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New MSG album title has been confirmed at Chris Logan website as 'Be Aware Of Scorpions' with release dates of October 29th (Europe) and November 13th (US). He has also confirmed four Japanese concert dates for December.
The Listbot UFO 4 Ever and Michael Schenker 4 Ever mailing lists will close down today.. but the replacement is up, running and seems to be working well! Sign up by following this link. Please note that although it is now hosted at dave-wood.org it is entirely independent of the UFO and Michael Schenker site.
August 7th (tommorrow) is Pete Ways birthday.. Happy Birthday mate!
From Brave Radio, SPV is reissuing MICHAEL SCHENKERšs Thank You (1993) instrumental album and the double-live retrospective called Story Live (1997). As well, watch for the rerelease of MSGšs Written In The Sand (1996). The label plans to release Thank You Part II in February...
Also, something I don't think I mentioned was the DVD release of UFO Misdemeanor Tour.
Still trying to come back down to earth after the magical Uli gig last weekend! Wow!
From
Detritus:
Millenium's upcoming covers album will feature "Neon Knights" (Black
Sabbath), "Love To Love" (UFO), "Shout It Out Loud" (Kiss), "Love
Ain't No Stranger" (Whitesnake), "Love Is Like Oxygen" (Sweet), "On
And On" (Michael Schenker Group), "S.A.T.O." (Ozzy Osbourne), "I
Surrender" (Rainbow), and "Perfect Strangers" (Deep Purple). The album
will feature Don Airey on keyboards. The band's next proper studio
album should also be done by the end of this year.
Watch out for a Cosmosquad tour in Italy later this year.. and hopefully I will be able to do a review of the new live and studio albums very soon.
Just back from a weeks holiday, so sorry for short notice if anyone is going to see Uli tommorrow: due to family crisis Graham Bonnet will not now be making a guest appearance at the Gwyl Ystalyfera festival.
The Gwyl Ystalyfera festival (Uli Jon Roth headlining on Sunday 22nd July) have confirmed that contrary to previous reports Michael Schenker will not be making an appearance. However, as well as a cast-iron guarantee that Uli will be on top form he will be joined by the usual ex-MSG members Don Airey and Barry Sparks, as well as a guest appearance by Graham Bonnet! Details at the web site www.gwyl.org. As per Donington, Deborah Bonham is also on the bill.
Talking of Graham Bonnet, he will be playing a gig with Don Airey at the Portsmouth Guildhall (England) on Friday July 27th. Details can be found at Grahams Official Site.
I was told that Laurence Archer was playing Grand Slam material at a club in London tommorrow night.. but the club knows nothing about it! However going on the fact that there's no smoke without fire I'll try and find out some Laurence news and update as soon as I can! (thanks Ben)
Have also heard a rumour that there have been talks about a UFO tour in the States this October.. if it doesn't happen ignore this item.. if it does, remember you heard it here first! (Thanks Chris).
Updates on various Jeff Kollman items at his (very snazzy) official site www.jeffkollman.com including the next Cosmosquad album, live album and Mogg/Way (they will be mixing it in August). Cosmosquad will be playing live at The Hard Hat Club in Toledo, OH on July 13th. details here.
There has been a new CD released in Italy on 8th July, 'Twister' featuring Robin McAuley on vocals. I know nothing else about it but I was sent a flyer for it. (thanks Max). If any Italinas would like to comment on it?
Rock and Blues page and my review now updated with some great pics from BikersWeb.co.uk.
Another Gary Barden interview up at On The Rocks (thanks Peter).
Some good pictures of the Donington gig now up at Bikers Web.
At Ritchies site news on the One Night at Budokan CD, and apparantly the Spitfires release (see below) has been put on hold.
Review now up, link from the Rock and Blues page.
From Electric Basement: " U.F.O. REISSUES LAND IN JULY!: (Thanks to Ken Gerdes for this!) Spitfire Records has July 17th marked on the calendar as the day we get some classic U.F.O. reissues. The albums are No Heavy Petting, Force It, Mechanix and Making Contact. All will feature some sort of bonus tracks, whether studio or live. Also, drummer Andy Parker provides liner notes."
From SFK, FM/Revolver Records will reissue in "the near future" UFO's Ain't Misbehaving.
Reminder: Jason Becker tribute/benefit project released July 22nd (featuring Jeff Kollman and Robin McAuley amongst others). (Detritus).
Sorry.. Donington review will appear soon (last week of term rubbish going on) but in the meantime pictures etc. of the event at:
Really nice Gary Barden interview now up at Rock Reunion (thanks Ralph, good job!).
More detailed review to go up later today, but last night's gig went off without too many mishaps! Ulis set, consisting of a mixture of his classical stuff, scorps songs, Cream songs with Jack Bruce, and of course dual guitar session with Phil, Michael and Pete (in fact dual bass guitar too, with Barry Sparks playing the UFO spots too). I'll try to remember as many of the full set as possible, but the songs that directly affect this news page are
First UFO spot: Midnight Train, Let It Roll (which Phil claimed was 5 years old..), Rock Bottom and then an Uli/Michael duet of In Search Of Peace Of Mind.
Second UFO spot: Lights Out, Doctor Doctor.
As always Uli's contribution was heartfelt and sublime. UFOs performance was not the best they have ever done, comparable to the Newcastle gig last year, but it laid a few ghosts to rest I think, and all involved were obviously enjoying it. Some of the dual guitar was wonderful, especially on Let It Roll, there was mutual respect for each others playing rather than a competition to out-do each other, and it really worked well.
The talk before the show was that Ulis entire set was due to be recorded and released as a live album.. so hopefully this will happen, watch this space!
Before this set a track of the new MSG album was played over the speakers, which was a nice surprise. The song had a very 'Unforgiven' feel to it, but to be honest I was listening mostly to the vocals, as this was the first chance I'd had to hear Chris Logans voice.. the verdict? I think he's a good choice and look forward to hearing the whole album!
OK, this has turned into a longer bit than I was planning.. but overall, a very enjoyable and positive evening. Watch out for more detailed review later today.
Judgement Day!
I will try to get an update on this evenings gig up as soon as I can..
New to the site, a chat room! Very basic, but if you're looking around the site anyway why not log in see if anyone else is on? Chat Room is here!
No updates for months.. then so many it's hard to keep up! From the MGAB site, Phil Mogg has confirmed Petes appearance at Donington (see yesterdays entry) and that there will be twin lead guitars on at least five UFO songs.
Updates at Chris Logans site and the official Graham Bonnet site.
No official confirmation from the organisers of the Rock and Blues festival at Donington this weekend, but according to the official Pete Way site Pete is planning to make an appearance alongside Michael and Phil. Also from his site, "Pete is currently recording several new releases, including an all-acoustic record to be released late this year."
Review of Silver at Melodicrock.com.
Watch out for the new album from Empire, "HYPNOTICA", featuring a guest appearance by Don Airey. Web page at www.empire-rock.com.
Updates slow coming at the moment because it's exam marking season! Great...
Nice to see the MGAB site back in action Mike!
Silver is now avaliable at www.point-music.com and www.aorheaven.com (from the official Gary Barden web site).
Donnington now a week away, with the Scorpions reunion looking in difficulty, but Michael and Phils appearance still very much on.
MSR phone message has been updated.. see Ritchies site for details.
DNS problems so this may be appearing late for most people.
The brilliant Silver album (Barden/Airey/Torm/Voss) has now been released (in Europe at least).
If you have recently sent me
an email and it has bounced please read the following:
Due to a problem on the work server (for the Linux initiated
something went belly up with procmail) all emails sent to my
work address (daw@maths.warwick.ac.uk) were bounced. If you sent
an email to a dave-wood.org address and it was bounced back,
I DID receive it (copies are forwarded to my work address, and it
was these that were bounced back).
From ex-vocalists to current vocalist! There is a new interview with Chris Logan up at www.rockreunion.com. Good interview, and quite amusing in places! Check it out... (thanks Ralph).
Yet MORE ex-MSG vocalists news! News update at the official Graham Bonnet site (www.bonnet-rocks.com). Before laying down the vocal tracks to his new album 'Impelliteri' Graham is planning some live dates in Europe. Details will be posted at his site as soon as they are booked and confirmed (and I will try to keep you up to date as much as I can here too).
This week seems to be 'ex-MSG vocalist week'! In July a CD will be coming out through a small record company called DMV Music (web site at www.dmvmusic.com) called 'Lost Demos'. This CD features songs by several vocalists (collectively under the guise of the 'V-Project') including six songs by Robin McAuley. As the name suggests, the songs on this CD are demo tracks that have not been released anywhere else (in the case of Robin they are songs that he was compiling for a solo album that never happened). Other contributions include tracks by James Christian (House of Lords) and Christopher Post (Dillinger).
I have just received a copy of the forthcoming 'Silver' CD featuring Gary Barden, Don Airey, Bernie Torm and Michael Voss.. due to be released end of this month. Is well worth waiting for.. watch this space for updates and the Silver page for reviews etc. (track listing).
Brave Radio reported vocalist Kelly Keeling (Baton Rouge/Blue Murder/ John Norum/MSG) is finishing off a solo album, and will then work with Don Dokken on another project. Keeling will also launch an MP3.com site to sell his solo album, "compilation CDs...all his catalog...as well as new and future stuff," including b-sides, live tracks, movie soundtrack music, etc. ( Detritus #118).
There is apparantly an 'interview with UFO' in the latest issue of Metal Dreams (http://go.to/metaldreams) (Detritus #118).
I've been asked to post the following by Phil Rowe: "I just thought that you may be interested to know that Michael will be playing along with Uli Jon Roth, Rudolph Schenker, Don Airey (Rainbow, Ozzy) and Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull) at the Gwyl Ystalyfera annual festival in Wales on July 22nd. This gig will be played in a circus big top. For further information see www.gwyl.org."
Just to confirm: I have been in contact with Uli/UFO/MSG management (UTM) and Uli is playing at the Donnington festival (10pm) with Phil Mogg, Michael Schenker, Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker as guests during his show..
Further to yesterdays news item, further details can be found at www.rockandblues.uk.com. Phil Mogg and Michael Schenker are apparantly confirmed, but at the moment I assume that they are appearing as special guest appearances for Uli rather than as UFO. I am attempting to confirm this (or otherwise) as you read this so watch this space!
This festival is a well established annual event (although only at Donnington this year because of a little farm animal problem we're having here in England) and so is bona-fide. Must admit though that it'll be the first gig I've been to where wet t-shirt competitions and 'exoctic dancing' are on the same bill. The things I have to suffer in the name of this site!
From Totalrock.com:
"SCORPIONS, UFO JOIN ROCK AND BLUES FESTIVAL
Members of the Scorpions and UFO have joined the bill for the Rock &
Blues Custom Bike Festival, which happens at Donington on June 22 and
23. And guitar hero Uli Jon Roth has also committed himself to the
festival, which will also see performances from Hawkwind, Wishbone Ash,
Eddie & The Hot Rods and Company Of Snakes."
This site will be down Thursday 10th May from 06:00-09:00 GMT (01:00-04:00 EST) for a server upgrade.
Still no firm news on forthcoming albums from MSG (Born To Be Free) and Mogg/Kollman, but news filtering through from UFO management (I haven't spoken to them directly for a while, but this is from a reliable source) is that UK tour will be repeated and there will definately be some gigs in Japan (thanx Christian). Any more news on this will be be put here as soon as I get it.
Walt James ( Pete Way, Amphetemine) is currently putting together a CD of his own songs at his home studio which he plans to put out in a couple of months either in a shop near you, or exclusively online. Watch this space!
Ultrasound 2001 this year (Sept 8th/9th, Burbank CA) will include Cosmosquad (Jeff Kollman, Shane Gaalaas, Barry Sparks) and also an appearance by Robin McAuley (MSG) in the all-star 'Ringside American Rock Show' (I don't make up these names, I just report it! Dave).
Uli news! Uli has a whole load of tour dates, check out the official site at yehao.com/ulijonroth. Mainly mainland Europe and Japan, including the Swedish Rock Festival in June. If you can get to a gig GO!
17th August is the release date through Lion Music of "Warmth In The Wilderness - a Tribute to Jason Becker". Artists involved include Jeff Kollman and Robin McAuley (along with Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Vinnie Moore, Steve Morse, Jeff Pilson etc. etc.) (Source: Detritus)
UFO.DAVE-WOOD.ORG is now the official URL of this site.. the old URL will now be gradually deleted.. please change all bookmarks/links, thanks! Also, new email address for UFO related stuff is ufo@dave-wood.org..
Sorry about lack of updates, been away at conferences and nothing really vital has been happening in the world of UFO! There are a lot of things to catch up on though...
This weekend this site will move to STAGE 3 of the 'big move'. I will try to keep disruption to a minimum, but please be patient if you encounter difficulties accessing pages.
As far as I am aware both the new MSG album and the Mogg/Kollman collaboration are in the final phases of production: more news as I get it.
There is a candid message from Pete Way at the official site www.peteway.com: follow the link to 'Ask Pete'. Also from his site you can order one of a limited run of 1000 copies of a US re-release of 'Amphetemine'.
Also concerning Pete, there is a recording of a gig the Pete Way Band did last year at http://www.digitalclubnetwork.com/. You need to register but it only takes a couple of minutes. To find it click on bands and then "W" finally on pete Way (thanks Marc).
Uli Jon Roth will play at the Sweden Rock Festival in June, details at the festival page.
Detritus give the new album 'Windows To The World' by Heaven and Earth a 'B-'. This is the group of guitarist Stuart Smith, and features Kelly Keeling on lead vocals. Check out mini-issue 113.5 for the full review.
From Brave Radio: "Check out www.johnsloman.com for info on John Sloman, the one-time URIAH HEEP and LONE STAR singer [Dave's note: Firing On All Six, 1976]. T his is a new official site, where John discusses his career and brief associations with Heep, IRON MAIDEN and UFO."
From Detritus #111: "-Lion Music announced their upcoming Jason Becker tribute album, WARMTH IN THE WILDERNESS, will be a double album. It will hopefully be released in June, and will feature Stormwind, Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert, Anders Johansson, Jeff Pilson, James Kottak, Jeff Watson, Vinnie Moore, Ron Thal, Lars Eric Mattsson, Rolf Munkes, Torben Enevoldsen, Michael Chlasciak, Mattias IA Eklund, Jonathan Mover, JEFF KOLLMAN, Chris Poland, and others."
Detritus #110 has a review of Diesel Machine, "Torture Test", but only gives it a B/C-. This is a band consisting of Halford guitarist Pat Lachman, SHANE GAALAAS, vocalist A.J. Cavalier and bassist Rich Gonzales. For the full review check out the Detritus web site.
Whew! Think that's it for now!
Site move is now at STAGE 2 after a stressful weekend (including the loss of most up to date news page!). There is now a 'UFO and Michael Schenker' mirror site at
Any further updates for the next few weeks made at the original site will also be made at the mirror site, but some extra material will be put up at the new site (pictures and tabs that I did not have room left to post at the original location).
Apparently new MSG album will be called 'Born To Be Free', with line-up Michael Schenker, Chris Logan (vocal), Rev Jones (bass) and Jeff Martin (drums) (from Burrn magazine via RB Araki).
Andrew Gribble was at the Cosmosquad gig the other night (28th Feb), had a chat with Phil Mogg and was kind enough to pass on the details of their conversation. He is quoted as saying that he and Michael are still in contact and that there weren't any personal differences, despite what might be posted on the net. He also said that they really wanted to tour Japan, and when asked about a US tour he didn't really respond (although Andrew adds that this may be due to an accent problem!). Andrew also got to talk with Barry Sparks and was told that Uli Jon Roth is touring Japan for sure next month, but he didn't know anything about an American tour. He then went on to confirm news that has already been released that the second Cosmosquad album is finished and that they are looking around for a major record deal.
Finally got my copy of 'Record Collector' over the weekend... UFO article is very good, with a thorough 3 pages discography after it (which was compiled with the help of Mike at the UFO Appreciation Society).
RB Araki caught me napping! From his site.. new vocalist for MSG is apparently Chris Logan, check out his website here.
This site has been hosted at my work address for 6 years, but now I've decided that a move is long overdue!
Over the next few months I will be gradually moving this site to a new (easier to remember!) address along with added new features which will hopefully make it even more useful. But as you can imagine this will not be a trivial task!
Full details of the move can be found here, but Stage One is to update the current site structure, and to create an identical copy at the new address. I hope to minimise disruption during this time, but if you come across a link that doesn't work please tell me!!!! At no time should the site be taken down for more than a few minutes.
Cosmosquad news at the Cosmosquad Site.
Robin McAuley has released a new album with Ricky Philips, Marcus Nand and Tommy Aldridge, under the band name "Elements Of Friction". It's on the MTM label (www.mtm-music.com) but they haven't updated the web site yet (thanks for the info Dominic).
Barry Sparks interview now up at www.rockreunion.de (RB Araki.. you get your news up too quickly!).
The Official Gary Barden page is now up on the 'net! It can be found at http://www.garybarden.net/.
Shane Gaalaas interview now up at www.rockreunion.de.
Rock Tracks, http://www.rocktracks.de has, amongst other things, a video clip of MSG's "Gimme Your Love." (source Detritus, http://detritusweb.com).
From Keith Lykens (thanks!): "In the February edition of Keyboard Magazine there is a short article praising the talents of Paul Raymond and his contributions to UFO and especially his performance on Strangers In The Night. It's an extremely positive piece, especially since this publication only rarely features musicians and bands from the Hard Rock category."
As mentioned on the MGAB site (www.mgab.dircon.co.uk) don't forget to look out for the March 'Record Collector' which should be out week tommorrow... with any luck it will contain a substantial UFO feature.
Been a slow month on the UFO front... with no news of any developments....
There are details of a new UFO Tribute album at R.B. Arakis site... I'm not getting too excited about that!
Ralph at www.rockreunion.de has told me of an interview he has done with guitar player Rick Plester from the prog metal band Black Symphony who has said that the bass player Rev Jones from his band will play on the new Michael Schenker album.... Ralph promises interviews with both Shane Gaalaas and Barry Sparks in the near future. From the main page follow the 'interviews' link.
Seems that Dreams and Expressions is selling well..... it comes 5th in the Top 20 Metal albums sales figures for the HMV Superstore Toronto for the week January 21 - 27. This is a weekly feature from Brave Radio www.BraveWords.com.
Ralph Geiger at www.rockreunion.de has informed me of a phone interview he carried out with Michael Schenker last week (direct link to interview). It's quite a frank interview, well worth reading and should keep some healthy discussion going on the various mailing lists!
My heartfelt condolences to Pete and the Demas family... see the Official Pete Way site. Please respect their feelings and privacy in these difficult times...
TOTP2 tonight should have UFO on this time.......
Copy of 'Dreams and Expressions' landed on my doorstep this morning and is apparently released worldwide on the 20th of this month. Copy I now have is the European release through SPV. Still trying to track down who actually sent it.. but thanks anyway!
As reported on the UFO Appreciation site Phil Mogg will be flying out to the States start of February to put the final touches to the Mogg/Kollman/etc. collaboration.
Michael Schenker and Aynsley Dunbar share the same birthday today!
In an event so thick with irony you could stand a spoon up in it, UFOs appearance on TOTP2 last night was a no-show! Contrary to the advertised 'Space Special' edition, us lucky UK viewers were treated to a 'Party Special'. Apologies to those of you who after reading my news item sat through the likes of Steps and Ricky Martin on the off-chance that UFO would be shown.. at least they had the Stones on.
According to the
BBC web site
The 'Space Special' program can be seen on:
Saturday 6th January, 19:00-19:45, BBC Choice (except England)
Sunday 7th January, 00:00-00:45, BBC Choice (all)
Wednesday 10th January, 18:00-18:45, BBC2
Wednesday 10th January, 19:45-20:30, BBC Choice
Michael Schenkers 'Dreams and Expressions' will apparently be released in Japan this month sometime.
Please note that in my haste to clear some of my email backlog I have told several people that the Paul Chapman site is at www.paulchapman.com... it isn't... it's at www.pchapman.com. Sorry!
Happy New Year! ..and for those of you counting the years correctly Happy New Millennium! ;-)
This may be a little late for most UK visitors (first day back in work after spending Xmas in sunny California!), but tonight, 6:00pm UK time, TOTP2 (Top Of The Pops 2) is a '2001 Space Special', and promsises to feature UFO at some stage.... (thanks Paul!).
New issue of Classic Rock, as suspected, features a not very flattering news item on the UFO Manchester concert and letter regarding the cancelled Newport show. The general gist of the story seems pretty accurate, although some of it is a little inaccurate (such as the quotes). Later on there is also a doctored picture of Phil and Pete from 1980 holding last months edition of the magazine, and both Phil and Pete get mentions in the 'Quotes of the year', the quote mentioned in my 11th December entry and these:
Phil Mogg: " We asked Michael's older brother Rudolph if we could borrow him and he said, "We've been trying to get rid of him for years"."
Pete Way: "REO Speedwagon once complained to the promoter that it was dangerous for their wives and childeren to be around us backstage."
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