Review by my good buddy daVe in England
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November 23,2006
So what do I tell you about the gig, other than what you already know - it was totally awesome!  As you can see from the pix, we were in front of the PA on the right of the hall as we looked at the stage, so we only got a good view of Vinnie, Pete and Phil.  It was LOUD and it was tight!  The support band wasn't bad either - young guys from Newcastle.  I'd thought they sounded like the Faces when Rod Stewart was with them.  I see MS was due to play at the same venue in Manchester (December, I think) - but as you might expect, it says 'canceled' on the gig listing.  Just what is the matter with him?



I don't remember right now what UFO started with - it was one of the classics though Mother Mary I believe.  They played pretty much all the old songs that you would expect - mainly off Strangers and Obsession.  They were on for almost two hours but the time went too fast.  It all sounds as fresh as it did years ago, and they obviously have a ton of fun playing together still.  What a way to make a living!  The venue is standing only and holds around 1500.  I would say it was pretty full.  The crowd was a good mix of ages and men/women and were really enthusiastic right from the start.  By the time they played Dr Dr the whole floor was bouncing and the crowd went crazy :-)  They didn't do 'Out in the Street' though.  I was just blown away with how awesome they were!




As you can imagine, Pete Way, ever the showman was acting crazy and jumping about.  Near the end of the set he even lay down on the stage to play for a few minutes.  He spent a lot of time at the front of the stage winding the crowd up.  I'd say we were about 10-15 feet from him.  Between songs there was quite a bit of good humor between Pete and Phil.  And yes, Phil still has the same great voice - no mistaking that, for sure.  Even the roadie was enjoying it.  You can see in some of the pix is is having a joke with the band while they are playing.  I really don't know how Pete manages to play they bass with it slung so low though.  Most of the time he had his trademark Thunderbird bass and only changed it once for something that looked like it might have been a Thunderbird custom, or something.  Paul Raymond has a Les Paul when he wasn't on keyboards, but we didn't see that much if him because the PA was in the way.
Vinnie - what a stud .... you would love to see him play, I know!  He isn't a person who jumps around or anything but he's a really flash player - definitely!  I don't know what that guitar is he uses but it sounds single-coiled most of the time.  He was using Engl amps www.engl-amps.com  I've seen a couple of bands using them and they sound pretty damn good.  I would say that Vinnie fits into the band like a glove and you could just tell that he was loving every moment of it.  He has all the MS licks and riffs nailed almost note for note, but then sometimes throws a million notes of his own in.  So I think he is great for the band and has made put his own stamp on the guitar parts already.  If I had to criticize him, all I would say is that sometimes he gets a little carried away with the neo-classical shredding thing (quite like Ywinge).  But that was mainly reserved for his big solo at the end of the night.  Most of the time he just throws in a few lines of it sometimes and it fits just great.  He is one hell of a player ... and talk about fast, when the mood takes him!!  But like I said - you can just tell he is really enjoying being in the band and playing that great music :)  From as much as someone in the crowd can tell, he seems like a nice guy too.



Thanks Dave for the pics and review!!!
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