Tom Morello. Stone Gossard. Slash. Steve Harris. Four guitarists from four bands that share absolutely nothing in common, all pointing at the same source. UFO. And almost nobody under forty has heard a single note.
That’s a problem.
UFO were one of the most influential British hard rock bands of the seventies, and they got buried by their own self-destruction. Let me show you the evidence.
Strangers in the Night, 1979. Recorded in Chicago and Louisville. Michael Schenker, the eighteen-year-old German virtuoso the Scorpions had lent UFO in 1973, refused overdubs on principle. What you hear is what happened. The ferocity of the Flying V, Phil Mogg singing with his whole soul, Andy Parker hitting like Bonham. Tracks that sounded decent in the studio became legendary epics on stage. I’ve worn out Live at Leeds, Made in Japan, Unleashed in the East. I’ll still put Strangers in the Night next to any of them. Try to argue with me after you hear it.
The studio work isn’t filler either. Phenomenon in 1974 gave us “Doctor Doctor,” still Steve Harris’s favourite song. Lights Out in 1977 closed with “Love to Love,” an eight-minute power ballad that has every right to sit next to “Stairway to Heaven.” Schenker on that record is the template every NWOBHM, hair metal, and hard rock guitarist used afterwards. Iron Maiden borrowed the energy. Def Leppard borrowed the melodies. Slash borrowed the feel.
So why does nobody talk about them?
They sabotaged themselves. Pete Way snorted enough cocaine to make Ozzy Osbourne sound concerned. Mogg pranked Schenker constantly, calling him “Michelle,” reminding him who won the war. Schenker walked out three times. Their label, Chrysalis, couldn’t even put the albums in record shops. Producer Ron Nevison said it himself. You’d go to buy a UFO record and the store would hand you Led Zeppelin instead. The “Hello Cleveland” scene from This Is Spinal Tap was lifted from an actual UFO show where the band got lost in the tunnels under an ice rink. Pick a metaphor. They all fit.
Yeah, fine. They wrecked it themselves. Mogg and Way bullied a teenager out of his own band. They couldn’t keep a lineup together for two consecutive tours. I get why people skip them. They’re wrong, but I get it.
Put on Strangers in the Night. The whole thing. Skip nothing. Tell me afterwards that this band deserved to be forgotten. I’ll wait.
