UFO lands in United States. ( an interview with Andy Parker)

Back  in the day UFO Photo by Alex Lloyd Gross

By Alex  Lloyd Gross

      UFO sightings are rare.  However, when you are talking about the band that was in their hey day in the mid 1970's , those sightings are not so rare. In fact,  history repeats itself with UFO.

      It's April 1982 and on a whim I call a local hotel to speak with Andy Parker, the drummer in this band and I woke him out of a sound sleep. He was congenial about it and we spoke about the show they were to play that night at the Spectrum in Philadelphia.

      In October of 2009  Mr. Parker's telephone rang again , this time at his hotel room in Pittsburgh. It was me on the line and he was expecting my call. When I appoligized for the earlier phone call, Parker was laughing. "Was I angry"? Parker laughed.  After catching up on old times it was time to get down to business.

       UFO is on tour.  The North American tour kicked off recently and  it may be heading to a city near you. For more information  On UFO click here.

         Parker is the original drummer for the band. He has grown as a musician and so has his equipment. on his website www.mr-parker-rocks.com/news.htm    He spoke of his first drum kit, a President's kit.  When asked about it. "I always try to improve on my drum kit. The President went towards my second kit, and I then traded that for something else. To be honest, the President was a piece of crap, I don't  really miss it, but at the time it was the best thing since sliced bread", Parker lamented.

           He is a big fan of Led Zeppelin.  For those that don't know, John Bonham's son Jason filled in and was UFO's drummer for a few years. "I met John once a but I've  never met Jason, I really hope I get to meet him one of these days. The fact that he moved on ( to drum for Foriegner) got me back in the band. It was not planned".

            After  Parker left UFO in 1983, he decided to pursue other interests. He owned a construction company and then went into the sheet metal business. "I left the band  back when it was in a shambles,  I have a daughter and I just kind of needed to be around my kid".

            He would get phone calls from the band members off and on for the next few years wondering if they are going to get the band together."I would always say call me when you get some money and we'll talk about it. come 1994 they did get some money from a Japanese record  company, and we did something called "Walk on Water". I did the album, but there was still a lot of unresolved tension going on and I got offered the job with my family and I chose not to tour with them. In hindsight it turned out to be a really good decision", Parker said.

             Parker did play on the newest record from UFO called The Visitor.  He is behind the drum kit  on this tour as well.  With almost 30 years worth of material to choose from, the band gets to squeeze three songs from this CD onto the set. " We're opening with  "Saving Me", We've got "Hell Driver" in the middle of the set and we just recently put in "Stop Breaking Down". It's really difficult 'cause we've got so much back catalouge that a lot of the fans really want to hear the old stuff", Parker said.

             Songs like "Cherry" are going to be played live on this tour. UFO just started to play "Mystery train", off of the No Place To Run album.   The line up of UFO has changed over the years but the music remains the same.   Former guitarist Paul Chapman had one style of playing Mystery Train and current guitartist Vinnie Moore has another.

                 UFO  is involved in social networking sites such as Myspace and  Youtube.  There is a plethora of bootleg material  from the bands early days that have made it onto the internet. Social networking sites and the internet are "incredibly important. I think the internet is more of a blessing than a curse", Parker said. He gave an example of one of his relatives that saw a bootleg DVD of the Sheppards Bush show they did on the last Bristish tour. Parker was  upset "He's got no business selling it, I don;'t mind if people film it ( our shows) to put on the internet so it's out there but selling it is wrong", Parker said. When he got a copy of the DVD bootleg , he complained "The copy was so scratched up I could hardly get it to play in the machine, we're gonna upload it to my website for people can see it and don't have to pay $25.00 for it, kinda put the guy out of business, Parker said.

                UFO are going to play locally Oct 12 2009 at the Sellersville Theater. www.st94.com/

The entire tour schedule can be found herewww.ufo-music.info/tour.htm.

                As I said, history has a way of repeating itself with UFO, including the fact that when they rock your town you will  be entertained. If you saw them back in the mid 1970's you will take a trip back in time. If you never saw them before, you will wish that you had.