A transitional album in the discography of British rockers UFO will be revisited in a deluxe edition this summer.
The band's eighth album No Place to Run, originally released in 1980, will be reissued as a 2CD or 3LP set on August 15. It pairs a new remaster of the original album created at London's AIR Studios alongside selections from a concurrent live set at the Marquee Club in London. Some of the live material was reissued as bonus tracks on various sets between 2009 and 2013, but has been newly remixed for the set by engineer Brian Kehew. The package will include new liner notes by Michael Hann that feature new interviews and commentary with original band members Phil Mogg and Andy Parker.
For more than a decade, UFO had offered audiences a new type of rock on the U.K. airwaves, anticipating the so-called "New Wave of British heavy metal" that would hit its stride later in the '70s and '80s. By the end of the '70s, though, the group - singer Mogg, bassist Pete Way, keyboardist Paul Raymond and drummer Parker - found themselves without longtime guitarist Michael Schenker, the former Scorpions member who'd go on to start his own eponymous group. His replacement was someone the group had already worked with: Paul Chapman, formerly of Skid Row, had toured with the group in the mid-'70s as a second guitarist before leaving to form the group Lone Star.
Beyond Chapman, UFO had some other considerable help in assembling No Place to Run. The album was recorded at AIR Studios in Montserrat - fast becoming a prime destination for British bands - and overseen by the studio's founder and principal engineer: producer George Martin and Geoff Emerick. The distinction of working with two of the chief behind-the-scenes of The Beatles was hard to overlook, and after strong sales for the band's previous works Lights Out (1977) and Obsession (1978), No Place - bolstered by the local Top 40 hit "Young Blood" - became their highest-charting album to date at home, peaking at No. 11. Raymond would serve as the group's guitarist until a brief farewell period beginning in 1983; UFO continued to record and tour from the mid-'80s on with a rotating line-up, finally calling it a day in 2022 after Mogg suffered a heart attack and the band cancelled a farewell tour. (Raymond, Chapman and Way all passed away between 2019 and 2020.)
Both formats will be available August 15 and can be pre-ordered below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)
No Place to Run (Deluxe Edition) (Chrysalis CRV 1770, 2025)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD/LP 1: Original album (2025 remaster) (released as Chrysalis CDL 1239 (U.K.), 1980)
- Alpha Centuri
- Lettin' Go
- Mystery Train
- This Fire Burns Tonight
- Gone in the Night
- Young Blood
- No Place to Run
- Take It or Leave It
- Money, Money
- Anyday
CD 2/LP 2-3: Live At The Marquee, London, England - 11/16/1980 (2025 Mix)
- Introduction
- Chains Chains
- Lettin' Go
- Long Gone
- Cherry
- Only You Can Rock Me
- No Place to Run
- Love to Love
- Hot and Ready
- Mystery Train
- Too Hot to Handle
- Lights Out
- Rock Bottom
- Doctor Doctor
Alternate mixes of Tracks 3, 7 and 10 released on expanded reissue - Chrysalis CHRX 1239 (U.K.), 2009. Alternate mixes of Tracks 2-11 possibly released on Hot 'N' Live: The Chrysalis Live Anthology 1974-1983 - Chrysalis CDCHR 20134 (U.K.), 2013
RIP Paul Chapman...who, by the way, was never in Status Quo.