UFO
No Place to Run

Release Date: 1980 | Tracklist

While not quite ever breaking into the mainstream conciousness melodic hard rockers UFO had built up quite a following throughout the 70's and their superb double live set 'Strangers in the Night' had proved to be the band's best selling release. However, after the departure of talismanic guitarist Michael Schenker things looked rather bleak for the London based band. Schenker had represented far more than a resident guitar hero to UFO as he had also formed a writing partnership with vocalist Phil Mogg which had produced arguably most of the band's best work. To say his boots were hard to fill would be an understatement. UFO turned to Paul 'Tonka' Chapman for a replacement. Chapman was a gifted guitarist who had performed with the band before and fit in with the rest of the lads so he did seem a logical choice. However, 'No Place To Run' aptly demonstrates that Chapman would need more time to settle in.

This is a real step down in quality from the classic albums UFO released towards the end of the Schenker era in the form of 'Lights Out' and 'Obsession'. Chapman seems to have got stuck into his songwriting duties straight away and is credited to some degree on six of the compositions. The instrumental 'Alpha Centauri' is credited solely to Chapman and almost leaps out at you with the statement 'I am not Michael Schenker I do things differently' with its synth dominated overtones. There isn't anything particularly bad about the music on here. There are some entertaining straightforward hard rock numbers, an enjoyable blues cover in the form of 'Mystery Train' on which Chapman demonstrates his undeniable talent and glimpses of the old brilliance in constructing melodic mid-tempo hard rock in the guise of the title track. However, there is none of the real magic that infused the best UFO had to offer in their 70's heyday. Quite a lot of the material is quite forgettable and the band seemed to have gone backwards in terms of creativity compared to the previous studio offering 'Obsession'. UFO thankfully upped their game considerably on the subsequent 'The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent' but at the time of release this album marked a sharp decline in quality and strongly hinted that the glory days were indeed over.

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