X-UFO: Vol. 1 – The Live Files

Lights out, all out.

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X-UFO, as the name implies, comprise former Phil Mogg sidemen Laurence Archer (guitar), Danny Peyronel (vocals/keys) and Clive Edwards (drums). Joining them on bass is Rocky Newton who, er, was never actually in UFO. The closest he came was the Michael Schenker Group.

We were prepared to hate this record – we already had the damning phrase ‘wrecks-UFO’ up our sleeve – but it’s actually ridiculously entertaining.

All the classics are here – Let It Roll, Rock Bottom, Lights Out, Doctor Doctor et al – and while the renditions lack the measured approach of the ‘proper’ band the level of enthusiasm cannot be denied.

The star of the show is Peyronel, who delivers a performance of such hilarious hyperbole that one can just imagine Mogg turning up at the next X-UFO show to hurl an unidentified flying object of his own from the back row.

Geoff Barton

Geoff Barton is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! and was an editor of Sounds music magazine. He specialised in covering rock music and helped popularise the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) after using the term for the first time (after editor Alan Lewis coined it) in the May 1979 issue of Sounds.