Pick Your Rock and Metal

Sunday, April 19, 2015

COMIN' ATCHA: UFO - still rockin' and back in Belfast...

THERE are a few bands that are enduring - musically and personally. Of those that survived the excesses of the 70s and 80s few can match the consistence of UFO.

They have been pounding the boards and keeping the hard rock flame alive for a long time - actually from 1969 (two years after your editor was born!).

In that time they have produced seminal albums  - none more so than the 1979 live album 'Strangers In The Night' which defined how twin guitar attacks should be delivered.

One thing that can be said about UFO is that they are - and always have been  - loyal to all arts and parts of the UK, including Belfast.

From 1979 - when the Troubles blazed across Northern Ireland - the band have kept on coming back to Belfast.

This coming Wednesday (April 22nd) UFO are playing Limelight1 on the tour backing their 'Conspiracy of Stars' album release.

Vinnie Moore - who wowed Belfast on his last couple of visits - penned the vast majority of the music on 'Conspiracy...' and Phil Mogg as usual provides his usual complex emotive lyrics.

If the last release 'Seven Deadly' entrenched the modern incarnation of UFO, 'Conspiracy of Stars' take the formula of classic composition and echoes of the past to a new level.

That Mogg and (drummer) Andy Parker have been in the band since 1969, and Paul Raymond (keyboards/rhythm guitar) from 1976, shows the endurance of UFO; equally Vinne Moore stepped into the large shoes left my Michael Schenker and made guitar duties his own from 2003.

The line-up is completed by bassist Rob De Luca, who has been on the UFO books since 2012, who this time out contributed two songs on 'Conspiracy...'. (Raymond also wrote one of the tracks.)

Despite the age of some of the members UFO are still working hard. In February and March they toured Germany, Poland, The Czech Republic, Lithuania and Switzerland, before embarking on this current run of dates. By the time they hit Belfast on Wednesday they will already have played five dates with another 11 to come before they hit the festival circuit.

Some tickets may still be available for Limelight1 - see ya down there!


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