UFO - European Tour 2007

Stormin Flag

1st September 2007 - England - Durham - Stormin' The Castle Festival

Stormin' The Castle 2007

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Stormin poster

Sticky Fingers

Marky is the lead singer in a band called "STICKY FINGERS", who played at Stormin' on the Friday night.

Here are some amazing shots of UFO, taken by Marky - Fantastic photography - Thanks

Vinnie MOORE

Vinnie Moore

Phuil Mogg

Phil Mogg

Pete Way

Vinnie Moore

Phil Mogg

Vinnie Moore

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NEW PHOTOS

Vinnie Moore

UFO

Vinnie Moore

Marky has some more amazing photos at usefilm.com

Many thanks to Ainsley Wills for the following photos:

Vinnie Moore

Vinnie Moore | Phil Mogg | Pete Way

This band are one of ‘THE’ most influential British heavy rock bands from the 70’s, and their double-live album ‘Strangers in the Night’ was the landmark recording that solidified their reputation as major international act. But that was 29 years ago, and since then the band have had a chequered career that has seen them often reduced to just original members Way & Mogg keeping the group’s name alive. But back in the 90’s they reformed with the classic line-up, although since then the erratic performances of their lead guitarist Michael Schenker has seen them part company with him permanently. I was absolutely blown away when I first got hear that the Stormin’ organisers had secured the services of UFO to headline the main stage for the Saturday night. This was a genuinely amazing scoop to get such a major act to play at the rally, and of course expectations for the impending show were very high...

Phil Mogg

...The opening song of ‘Mother Mary’ was tremendous, and straight away the band were launching off with a master-piece track from their brilliant ‘Strangers in the Night’ album. For me personally I would have been delighted to see them perform this album from beginning to end in its entirety, as most of their greatest moments are all on this particular recording, but I was pleased that a large bulk of this evening’s show did in fact come from that classic 70’s era...

UFO

Pete Way | Paul Raymond

...This present set of musicians contained 4 x 5ths of the classic ‘S.I.T.N.’ line-up, with drummer Andy Parker and rhythm guitarist / keyboardist Paul Raymond now returning to the fold. No matter what else was happening on stage these 2 guys were professional as hell and kept the entire thing brimming along in excellent fashion. None of these guys are youngsters anymore, and even though we all may have memories of those photos of the band when they were in their mid-20’s, the reality is that most of this lot are all now in their late 50’s. And even though they are hardly young Adonis looking rock icons anymore, they are still damn fine musicians and I was in awe watching both Parker & Raymond in action. Andy Parker is a terrific drummer and he powered his way through the set giving the music all the backbone & dynamics that it needed. Paul Raymond was a dream to watch as he moved from keyboards to guitar so slickly, and I never until then realised just how essential his contribution was to the band’s full sound. His plays a left handed guitar yet it was strung completely in reverse as obviously this is how he learned to play originally on a right-handed instrument. So it was quite fascinating to watch him play chords and & licks in a totally unorthodox manner, and also to seem him at work on the keyboards as well. It was great to see these 2 back in the line-up, and I hope that they continue to stay on now as it really does make the band feel like a proper representation of UFO...

vinnie moore

Vinnie Moore playing a Dean ML guitar

But for me the real hero of the night was lead guitarist Vinnie Moore. The former UFO mad axeman Michael Schenker was respected as being one of the finest players of his era (I say ‘was’ as these days he’s pretty much a mess, and I can personally testify to that after seeing his deplorable performance just weeks earlier). So for anybody to fill his shoes in UFO then it’s going to be a remarkably tough job, yet Vinnie Moore takes on that role so well by playing certain guitar solos note-for-note perfect, and on others adding his own distinctive flair to make them entirely his own. He is a top-class musician of impeccable standards, and it was his presence on this stage that truly kept it from dipping in to becoming just a so-so gig. His guitar sound was surprisingly quite clean when he was playing his solo sections, and the real sound & sustain he was getting was basically coming from his fingers (awesome to see & hear). His playing was amazing all night long, but for me when he played the solo to ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ note perfect with so much passion too, then I got a case of the goosebumps and could sense that tingling feeling going down my spine. He also made ‘Rockbottom’ all his very own by totally improvising the lengthy mid-section guitar solo, and instead of following in the trademark footsteps left by Schenker he instead put in all his own touches to now make it ‘HIS’ solo spot. Vinnie Moore brought a marvellous professional sheen to the gig...

Vinnie Moore

The sound mix was massive, and the German engineering crew that the band brought with them were professional as hell. The group even brought their own lighting engineer with them as well, so basically as far as the sound & lights were concerned then it was pretty much a typical UFO representation of their normal touring shows. The song choices showed a good cross-section with some more recent material being included too, and even though I didn’t personally recognise these tunes they still were well-written numbers and fitted in excellently with the rest of the set. But of course it was the ‘Strangers’ stuff that I (and I think most people gathered here) wanted to hear the most, and we weren’t disappointed with such corkers as ‘Let It Roll’, ‘I’m a Loser’ and ‘Too Hot to Handle’. The classics were left for the back end of the show with ‘Lights Out’ and the afore-mentioned ‘Rockbottom’, and they couldn’t possibly fail with the encores of ‘Doctor Doctor’ and ‘Shoot Shoot’ ringing out to this large crowd now singing & jumping along to the music. It was a good collection of songs lasting close to around 90 minutes in total, but the band had their eyes set firmly on the clock so that they could make their flight connections in time. So they went on stage sharper than the last act of the night normally would, and I even saw the crew scribble 3 tracks off the set list too (including ‘This Kid’, which I was gutted at them not playing). But it was still a damn good show.

UFO