With the recent reissue of two UFO albums remastered many of you asked for more ‘classic UFO’. Chrysalis Records released deluxe editions (featured at 0dayrox) of Phenomenon (1974) and Force It (1975) during the las three years, but still not for following albums.
So now we have here 1976’s ”No Heavy Petting” in its ‘Japan Forever Young Series‘ edition remastered and including 5 bonus tracks, previously unreleased studio outtakes.
”No Heavy Petting” is part of the UFO Michael Schenker years. The band also added a permanent keyboardist – Danny Peyronel – providing a more melodious background. Yes, this album clearly is a precursor to more glamorous things to come like ‘Lights Out’ or ‘Obsession’ a few years later. The album also sets cornerstones as to how Hard Rock and early Heavy Metal ought to sound.
You need to give Schenker a lot of credit here. The very precise riffs and solos on ”No Heavy Petting” are absolutely stellar, no doubt about it. Just listen to the one on ‘Can You Roll Her’. He even pulled songs not so strong like like ‘Reasons Love’ and ‘Highway Lady’ into the arena, simply because he adds these friggin’ solos that are just amazing.
And his influence shows in all of the tracks on ”No Heavy Petting”. This combined with the excellent, high soaring vocals of Phil Mogg gets you a combination that you just cannot ignore.
On this album there’s also the welcomed installment of keyboard player Danny Peyronel (formerly of the Heavy Metal Kids), whose talents made an immediate impact via the flourishes heard on album highlight ‘I’m a Loser,’the high-velocity, Deep Purple-inspired attack on ‘Can You Roll Her’, and the boogie-woogie-piano driven on the aforementioned ‘Highway Lady’, a song for which Peyronel received full songwriting credit.
On top, they wrote one of the most amazing hard rock ballads of their career called ‘Belladonna’. Holy – Metal – Cow! Yes, you guessed right, ‘Belladonna’ is probably one that is never gonna be topped. Subtle references between the beautiful woman excelling in intrigues of the murderous kind and the poisonous plant of the same Italian name. Soft melody, powerful lyrics, just great.
But, actually, powerful does not describe it. This one is hitting home, like too near to reality to be comfortable. The track was great back then, and still is the same today. A classic.
Beyond these, all that was left was a pair of relative filler tracks, the first being bassist Pete Way’s nearly comatose plod-fest, ‘On With the Action’ and the second a throwaway cover of Frankie Miller’s “A Fool in Love” that suggested everyone involved had an urgent appointment at the local pub.
But then you have the bonus tracks, all tracked at the same session and there’s a lot to enjoy.
With its now classic artwork, once again crafted by those masters of abstract album covers, Hipgnosis, ”No Heavy Petting” is just another terrific UFO album. This remaster is very good, balanced and warm.
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Forever Young Series
01 – Natural Thing
02 – I’m A Loser
03 – Can You Roll Her
04 – Belladonna
05 – Reasons Love
06 – Highway Lady
07 – On With The Action
08 – A Fool In Love
09 – Martian Landscape
BONUS TRACKS:
10 – All Or Nothing (Previously unreleased)
11 – French Kisses (Previously unreleased)
12 – Have You Seen Me Lately Joan (Prev. unreleased)
13 – Do It If You Can (Previously unreleased)
14 – All The Strings (Previously unreleased)
Phil Mogg – vocals
Michael Schenker – guitar
Danny Peyronel – keyboards, backing vocals
Andy Parker – drums
Pete Way – bass