UFO (+vinnie moore+ pete way )
UFO are an English hard rock band formed in 1969. UFO became a transitional band between early hard rock and heavy metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. UFO's influence was strongly felt in the 1980s heavy metal scene and they have been cited as a primary influence of Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth and Frank Hannon of Tesla among others.
Beginning
Vocalist Phil Mogg, guitarist Mick Bolton (born Michael Bolton, May 1950, in London), bassist Pete Way and drummer Andy Parker (born Andrew Maynard Parker, 21 March 1952, in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire) formed the band in August, 1969. Originally taking the name 'Hocus Pocus', the group changed their name to UFO in honour of the London club where they were spotted by Noel Moore, who signed them to his Beacon Records label. Their eponymously titled first album debuted in 1970 and was a typical example of blues and boogie based hard rock. The album included a heavy version of Eddie Cochran's classic, "C'mon Everybody". Both UFO 1 and its follow-up, Flying, were very successful in Japan (especially the single "C'mon Everybody" which became a huge hit there) and Germany (the song "Boogie For George", also from the first album, reached #30 in German singles charts and "Prince Kajuku" from UFO 2 - Flying reached #26 there), but generated poor interest in Britain and America. Consequently, their third effort, UFO Lands In Tokyo (also known as UFO Live and UFO Landed In Japan), was only released in Japan.
Part of UFO's early heavy metal work was strongly influenced by space rock (their second album, including a 26-minute long title track and a 19-minute long opus "Star Storm", even was subtitled "One Hour Space Rock") that was modestly popular at the time, but the band soon realised the style was somewhat limited. In January, 1972 Mick Bolton left the group, and UFO set out to find a guitarist capable of providing the band with a more standard rock sound.
International success
After brief trial runs with ex-Steve Took's Shagrat guitarist, Larry Wallis (February - October, 1972; in 1975 he became a founding member of Motörhead) and future Cozy Powell's Hammer and Whitesnake member, Bernie Marsden - he toured with UFO in Europe and recorded demo, "Give Her The Gun") - the band recruited Michael Schenker from Scorpions in June, 1973. The group was then signed by pop designer and manager, Mark Hanau, and it was he who managed to extract the group from their Beacon Record's contract and introduced them to Chrysalis Records as well as signing them for publishing with Intersong. On a new label, Chrysalis Records, and with new producer, Leo Lyons, UFO recorded Phenomenon in 1974, which debuted the band's harder-edged guitar sound. Schenker was only 19 at the time, but was already a well-respected guitarist. Phenomenon was not an instant classic, but contained many fan favorites such as "Doctor Doctor" (later a minor hit single as a live track) and "Rock Bottom" (which was extended live to provide a showcase for Schenker). By the time of the Phenomenon tour, ex-Skid Row guitarist Paul Chapman (born Paul William Chapman, 9 May 1954, in Cardiff, Glamorganshire, South Wales) joined the group, but he left in January, 1975 to form Lone Star.
The band later released Force It (July, 1975) and No Heavy Petting (May, 1976) and toured extensively, which brought UFO increased visibility with American audiences and made them huge stars in England.
After the band experimented with keyboards during the recording sessions of Force It (Chick Churchill from Ten Years After played them), a keysman Danny Peyronel (previously in Heavy Metal Kids) joined the line-up in August, 1975, but the next summer he left to form The Blue Max. In July, 1976 the band recruited keyboardist and second guitarist Paul Raymond (born Paul Martin Raymond, 16 November 1945, in St Albans, Hertfordshire) (ex-Plastic Penny) from Savoy Brown to make 1977's Lights Out. Lights Out was the pinnacle of UFO's studio career and is considered a genuine 1970s rock classic, containing songs such as "Too Hot To Handle", "Lights Out", "Alone Again Or" and the 7-minute opus "Love To Love". With Lights Out, the band received substantial critical acclaim.
With their new-found success, the band went back into the studio to record Obsession in 1978. Whilst not as successful as its predecessor, Obsession still contained several popular tracks, such as; "Cherry" and "Only You Can Rock Me".
Later that year, the band went on tour and recorded the live album, Strangers In The Night. Strangers was a critical and commercial success.
Schenker's departure
Tensions had begun to grow between Mogg and Schenker in the late 1970s and before the release of Strangers In The Night (January, 1979), Schenker left the band. He made a brief return to the Scorpions before going on to form the Michael Schenker Group.
Post-Schenker years
After Schenker's exit, UFO rehired Paul "Tonka" Chapman on guitar who brought over unused track ideas from Lone Star's Dixie Lee. Shortly after they released their next LP, No Place To Run in January, 1980, produced by the former Beatles producer, George Martin. No Place to Run failed to match up to the success of its predecessors. Paul Raymond left the band at the end of the No Place To Run tour and was replaced by John Sloman from Uriah Heep for a couple of months and then by former Wild Horses guitarist and keyboardist Neil Carter, who helped fill the void in the songwriting left by Schenker's departure. Carter debuted in UFO on stage at Reading Festival August 23, 1980 when the band played as headline act. At the beginning of following year UFO released self-produced The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent, which had a lighter pop rock sound, which was popular at the time. The album achieved mild success in the UK.
In February, 1982 the band released Mechanix. It contained the popular song, "Back Into My Life", which was a minor hit in the USA. Later that year, founding member, Pete Way left the band to form Fastway and then his own Waysted. He was replaced by Talas bassist, Billy Sheehan. UFO released Making Contact in 1983, but the album was a critical and commercial failure. Thus, that May, UFO decided to disband.
This proved to be a short hiatus as, two years later, Mogg assembled a new UFO line-up and released Misdemeanor. This was followed by the 1988 EP Ain't Misbehavin'. Despite the renewed activity of the band, neither release was financially successful and they disbanded again.
The reunion
In 1992, Mogg and Way decided to put a new UFO line-up together and released High Stakes & Dangerous Men. Whilst only released on a small independent label, High Stakes was enough to generate serious interest in a full-blown reunion. The following year, the late 1970s UFO line-up – Mogg, Schenker, Way, Raymond and Parker – reunited, and the resultant album Walk on Water, was released in 1995. This line-up went on a world tour (barring Parker's replacement by AC/DC's Simon Wright on drums). However, tensions arose again, and Schenker left the band in the middle of the tour. Therefore, the other members went their separate ways again.
Phil Mogg and Pete Way continued working together, however, and released two albums under the Mogg/Way name in the late 1990s, - Edge of the World and Chocolate Box.
Recent Events
In 2000, Schenker rejoined UFO again and the band released the double CD, Covenant which contained a disc of new material and a disc of live classics. This album saw Aynsley Dunbar join on drums. Despite constant rumours regarding Schenker's status in the band, he returned once again in 2002 to record, Sharks. Shortly after Sharks was released, Schenker left the band yet again. Mogg, Raymond and Way decided to replace Schenker with Vinnie Moore.
In 2004 the band released You Are Here with Jason Bonham on drums and guitar maestro Vinnie Moore.
As a follow up for the tour, UFO record their live set and release a double-DVD recording titled Showtime (2005) along with a double live CD on SPV in November 2005, mixing a number of re-recoded studio songs, some of which can be viewed on YouTube.
In November 2005, Andy Parker returned to the band to play in the Piorno Rock Festival in Granada, Spain.
UFO's nineteenth studio album, titled The Monkey Puzzle, was released in Europe on September 25, 2006 and on the following day in the United States .
Andy Parker recently returned in early 2007 after recovering from proper medical surgery on his leg. He and the rest of the band gave thanks to all who helped; most importantly, Jason Bonham (Andy's replacement).
In January 2008 they re-released three albums (Phenomenon, No Heavy Petting and Force it) which include bonus tracks and live versions of select songs.
Current members
Phil Mogg - vocals
Vinnie Moore - guitar
Paul Raymond - keyboards, guitar
Pete Way - bass
Andy Parker - drums
Former members
Michael Schenker - guitar
Paul Chapman - guitar
Laurence Archer - guitar
Bernie Marsden - guitar
Larry Wallis - guitar
Billy Sheehan - bass
Aynsley Dunbar - drums
Robbie France - drums
Jason Bonham - drums
Simon Wright - drums
Neil Carter - keyboards, guitar
Paul Gray - bass
Mick Bolton - guitar
Atomik Tommy M - guitar
Clive Edwards - drums
Danny Peyronel - keyboards
Albums
UFO 1 (1970)
UFO 2 - Flying (1971)
Phenomenon (1974)
Force It (1975)
No Heavy Petting (1976)
Lights Out (1977)
Obsession (1978)
No Place to Run (1980)
The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent (1981)
Mechanix (1982)
Making Contact (1983)
Misdemeanor (1985)
Ain't Misbehavin' (EP) (1988)
High Stakes & Dangerous Men (1992)
Walk on Water (1995)
Covenant (2000)
Sharks (2002)
You Are Here (2004)
The Monkey Puzzle (2006)
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Vinnie Moore
Moore began his professional career at age of 12 and played clubs and bars until Shrapnel executive Mike Varney discovered him through a magazine article. His connection to Varney led to an opportunity to appear in a Pepsi commercial in 1985, (only Vinnie's hands appeared in the commercial as his guitar playing is heard.) Following this Moore recorded his first solo album, Mind's Eye, released on Shrapnel Records and featured Tony MacAlpine on keyboards. The album received several awards from guitar magazines and sold over 100,000 copies.
Vinnie Moore played lead guitar with the heavy metal band Vicious Rumors on their debut album, "Soldiers of the night". The album features Moore's solo-song, "Invader", which was in the style of Van Halen's "Eruption". The shred guitar craze of the late eighties led to more releases for Shrapnel.Moore also began performing with other hard rock bands.He joined Alice Cooper's band for a tour and then appeared in Hey Stoopid album,Following this Moore released two instructional videos on guitar playing.
Guitar equipment history
Moore has endorsed numerous guitar companies over the years, his most well known being Music Man guitars. In 2007 Moore left Music Man and began endorsing Dean guitars. At the winter NAMM show in January 2008, Dean Guitars unveiled a Vinnie Moore signature model. The Dean VM-2000 features a Vinnie Moore "ShredHead" Humbucker in the bridge position. Moore also has an endorsement contract with Engl amplification.
Solo Albums
Mind's Eye (1986)
Time Odyssey (1988)
Meltdown (1991)
Out of Nowhere (1996)
The Maze (1999)
Live! (2000)
Defying Gravity (2001)
Vinnie Moore Collection: The Shrapnel Years (2006)
Appears On
1985 - Vicious Rumors - Soldiers Of The Night
1989 - Guitar's Practicing Musicians - Free
1991 - Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid (with Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Slash)
1994 - Various Artists - Deep Purple Tribute: Smoke On The Water
1998 - Sega - "Burning Rangers" Game soundtrack for the 'Saturn' video game
2004 - UFO - You Are Here
2004 - Jordan Rudess - Rhythm of Time
2005 - Various Artists - Subdivisions: A Tribute to the Music of Rush
2005 - UFO - "Showtime" - A double-live DVD and music CD release recorded earlier on in the year
2006 - UFO - The Monkey Puzzle
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PETE WAY
Peter Frederick 'Pete' Way (born 7 August 1951, in Enfield, Middlesex) is a bass player. He is the bassist of UFO, Waysted and formerly, Fastway and Ozzy Osbourne.
Way began his career as a studio musician for many artists. He played in bands with friends from high school and later created a band with friends Phil Mogg and Andy Parker and Mick Bolton. This was known as the original UFO lineup. Later into his career the band met guitarist of the Scorpions, Michael Schenker. Later the band signed on guitarist/keyboardist and long time friend Paul Raymond. The group released many albums and singles but never had a top 40 hit. Only 2 songs broke the top 100 which were "Only You Can Rock Me" and Lights Out.
Disliking the more melodic direction UFO were taking in the early eighties, Pete jumped ship to form Fastway with former Motorhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke. Pete was unable to extricate himself from a contract he signed with Chrysalis and stepped down to play bass for Ozzy Osbourne.
In 1982 Pete formed the punningly titled Waysted with Fin Muir, Paul Raymond, Frank Noon and Ronnie Kayfield. Their debut album "Vices" was released in 1982 and reached #78 in the UK charts. The band's third album "Save your Prayers", featuring Danny Vaughn in place of the departed Fin and former UFO guitarist Paul Chapman, was their most successful in America where it reached #185.
In 1992 he joined Phil Mogg in the restarted UFO and released the High Stakes and Dangerous Men album. Pete remains in the band to this day.
Way commonly uses Gibson Thunderbird basses which are renowned for the hard edged rock tone; however he recently commented that he has been using an Epiphone Thunderbird as he found it seemed to have a fatter tone. He has also been known to use basses by Ibanez, most notably a pink Ibanez Iceman bass.
UFO
UFO 1 (1970) Uncharted
Flying (1971) Uncharted
Phenomenon (1974) Uncharted
Force It (1975) Chart Position 71 (US)
No Heavy Petting (1976) Chart Position 167 (US)
Lights Out (1977) Chart Position 51 (UK), 23 (US)
Obsession (1978) Chart Position 26 (UK), 41 (US)
No Place to Run (1980) Chart Position 11 (UK), 51 (US)
The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent (1981) Chart Position 19 (UK), 77 (US)
Mechanix (1982) Chart Position 8 (UK), 82 (US)
Making Contact (1983) Chart Position 32 (UK), 153 (US)
Misdemeanor (1985) Chart Position 74 (UK), 106 (US)
Ain't Misbehavin' (EP) (1988) Uncharted
High Stakes & Dangerous Men (1992) Uncharted
Walk On Water (1995) Uncharted
Covenant (2000) Uncharted
Sharks (2002) Uncharted
You Are Here (2004) Uncharted
The Monkey Puzzle (2006)
UFO Live (1972) Uncharted
Live In Concert (1974)
Strangers In The Night (1979) Chart Position 42 (US), 8 (UK)
Lights Out In Tokyo (1992)
Live In Japan (1992)
T.N.T. (1993)
Heaven's Gate (1995)
On With The Acton (1998)
Live In Texas (2000)
Regenerator - Live 1982 (2001)
Showtime (2005)
Space Metal (1976)
Anthology (1986)
The Essential UFO (1992)
Best Of UFO: Gold Collection (1996)
X-Factor: Out There & Back (1997)
Flying : The Early Years 1970-1973 (2004)
An Introduction To UFO CD (2006)
The Best Of The Rest (1988)
Waysted
Waysted: Vices (1983)
Waysted: (EP) (1984)
Waysted: The Good, The Bad, The Waysted (1985)
Waysted: Save Your Prayers (1986)
Waysted: Wilderness of Mirrors (2000)
Waysted: You won't get out alive (2000)
Waysted: Back from the Dead (2004)
Waysted: Organised Chaos (2007)
Waysted: The Harsh Reality (2007)
MOGG/WAY
Edge of the World (1997)
Chocolate Box (1999)
PETE WAY
Amphetamine (2000)
Alive In Cleveland (2002)
Acoustic Animal (2007)
The Plot
The Plot (2003)(featuring Michael Schenker on guitar).
Fastway
Fastway (1983)
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