Customer Reviews
ufo-no place to run
Have always been. I'm a big "UFO" fan. Owned everything on cd except this. I was fortunate enough to find a Japanese gentleman who was willing to airmail me a Japanese pressing. Excellent!
J. Guida.
Unfairly Slated
My favourite band had just peaked with "Obsession" and produced the best live album ever. Imagine my disappointment. Then you hear that the guitar player has left. Yes I was one of the Schenker fanatics. He practiced for hours each day, his playing was fast and melodic, he reproduced the same licks as on the record or better and he never made any mistakes. Absolutely gutted!
I was therefore very disappointed when I saw the replacement Chapman on tour. Here was this chubby English guy with a stupid banana like guitar who didn't play the old tunes well and had a very different style. Not a good image, not impressed.
Paul Chapman got slated back in 1980 when UFO released "No Place To Run" yet it was still a good album. I remember first hearing "Mystery Train" playing in Sundown records in Wolverhampton and thinking "that sounds like UFO?" I immediately bought it (I originally owned the "green" album cover version on vinyl) but still had a fairly blinkered view back then that UFO were rubbish without the Kraut. I like it more now than back then obviously as I am now not so brain dead. Even if the Schenker stuff is better this is a trademark UFO sounding album and you can't say that Chapman doesn't do a good job. It has a heavier more basic rock `n' roll sound with the engine room of Way, Parker and Raymond still superb. Phil Mogg is Phil Mogg, a great rock singer and one of the most under rated in the world. His song writing in conjunction with Pete Way
makes up for the lack of Schenker but I can't help but always think how wonderful would it have been with Schenker's riffs on top. "Lettin' Go", "No Place To Run", "Money Money" and "Anyday" are classic Mogg/Way/UFO tracks and "Mystery Train" is possibly one of the best cover versions of any song I have ever heard. What a superb guitar intro! Well done fat boy!
"No Place To Run" and "TWTWATI" were in my opinion the best Chapman era releases. After these releases the band line up changed like the English weather and the quality of music started to deteriorate fast.
My advice is start with anything Schenker because then you hear the true UFO sound and have a benchmark to compare with. This is highly recommended but you might find it off putting because of the expense. It is not so easy to get a good copy these days without spending a fortune!
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The Best UFO album?...
The task wasn't easy, the recording of STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT two years before left really a hard job to do (personally, I like very much the long versions of "Lights Out" and "Rock Bottom"). The NO PLACE TO RUN (1980) shows a positive evolutive step inside the process of the UFO's history band, just because two things: The quality of the global studio sound where it was recorded (diferent of the classic sound of seventies recordings), and the adition of the guitarist PAUL CHAPMAN an englisman who owed to his creative flashy licks, his controled and depured hands technic gave UFO's music a new breath to begin the eighties. Following the almost same old formula: heavy drums with Hard Rock electric and acoustic guitar formats, bluesy licks and riffs plus an unusual stronger voice within very powerfull creative songs. A clear example of this, are the tracks "Lettin' Go", "Mistery Train" (with an amazing flashy acoustic Blues lick), "This Fire Will Burn Tonight", "Any Day" (with an incredible bass line) or the enigmatic main theme "No Place To Run". Plus an Interesting instrumental track like "Alpha Centaury" (żDo You remember the "Unidentificated Flying Object" track from first UFO album?); the Heavy Pop tunes like "Young blood", "Take It Or Leave It" or "Money Money"; and the misterious ballad "Gone In The Night". . .
Owed to a almost inexistent media publicity worldwide and the departure of Michael Shenker, the NO PLACE TO RUN recording was a hard attemp to maintain the interest for the band's music in eighties but as years have gone by, the UFO fan will appreciate under another light this remastered masterwork now. . .
Another extraordinary recordings with guitarist Paul Chapman are: THE WILD THE WILLING AND THE INNOCENT (1981), MECHANIX (1983); and MAKING CONTACT (1984). This guitar man, Paul Chapman, really was at the level of the best England guitarrists, and he helped develop the UFO's music one step ahead to consolidated the name UFO between the respected groups of the rock scene. So Good Luck!. . .
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. You can see a complete list of all UFO discography, or go back to the UFO tabs
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