A crimbo present to me from me(makin sure i get some musical happiness on the day ha ha).Over 6 hours of rough and ready U F O ,one of the most underated uk bands ever.
Disc 1 : ***1/2 live in New York 1975(previously available as 'Big Apple Encounters' i believe,a competent if nervy performance from a fledgling line up,certainly Mogg appears a touch nervous whilst talkin to the select audience witnessing the recording.Great to have live recordings of early tracks such as 'Space Child','Oh My' alongside covers of 'Built For Comfort' and 'All or Nothing'.
Disc 2 **** Roundhouse 1976, despite only being a mere 7 months on from disc 1,the band are more confident,it shows in some superb renditions including 'Out In The Street' and 'Highway Lady' whilst an early fossil 'Boogie for George' is played with gusto.Nice to hear Danny Peyronel's keyboards to the fore.
Disc 3 ***** Roundhouse 1977, a year on and a cocksure UFO strut their stuff,5 tracks from the new album LIGHTS OUT dominate proceedings while the pleasing inclusion of 'On With The Action' and Stunning 'Rock Bottom' compliment them beautifully.
Disc 4 ****1/2 Cleveland 1978, despite the sound quality being rough and ready at times,this is another top performance from a band at its peak,the tour in America supporting the likes of Blue Oyster Cult would have several dates recorded and result in the career defining 'STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT' album.
Highlights include the opening one two of 'Hot N Ready' and 'Pack It Up N Go' whilst the likes of 'Docter Docter/Lights Out/Love To Love and Rock Bottom' are now bona fide classics.
Disc 5 **1/2 Hammersmith Odeon 1981, a poor disc,the shortest of the set,average sound quality,lack lustre listless performance,do we really need a 12 minute plus version of 'Light Out'?. Not to be recommended and a poor example of the Chapman era.
Disc 6 **** Hammersmith Odeon 1982 , another Chapman era ,recording,the best sound quality disc of the six,no surprise given its a BBC sourced recording.
Although its strange to have a UFO live disc with no 'Docter Docter/Rock Bottom/Lights Out ets,the tracks here represent the later 80's Ufo,indeed only 3 of the 11 tracks are from the 70's,the likes of 'We Belong To The Night','Let It Rain.'Long Gone' & 'Wild Willing... open the disc in style while 'No Place To Run' is a lost classic.
All in all this is a decent set,comes with informative booklet and sturdy box,in the spirit of the bootleg each disc is housed in a individual sleeve but all are mistakenly credited as Michael Schenker on lead guitar despite the latter two actually being Paul Chapman.If you shop around you can pick it up at a reasonable price,i got it for less than £20,a bargain in anyones book.