UFO – Convenant + Sharks
UFO – Covenant + Sharks
Cherry Red Records
Release Date: 19/04/24
Running Time: 02:29:35
Review by Simon Black
7.5/10
I was too young to have caught UFO the first time round. This seminal 70’s British Hard Rock act were long gone by the time I first started getting drawn into this music as a teenager in the 1980’s, so the first time I really came across them was when they released their outstanding comeback album “Walk On Water” in 1995. Okay, so they sort of reformed a couple of years previously, but this album saw the classic lineup with Michael Schenker back. That record rather blew me away at the time, and I did go to see them at Rock City in Nottingham in 1998, but I do remember having to leave early with an upset photographer, since Phil Mogg was in a mood and decided that he was going to spend the trying to take her out with his microphone stand for reasons unknown.
This is probably why I never followed their output after this point, so I am hearing the contents of this box set for the first time. I wasn’t the only one to walk out – Schenker also threw in the towel part way through the tour for this album (ironically at the same venue where he did the same thing in 1978), so I was quite interested when this landed this month, as this was all new to me.
Apart from a bit of variety on the drum stool, it’s more or less the same line-up that delivered “Walk On Water”, after Schenker sheepishly came back for a second time, and it contains the two subsequent studio albums and a live performance from the comeback album tour. Part of the buzz about “Walk” was the return of the prodigal Mr Schenker, absent since 1978’s “Obsession” and he definitely delivered the goods in 1995, so my expectations were quite high for this box set.
Sadly, lightning did not strike so firmly and cleanly in the same place for “Covenant”. There are five years between the recordings, and it’s clearly the same band, but for me the songs don’t quite punch hard enough in the studio. I find myself enjoying the overall arrangements and performances, but my problem is that it lacks the frisson and energy of their original reformation. For me the problem here lies in the producer’s chair, as the recording itself really feels too flat compared to the rich fat and well-rounded delivery of their original return, despite the competent song-writing (mostly from Messrs Mogg and Schenker). Schenker’s playing also feels a little less-focussed here, which is a shame as this could have been a strong follow-up, had a bit more welly gone into it.
The same line up and producer return two years later for “Sharks”, and this time seem to have got their shit much more together. The song-writing is way more focussed, with tighter arrangements and a much punchier delivery from all concerned. The album has a slightly darker feel to it, perhaps reflecting the change in sensibilities and style as the genre returns to popularity as the hangover from the 1990’s finally wears off and fans started to discover these legacy acts and understand what the fuss was all about. It’s a much better release, and a return to form again.
The final disk, actually recorded before the two studio ones, was recorded during the “Walk On Water” tour and was originally a bonus disk on some versions of “Covenant”. This is a palpable hit. It’s not the greatest recording quality, but it does capture the energy and focus that came with the reformation of this classic “Strangers In The Night” line-up. It’s also not a particularly long disk, so many of the more obvious hits you might expect aren’t there, but then this was an extra originally and there’s precious little available for this period. It scores for me.
The box set is a bit odd overall though, as for completeness’ sake it would have worked better if “Walk On Water” had been included to capture everything from Schenker’s relatively short return (he dropped out after “Sharks”), but that was originally released on a different label and clearly was not available for rights reasons. Ironically, the band actually recovered commercially to a much higher degree with what followed after Schenker departed for the third and final time, as Vinnie Moore and Jason Bonham beefed things up somewhat, but that’s no doubt a box set for another day…
TRACKLISTING:
Disk 1 – “Covenant”
01. Love Is Forever
02. Unravelled
03. Miss The Lights
04. Midnight Train
05. Fool’s Gold
06. In The Middle Of Madness
07. The Smell Of Money
08. Rise Again
09. Serenade
10. Cowboy Joe
11. The World And His Dog
Disk 2 – “Sharks”
01. Outlaw Man
02. Quicksilver Rider
03. Serenity
04. Deadman Walking
05. Shadow Dancer
06. Someone’s Gonna Have To Pay
07. Sea Of Faith
08. Fighting Man
09. Perfect View
10. Crossing Over
11. Hawaii
Disk 3 – “Live At Blind Melons”
01. Mother Mary
02. This Kids
03. Let It Roll
04. Out In The Street
05. Venus
06. Pushed To The Limit
07. Love To Love
08. Only You Can Rock Me
09. Too Hot To Handle
10. Rock Bottom
LINE-UP:
Phil Mogg – Vocals
Michael Schenker – Guitar
Pete Way – Bass
Aynsley Dunbar – Drums
Paul Raymond – Keyboards / Guitar (Disk 3 Only)
Simon Wright – Drums (Disk 3 Only)
LINKS:
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