It has not been that long since I was on the phone with Phil Mogg chatting about the UFO Lights Out remaster. Tonight, I catch him finishing a bowl of soup as he answers the phone. Talk about feeling guilty. I’m interrupting a rock legend’s tea! “I’m good,” he tells me before admitting, “Actually, for some reason, I’m starving. We just started to tuck into yesterday’s soup. Sorry about that. I’ll clear my mouth immediately. How are you? I’m very good. It’s good to speak to you again.”
My last chat with Phil Mogg was an enjoyable meander through the memory banks with a little teaser about the forthcoming Moggs Motel album. Today, though, we are here to discuss Obsession, the seventh album by UFO released in 1978 and the last to feature the classic line-up of Mogg, Schenker, Parker, Way and Raymond.
First things first. Has Phil got a copy of the beautiful three-vinyl edition?
Turns out he has been decorating. “This room’s a wreck,” he laughs. “Here we go. Yes. I have. Heavyweight vinyl. Very good”. It is a fine package indeed.
But before we head back to 1978, we touch on the feedback to Moggs Motel, which came out in early September. I tell Phil it has gone down very well in my household. “Thank you”, he says. “Yeah, I think we got away with that one.
“It was good fun when it came out looking at how long it would stay where it was in the charts. It was on the alternative charts, which was quite pleasing, too. In Germany, anyway. It was quite exciting watching to see how long it would stay around.”
Phil tells me that his wife reads the comments online. “I don’t read the comments because some of them can really, you know… I’d rather not read them. But the majority were good. So yeah, very pleasing.”
It is at this moment that Phil Mogg reveals that there just might be a couple of gigs to play some of Moggs Motel live. Maybe something to keep quiet until confirmed, but he says they are looking at the possibility of a festival next year. “We are looking to do a couple,” he says, “and trying to find a venue in London that is not huge.”
We talk through a few venues, but this is something that will no doubt slowly evolve. Will it be the band as on the record? It appears so. Phil tells me that Tony [Newton, Bass] has finished his tour with KK’s Priest. “Oh, he’s back. He’s on a de-Metaling course,” Phil laughs! “He’s having it extracted out of his body.” Live shows would be great, I say. “I play with those guys anyway. It took long enough to get to know them.” Fingers crossed.
We move on to Obsession and pick up where we left it earlier in the year after Lights Out. UFO retained Ron Nevison as producer. “He had given up his liberty,” Phil chuckles. “No, we got him back for the second course indeed.”
Obsession is another album with an intriguing album cover. When I was a teen and exploring the UFO back catalogue, it was an album cover that really caught the eye. “That was Hypgnosis at their finest,” Phil says. “I believe they were doing a business programme for a ball bearing company. I guess it might have been Storm [Thorgerson] who said, well, why don’t we put ball bearings in their eyes? And they shot it in that university. I think it was the veterinary Hospital.
“We got the balls except Michael. I always remember him saying, ‘why have I got no balls.’ Yeah, it was one of their cookier ideas and it was very striking. It’s certainly one of the album covers that everyone would remember quite easily.”
What did Phil think of it when he first saw it? “I thought it was extremely different. Most stuff they came up with would have a bit of a swerve on it, particularly around that period.”
UFO were certainly at the top of their game at this period of their career, with several staples on Obsession that would never leave the setlist. Whilst Only You Can Rock Me is the seminal track with that riff, there are others like Pack It Up (And Go), which maybe the hardcore fans actually value or like more than some of the ones that were played.
When we talked about Lights Out, we touched on some songs that were underrated, like Just Another Suicide. Phil explains that there was a much rawer feel on Obsession. “It’s not so fancy,” he says. “It’s a lot rawer. Hot ‘n’ Ready was too. One More For The Rodeo, we used to do that live. But sometimes you play some of those tracks live, and they don’t actually go down so well, depending on the audience.
“The general idea was to go down as well as possible,” he laughs. “So, we probably tried different numbers out during the set to see how they would fit in. But as I said, I think it’s just a lot rawer.”
If you know the album, then you will know that it also contains Cherry, written by Phil Mogg and Pete Way, and as I say to Phil, that’s not a balls-out rocker by any stretch. But it is a real fan favourite. “We had had Cherry for ages. It has been a main staple of the set. It was just on that Apple series with Colin Farrell, so hello. Someone else likes Cherry.” I didn’t know this, but I later found out it was in Sugar, the TV Series.
What About the Schenker penned Aubory Hill? A one-minute interlude placed between Pack It Up (And Go) and Ain’t No Baby. Wasn’t that a bit left field, even for UFO? “No”, Phil says. “I put my hand up here. I think it was on a tape of his, and it sounded weird. One of loads bits and pieces of material.
“And I think that was on it while I was sifting through, and it sounded very pleasant. We thought it might fit as a little segue between Pack It Up (And Go) and Ain’t No Baby. We took it exactly as he had it. I’m not sure whether he re-recorded it or not, but we took it off that anyway. It’s got Michael on the recorder. You should see him go on that recorder. No touching him. Give him a recorder, and he’s off. Oh my God.”
Whatever you think of Schenker, his guitar playing on Obsession is brilliant. Phil tells me more about the way they recorded it. “I think we did this album recording kind of half sessions where Pete and I would go in after we did the backing tracks. I think that me and Pete went in to do stuff, Pete to clean up bass tracks, and me to do the vocals. And then Michael would go in the morning. We had a pretty good setup.”
It took UFO a couple of weeks to record Obsession, and Phil recalls that they did most of it in the abandoned post office with the mobile. What about the story of the Mexican guy delivering furniture? “Oh, that was Nevison’s other studio idea,” Phil says. “That’s a whole different saga. I’m saving that for the next chapter of the book.
“No, this was the abandoned post office in Beverly Hills. The space was great. Talking was great. The mobile was great. Everything was great. It was a nice little setup.”
It was the Obsession tour, as well as parts of the Lights Out tour, that led to the recordings that became Strangers In The Night. The live set recorded in Cleveland is virtually the same as Strangers, with only On With The Action not on the seminal double live album.
Strangely, Obsession did not sell as well as Lights Out. Not that Phil and the band were aware of it at the time. “I don’t think I noticed,” Phil says. “Oh, I didn’t. I’m not sure. We did that, and then we were back out on the road again. I think, within the band, it all went a bit weird. I think that’s when Michael disappeared. So, I wouldn’t have been taking much notice if there had been a load of turmoil going on.”
It was a time when the band were on the album, tour, album, tour cycle, like so many bands at that time. “Yeah, poor things,” Phil laughs. “See no common sense. But, so much sense. They’ve got no bleeding common sense. That was a killer album tour. Because it’s like a great night out. But you’re doing it every night, which will weigh you down a bit. But you’re very spunky, and you’re very full of bravado. So, it never really affected us.”
Contrary to what I had read, Phil tells me that the band were quite well prepared when they entered the studio. “I know there were a couple of albums when we were not,” he says. “But we were prepared for this one. Most of Obsession was pretty much ready. Born To Lose, I remember doing that almost straight off.”
Phil tells me that he also had most of the lyrics written as well. “I was quite jolly,” he says, “which means I must have had quite a few done. Otherwise, I’m miserable. No, I think we were okay on this.”
Having put the record straight, I check in on Phil’s health, which we covered at the last interview. Apart from the odd twinge, Phil assures me he is doing well. We talk about some of his contemporaries.
I mention that I had recently seen Arthur Brown, prompting Phil to burst into ‘I am the God of Hellfire’. “He used to be a favourite of mine,” Phil says. “Does he still do the dance on the one leg? It’s a sort of Punky one-legged hop. He wiggles the left leg in front of the right while he’s doing the thing, and then he swaps legs.”
I reassured Phil that Arthur is indeed still doing the dance and that he still does most of his show except for the flaming helmet during Fire due to health and safety regulations. “Did I tell you that I wore a hat like that when I first went to work in Kingston,” Phil says. “The factory had all these floors with women sewing on long, long machines. And I always remember getting the cardboard out, tying it around my head, then lighting it and running on their floor, doing Fire. You heard the cackling, and them saying, look, fucking Mogg’s gone mad.”
We touch on the passing of Paul Di’Anno, which had been announced a couple of days before the interview. I’m sure Maiden supported UFO in the ’70s. Phil tells me he saw the news. “I’ve got a poster of an old ad where we do Reading and they’re [Iron Maiden] on the bill”.
Sadly, Phil has no memory of Paul. “No, my memory is shot,” he sighs. “It’s a sketchbook. I kind of got bits and pieces. I remember Maiden mainly because of Steve [Harris].”
We finish up wishing each other well and with a promise from Phil Mogg about those shows. “I tell you what, as soon as the Motel opens up, I’ll give you a free room.”
I will hold him to that. The thought of possibly seeing Phil Mogg singing on stage once more is something to hope for in 2025.
UFO Obsession (2024 Remaster – Deluxe Edition) is released on double CD and 3LP on 22 November 2024 on Chrysalis Records. Order link: https://UFO.lnk.to/OBSPR
The classic 1978 UFO album Obsession has been newly remastered from the original production tape transfers at AIR Mastering and will be reissued on stunning 3LP tri-fold sleeve 180gm vinyl and 2CD Digipak formats. Also included is a 2024 mix of the UFO Live At The Agora Ballroom, Cleveland show recorded on 16 October 1978.
