UFO have been operating with their strongest line-up in years since the release of their 2004 studio album, You Are Here. The three original band members, Phil Mogg (vocals), Pete Way (bass) and Paul Raymond (keyboards), were joined by Jason Bonham just over a year ago.
Bonham, son of the legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham, already earned gold as a songwriter and drummer with his own band in 1990. Having played with Paul Rodgers (ex-Free, Bad Company), Slash (Guns N’ Roses), Ritchie Sambora (Bon Jovi) and Jeff Beck, he was enlisted by the three Zeppelin survivors, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, for a tribute show to celebrate their record company’s anniversary. UFO are Bonham’s latest musical challenge and live up to his powerful drum style.
The current UFO line-up is rounded off by the exceptional guitarist, Vinnie Moore. The American is a guitar hero in the classic sense: his intricate style, a successful mix of rock, progressive elements, blues and fusion, delighted mass audiences on his 1987 solo debut Mind´s Eye. Moore, who was discovered by Mike Varney’s talent works, Shrapnel Records, sold over 100,000 copies of Mind´s Eye. Six more solo albums have followed, and his guest appearance on Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid in the early Nineties caused an international stir. Playing with UFO, he has come face to face with his own idols.
UFO’s success story began in 1969, when Phil Mogg and Pete Way formed the band in England. They borrowed their name from a legendary London music club, impressed audiences with their unmistakable style even in the early Seventies and proved with their albums UFO 1, Flying and UFO Live that they had their finger on the pulse of their rapidly growing fan community. Phenomenon (1974), Force It (1975) and No Heavy Pettin’ (1976), which arrived in succession, marked their international breakthrough. 1979 saw the arrival of their live recording, Strangers In The Night, referred to as one of the best live albums by experts, and one of the best-selling live cuts of all time. Following years with changing line-ups, the band returned to the top in autumn 1993 with their comeback recording, Walk On Water, and have been among the strongest live acts world-wide ever since, releasing two more awesome studio offerings in Covenant (2000) and Sharks (2002)
The current line-up consisting of Mogg, Way, Raymond, Bonham & Moore released their most recent cut, You Are Here, in 2004, voted among the ten best albums ever by British music magazine Classic Rock.
