By Alex Lloyd Gross
Hard rock legends UFO landed in New Hope, Bucks County May 10 to play a show to about 400 fans at Havana. This show was more than intimate, it was a close encounter. Fans in the front were seated against the stage. Fans in the back were less than 50 feet away from the stage. The upper level was standing room only, as fans could look down at the band from a perch that was less than 10 feet away.
UFO delivered. Plain and simple. From the moment they started their show with "The Wild, Willing and the Innocent" to the last note of "Shoot Shoot", it was pure rock delivered at it's finest. UFO had lots of practice, playing for over 40 years. The basically stuck to the material from the Michael Shenker era of the band, save for a few newer numbers from the Visitor.
During an earlier interview, drummer Andy Parker said that "When we play stuff from the Paul Chapman era it does not go over well, when we take it out we get hundreds of people wanting to hear more of it". Certainly, songs like "Letting Go" or "The Writer" could spark interest in fans to revisit the back catalouge of UFO records. UFO did bring out "Try Me" from Lights Out which they had not play in like forever.
In between songs, Lead Singer Phil Mogg cracked jokes with the crowd. "No children here tonight? I don't want to corrupt any children", . He had a few beers onstage and told the crowd he was a beer connoisseur. Then picked up the bottle and correctly identified the brand of beer. Paul Raymond who played on most of the UFO records was on Keyboards and guitar. He would pretty much confine himself to behind the keyboards. However when he did venture out towards the end of the stage with his guitar, he was an amazing showman.
Vinnie Moore, a local boy from Delaware was taking care of the lead guitar duties. He has been in the band for quite a while and fits like a glove. His stage antics are right up there with Raymond. Non stop action. Behind the drums, Mr. Andrew Parker kept up the action non stop. At the end of the set, he tossed his drum sticks into the crowd.
The stage was small and in spite of the reserved seats, the crowd gathered around the stage, especially for "Lights Out", and "Rock Bottom". They stood right where UFO had to enter and exit the stage."We cannot get off stage stage, Phil jokeed. "Guess we'll have to play another song" and the band started into "Shoot Shoot", the last song of the evening.
UFO played most of the songs people wanted to hear. They also brought out "Venus" which had not been played in over 10 years. In the crowd was Eddie Trunk, VH1 Classic personalitiy who was awestruck at the show. He was seated several rows back in the crowd. Leaving the venue, all Trunk could muster was "awesome". If he liked it, it must be good.
If you never saw UFO before or if you saw them before back in the day, I'd advise you to see them again. They brought it and delivered it. They are going to Europe and then later this year will tour the west coast. To read an earlier interview with Andy Parker, clickhere.
Opening the show was Mindflow, from Brazil. they were loud, powerful and full of energy. They are the perfect band to play at an open air festival.
Missing from this article is the name of the bassist. We know who he is at Examiner .com but if you were there at this show, give the man some credit, he completely tore up the stage. Post his name or your comments about the show below this article.
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