Search - UFO :: Strangers in the Night

I love live albums

Woodrow | Brooklyn, NY United States | 07/10/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"And this really is one of the best of all time. For many this is the only UFO album you'll ever need. This is part of the 2008 UFO re-issue campaign. If you have the old version of the CD you really don't need to get this. The sound is a little bit better than the last one but there aren't any extra tracks. The new booklet is pretty nice and includes good liner notes (including some from Steve Harris). All of the UFO 2008 re-issues sound great and come with good booklets. Pick them up before they delete them again.



Check out Mighty High...In Drug City."

Ultimate UFO

Bloodbath_and_Beyond | usa | 08/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After 5 stellar studio albums, in 1979 UFO (Phil Moog, Michael Schenker, Andy Parker, Pete Way, Paul Raymond) released the live record Strangers In The Night. It went on to become highly acclaimed and a favorite among many musicians. However still criminally underlooked. What makes this different from the studio albums? UFO seemingly, after hearing the bonus live cuts on their new 2008 remastered editions come off as a cool live band but their performances are raw and in a way lack spark. This album however, track for track, second for second captures a spirit of rock and roll rarely heard on a live release. Re-relesed in 1999 with two bonus cuts and an altered track listing that more accuratly fit UFO's set list of the time, the sound is superb as is the 2008 as well. Apparenly the inbetween song banter and chat from Phil Moog and Pete Way was not on the original record however I think it adds a better live feel. With that in mind there are also no drop out or fades which is the case with about 98% of every live album you'll likely to hear. The show is one long concert with the exception of the two bonus cuts Hot N Ready and Cherry which were recorded at two seperate venues and tacked on at the beginning. Normally this wouldnt be very acceptable but the record isnt disrupted at all by it and if historical significance prevails that UFO did open their 78/79 tour with these tracks then let it be so here. As for the songs...guitarist Michael Schenker has complained there could've been a better song list. And while it's very very hard to see anything wrong with this albums tracklisting which is just about the best of UFO you can get. True there were some lost nuggets on those early albums but the major highlights will always be picked when it comes to this sort of thing. As for the performances themselves, UFO are tight as ever, possibly the tighest live on record band I've ever, very crisp, clean but very heavy, translating that vicious guitar sound from studio to stage without problem. The tracklisting itself fits quite nicely together as after you hear this album it'll be impossible to think of Natural Thing without Out In The Street as a segueway. Or This Kids following the in your face strut of Mother Mary. All the selected tracks take on a life of their own as they never have before but one makes special note of this on the closing epic ballad from the Lights Out album - Love To Love. The song, while surely effective in studio truely shows what a masterpiece it is in a live setting. Doctor Doctor, while a force of a song on the debut, also takes a much larger shape here in this setting to become a fist pumping hard rock anthem for the ages. Rock Bottom, once more...stretched out to almost 10 minutes here becomes a true guitar show case for Schenker and demonstrates just how much style he really had with the Flying V. With the good times roll party boogie of Too Hot To Handle wraps things up along with the encore Shoot Shoot, it ends up being the perfect show. Schenker quit the group after the album was recorded thus preventing any overdubbing, which unlike almost any other live album, this is how it was and there are zero mistakes, adding to the authenticity of how great this player was. Though it was said that Mother Mary and This Kids were studio tracks with crowd sounds, its impossible to tell. In the end, it goes without saying this belongs right up there with Thin Lizzy's Live And Dangerous, Kiss Alive!, Seger's Live Bullet, Deep Purple's Made In Japan, Cheap Trick's At Budokan and Nugent's Double Live Gonzo as the crowning live albums of all time and UFO's star document of talent and musical chops. Essentially this a record no rock fan should be without."

A superior hard rock live album & a must for guitar fans...

M. Chambers | 09/05/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"UFO was always a bigger hit in Europe and the UK than in the States, where they've really not had much more than a cult following. Their studio albums leading up to Strangers were good, solid hard rock with above-average song writing and skilled instrumental abilities.



But wow! On stage, they made a quantum leap in terms of added edge and fire to their performance. And anyone who is a guitar player or a fan of melodic rock guitar must, and I mean MUST, hear this. Schenker is simply mind-boggling and these performances are worth hearing for his solos alone. Unlike later 80's shred-meisters who became obsessed with maximizing notes-per-minute quotient, Schenker, somewhat like Buck Dharma, always put an emphasis on carefully structuring his solos with great tone, feel, and melodic focus. In this live setting, this comes out with even greater fire and power.



Add to this the facts that the whole band plays great and the song selection cherry-picks the best of UFO's catalog to that point, and you have the recipe for one of the best hard rock live albums ever. If you're not familiar with UFO. but enjoy hard rock esp. hard rock from the 1970's, you'll drop this disc on and say "Who are these guys and why haven't I heard them 'til now?""