UFO provide an object lesson in what a rock ‘n’ roll band should do when that flame of genuine greatness has dimmed: just keep calm and carry on playing.

The British hard rockers were as good as anyone on the circuit during the late 1970s, but when changes in personnel and public taste saw their stock drop, they refused to fall into a huge Morrissey-esque sulk and leave the public arena only to be humiliatingly forced back on stage by that mortgage arrears / paternity suit / flagging ego / whatever.

So what if recent albums have been workman-like rather than classics like Lights Out and Force It? So what if current guitarist Vinnie Moore is not Michael Schenker? The band still has that magnificent back catalogue to call on, which they do extensively tonight, and to the full-throated appreciation of the faithful. By my reckoning only four songs of a 100-minute set are written after 1979, but when that set includes ‘Rock Bottom’ and ‘Love To Love’, again, so what?

Musically tight and as engaging as ever, the quintet should have taken encouragement from the number of young fans piled up against the crush barriers, recent arrivals now that UFO’s brand of melodic hard rock has recaptured some of the street-cred lost over the last two decades.

A pleasure as always, but why was frontman Phil Mogg wearing a khaki kilt? And why did he insist on flashing our,now traumatised, photographer? Still as mad as cheese, bless ‘im.

Richard Hodkinson
Photo: londontourpix