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UFO – No Place To Run (deluxe edition)

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What does it sound like?:

Next in the line of UFO reissues is this 1980 album, which now comes as a two cd set, with the original album having been remastered for 2025 and with three bonus tracks added, being augmented by a largely unreleased show recorded at the Marquee in November of that year. The George Martin produced album marked the debut of ex Lone Star guitarist Paul Chapman, who had the unenviable task of stepping into the recently departed Michael Schenker’s shoes, not an easy role to fill although he acquits himself quite well. Stand out tracks are the title song, Young Blood, which was released as a single, Mystery Train and Lettin’ Go, but while this isn’t a bad album overall, it’s all a bit much of a muchness that hasn’t really aged that well and lacks the cutting edge of their classic 70’s releases. The live show is the better of the two discs by far, and perhaps tellingly it contains only three songs from the newly released album. Instead it concentrates on the old crowd pleasing favourites like Love to Love and Only You Can Rock Me, while the closing run of Too Hot To Handle, Lights Out, Rock Bottom and Doctor Doctor shows they could still turn it on in a live setting. All in all, this is well worth a listen but more for the live show than the studio album it accompanies

What does it all *mean*?

Losing Michael Schenker was a huge blow, one that they never really recovered from, leaving them unable to match the success of their big seventies albums such as Phenomenon and Force It, although they still remained a solid live draw.

Goes well with…

Lots of great memories of seeing them live back in the day, but they were one of those bands that, in the UK at least, never seemed quite able to take that next step from the city hall circuit to arenas

Release Date:

15 August

Might suit people who like…

Hard rock, UK style.

5

Comments

  1. As you say, Tonka Chapman had some big shoes to fill, but even then they were still a great live band. I just gave this a quick blast on Spotify, just for old time’s sake, and even now, 45 years on, not one of the songs off this album has managed in any way to lodge in my brain. Not so much an album as a collection of underwhelming B sides.

  2. @yorkio yep, unfortunately a dull, dull album. Like you, I don’t recall any of the songs. I have a feeling I struggled on with the next album (whose title I don’t recall which isn’t a good sign….The Wild, the willing..?) but by then the game was up.
    But…prior to they were a very good rock band. Lights Out still gets a periodic blast.

    Edit. I’m talking absolute rubbish. I bought 3 more albums after this, the death knell being Mechanix.

  3. Mechanix was where I got off the bus too. IIRC, The Wild, the Willing etc was a bit better than No Place to Run but even then it wasn’t a patch on the earlier stuff. I saw them on both those tours though and they were great both times.

  6. Have to agree about The Wild, the Willing .. one of my favourite albums. Saw them live a couple of times at the Hammy Odeon (4 quid!) in the 80s. Possibly past their Prime by then (the Mechanix and Making Contact tours), but as a young patched denim teenager it didn’t matter.

  8. Blimey, I really enjoyed that! Probably a good 40 (!) years since I’ve heard it but I pretty much remembered every song, which compared to some of the previous albums is something. Some Schenkeresque guitar solos.

    They definitely had something compared to the rest of the cock rock, NWOBHM fodder around at the time, stood slightly apart from that scene. Mogg was a good vocalist, almost soulful at times.

    That’s made be unexpectedly happy!

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