounded great, I couldn't hear Paul Raymond though, but probably that's how it meant to be ;) No bass either, but at least that's not the end of the world.

Next member that made a great show was the bass player - Pete Way. His striped black and white pants combined with my beloved Firebird and awesome moves and poses just blew me away ;) During the long Rock Bottom solo he was just laying on the floor ;)

All in all the gig was incredible, and not only musically, but also visually. They gave an excellent show, and I wouldn't change a thing in it. I have to admit that I didn't expect it to be that good. I just wanted too see them and hear the songs live, I'd never thought they can rock the audience like that.

The only sad thing is that the world forgot about such an important band in rock music. The audience consisted mostly of people around 40-50, and there was almost no young people. UFO's one of those essential hard rock bands, and they did have moments of fame. Only this fame faded away during all this time.. And looking on last.fm statistics is even more depressing.. Nevertheless I'm happy that I had the chance to get to know them, and I recommend UFO to each hard rock fan, because they're really worth listening to.
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Love to love solo


Lights out


Rock Bottom solo


Hard Being Me solo


Only you can rock me solo


Let it roll


I'm a loser solo

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