One of THE greatest live albums of all time got better……UFO’s classic live double Strangers in the Night from the USA leg of the Obsession tour from 1978 is undeniably up there with the likes of Thin Lizzy’s Live and Dangerous, Rush’s All the World’s a Stage etc.
UFO with a couple of stone cold killer albums (Lights Out and Obsession) to bolster the set list and a band that would surely hit the big time arena heights on the back of Strangers in the Night not least due to the remarkable talents of the (then) young hotshot guitarist Michael Schenker.
Yet somehow it didn’t quite work out like that……Whilst Strangers in the Night is UFO at their peak blasting effortlessly through a magic set list with sublime power and delivery – by the time the album was released Schenker was gone (depending on which story you believe, because he didn’t like the version of Rock Bottom chosen to go on the album) and UFO plateaued somewhat afterwards and always had their share of Spinal Tap style adventures along the way.
Anyhoo – back to SITN. Phil Mogg’s clean, melodic vocals, the late, great Pete Way’s bass nicely up in the mix showing there’s much more going on than bloke in a giraffe suit, Andy Parker’s drumming powerful yet deceptively complex, Paul Raymond doing what he does so well rounding out the sound and of course the incomparable Schenker riffing and soloing in peerless style.
From the opening power chord of Natural Thing to the last note of Shoot Shoot it’s instant classic all the way full of UFO anthems. Only You Can Rock Me, Doctor Doctor, Love to Love, Lights Out, Rock Bottom, Too Hot to Handle and more. Once listened to, never forgotten.
Want some proof? Here’s Natural Thing.
UFO were always such a great live band. I’ve seen them so many times over the years but in all those times they’ve not matched what’s here on SITN.
However – now it gets even more enjoyable thank to this deluxe edition box set collective. The original double album is here – along with the six shows which were recorded and then “cherry picked” (forgive me the slight UFO-related pun there) – to make up the originally released version.
Remarkably the six shows were recorded on consecutive nights from Chicago, Kenosha, Youngstown, Cleveland, Columbus and Louisville. Each just as well performed as the other and consistently excellent. The set list is generally the same, although some variation. For example Cherry, Pack it up and Go, Out in the Street, On with the Action and one or two others crop up in the extra shows which didn’t make it on to the originally released version of SITN.
Such a pleasure to have the box set with the six shows along with the original. Eight CDs in total and a proper sturdy box to keep them in. Arguably for long term UFO completists such as myself (I first saw them in 1978 and have been there ever since) though so good is this that any fan of classic heavy rock with a melodic element should be in Utopia when listening to it.
It’s not cheap (currently around £35 as I type this post) however surely worth every penny. They don’t make bands like UFO any more. Strangers in the Night and the extras in this deluxe edition is fitting evidence of that fact.