X-UFO Vol 1 : The Live Files CD

Right from the off, im going to say that X-ufo are not a covers band, the name comes from the fact that all the members have played in UFO at some point or another, with only Bass playing Rocky Newton never having played in UFO, he did however play UFO songs in Michael Schenkers group for over 10 years, so does that qualify him, I would like to think so.
X-UFO feature former members of UK Hard Rockers UFO – Danny Peyronal (Lead vocals / keyboards), Laurence Archer (Guitar and backing vocals), Clive Edwards (drums) and Rocky Newton (Bass and backing vocals) performing a set of UFO classics along with some UFO songs rarely heard live. X-UFO have even been joined onstage for some UK shows by Pete Way. These guys have played with some of the biggest names in rock history: Laurence with Phil Lynott in Grand Slamm as well as Stampede, Danny as the original keyboard player in UFO and The Heavy Metal Kids, Clive with Wild Horses, Pat Travers, and Rocky with MSG.
The bands debut live show was at the HardRockHell Road Trip in Ibiza last year, where I was fortunate to interview the band, as well as to go out drinking with them. These guys know how to party, they dropped me of at my hotel at 6.30 in the morning, they then carried on drinking in a great little rock bar called The Pinguin bar, where they stayed until it was time for breakfast, before hitting the sack, me, I just about made it up to my room, without breakfast.
You can read my interview with the band at the bottom of the page.
They then followed up the HardRockHell show with a string of shows and festival date’s across Europe and the UK.
This particular 13 track release is taken from the live concert’s that the band performed at during that festival season in Europe last summer.
In addition to the classic UFO songs, this CD also contains many songs that were either recorded and/or co-written by X-UFO members during their time in UFO. Credit must go to X-ufo in choosing tracks such as “Natural Thing,” “Highway Lady,” and “Can You Roll Her,” all of which are from the “No Heavy Petting” record, that Danny Peyronel helped write and played keyboards on, Plus there’s even room for MSG’s ‘Armed And Ready’.
However good this record is, and take it from me, it’s damm good, it is never going to top ‘strangers In The Night’, one of the all time classic live albums, but this release is not about competing with it, I feel this is making its mark as a viable alternative, a more modern version of that classic live record. Yes it is that good.
Danny does a great job leading the band from the front, the rhythm section of Rocky and Clive Edwards keep it all tightly together, which allows Laurence Archer, playing a flying V, to let rip with lick after lick of great UFO tracks.
The old UFO songs that never get played anymore are the stand out tracks for me, the band breathing new life into them, however they really crank it up a few notches’ when playing every rock fans favorites, ‘Rock Bottom’, Lights Out’ and ‘Doctor Doctor’.
These guys wrote the music and as they where keen to point out when I interviewed them, they played the music, and are now back because they still love the music.

An out of this world 9/10

Track Listing
1. Let It Roll
2. Natural Thing
3. Highway Lady
4. Back Door Man
5. Can You Roll Her
6. Love Deadly Love
7. Armed & Ready
8. She’s The One
9. Love To Love
10. Only You Can Rock Me
11. Rock Bottom
12. Lights Out
13. Doctor Doctor

Interview with X-UFO
xufo.co.uk/
pinguinbar-ibiza.com/
HardRockHell Road Trip

About David Farrell

General Manager and 'THE' competition guy at planetmosh.com. Manager of The Goddanm Electric www.thegde.co.uk, Tour manager for Serpentine, and ex-general Dogsbody at Hammerfest.co.uk. Media partner to numerous bands. Also takes photos, writes reviews and likes classic rock, with a touch of thrash to get the blood flowing.