With the news that UFO are to release a remastered edition of their No Place To Run album on 15 August 2025 via Chrysalis Records, Phil Mogg is once again in the MetalTalk offices. The Deluxe Edition includes Live At The Marquee, London, 16 November 1980, which is a new mix by revered engineer Brian Kehew from the original multi-track tapes.
It was last October, when the reissue of UFO’s seventh album, Obsession, was released that I last caught up with Phil Mogg. Today I find him on his usual good form, although he tells me he has only just recovered from norovirus, which he described as a three to four week recovery.
“It was unbelievable. Wash your hands, kids,” he laughs. Apart from that, Phil Mogg is doing well, and we catch up on some routine stuff before moving on to the main reason for our call.
No Place To Run was the first album to feature Cardiff’s very own Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman. Mention Chapman, and Phil is reminded that the guitarist was a Cardiff lad, just like yours truly. Always a good crowd in Cardiff for UFO, I remind Phil. “Oh, yeah, I enjoyed playing there,” he says. “Those kids were great.”
Tonka had already spent time with UFO in the mid-70s when the band experimented with a twin guitar approach and then again when Michael Schenker left UFO during a US tour.
“We had two guitarists at one point, with Michael,” Phil Mogg says, “and it really kind of worked in places. But then they clashed in others. As a guitar duo, it didn’t really work, so we continued with Michael.”
Phil reminds me that, of course, the band soon had another Paul, in the shape of Paul Raymond, on board. “He could play keyboards and rhythm guitar”, says Phil, “and that worked well.
UFO – The Return of Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman
When Schenker left after Obsession, Tonka returned. The obvious choice in many ways, I suggest to Phil. “Absolutely,” he says. “And he was reliable. Well, to a certain point.”
Chapman would remain with UFO until the band split in 1985. “You could tell he was right,” Phil Mogg says. “He would tell you if he wasn’t feeling it, but he was easy to work with.”
“Paul Chapman’s guitar sound here is really superb,” Brian Kehew says in the Deluxe Edition liner notes. “A thick and singing B.C.Rich-into-Marshall tone… No Place To Run is certainly a special time for the band, the peak of their public acceptance.
“With the music world shifting into new wave and synth-pop around them, they stayed true to their roots and delivered yet another classic album.”
The George Martin Mistake
No Place to Run was recorded in Monserrat with George Martin producing. Phil is still incredulous about some of that, even today. “I’ve called that a mistake,” he says. “You shouldn’t really be recording on a desert island for a starter, and they certainly shouldn’t be allowed to take their families with them.” He laughs.
“George was a lovely bloke and everything else, but who in their right mind would think that this would be a good idea? I mean, he did some great pieces of orchestration, some of which ended up on The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent. But it was Geoff Emerick who did the bulk of the work, the engineering.
“Fortunately, we uploaded the stuff that was done apart from vocals here, mainly in London. It was beautiful, great for a holiday but not conducive for recording.”
With Schenker no longer there, the bulk of the writing on No Place To Run was done by Phil and Pete Way. “Pete was easy to write with,” Phil says. “He could give me some really good stuff, and it’s just three chords, two chords, and very much in the vein of The Kinks or The Who or something.
“It didn’t get too clever. Only You Can Rock Me was one of those, and Cherry, it only had two chords. Working with Pete was good.”
One of the tracks that the band decided to include on the album was Mystery Train, a cover of the Junior Parker song from 1953. “We were doing that live, I think, before the album,” Phil says. “I guess it developed a kind of identity, one you sort of hang on to, and you’ll play it, and you go out.
“So we rocked it up a bit and put it on the album. I think the album had veered off in some different directions because the writing partnerships there were changing”.
I tell Phil that one of the first songs by UFO that I heard was Mystery Train, which was on Axe Attack Vol 2, released by K-Tel in 1981. “Wow, okay, that actually is very good. There’s a video of it live from that German TV show with Mystery Train, and I was a bit fearful to watch it. But it was really good with Tonka on it too.”
UFO Live At The Marquee
The new remaster of No Place To Run is accompanied by a full live show from The Marquee, which sounds brilliant. But why were UFO playing The Marquee when they were also headlining five nights at Hammersmith Odeon?
“Do you know, that’s baffled me totally,” Phil says. “So I have it written down in front of me to ask the question. I don’t remember what went on at all. But as you say, I think we wanted to do a local show, a little pick-up.
“We had great affection for The Marquee, and playing Hammersmith,” says Phil, “It was great. I was living down the road, so I could walk to the gig. Brilliant! This is the best job in the world, I thought.”
Surprisingly, Phil does not have a favourite song on No Place To Run. “I’ve always had an overall view,” he says. “If it’s all sounding okay, then I’ll go highlight, yeah. I generally like listening to the lot, but that’s a bit self-indulgent. If it’s not okay, I can’t bear to listen to it.”
No Place To Run has a slightly different vibe to the album cover, especially after Obsession. Phil says the band were photographed by Hipgnosis, as before, at Kings Cross Taxi Rank.
“We’d just got back from Monserrat, and it was freezing,” Phil smiles. “[Andy] Parker was standing behind the petrol tank with that big woolly coat on, but he had a bottle down behind the tank. He was moaning about the cold and everything, and you see Pete’s foot come out. He’s actually tapping me again about Andy moaning. It was Poe, not Storm, who took it. But it was good.”
We wrap up our brief chat with some news about Moggs Motel. Phil tells me that the band were a little slow getting festivals this year, partly as Tony Newton was playing with KK’s Priest. “We’re working on some new stuff,” he says.
Phil reveals that he has been told that Stonedead is the festival for Moggs Motel. I explain that MetalTalk cover it every year and that he would go down a storm there.
“I get to buy a new outfit,” Phil laughs. “Think about it. I get to go shopping.”
We can only hope that a certain Neil Stone is reading this and makes contact with Phil Mogg. Seeing Moggs Motel strut their stuff at Stonedead would be a dream come true.
But for now, we can satisfy ourselves with the remaster of No Place To Run and that excellent live set from the Marquee.
UFO No Place To Run (2025 Remaster – Deluxe Edition) is released on double CD and 3LP on 15 August 2025 on Chrysalis Records. Order link: UFO.lnk.to/NPT.
Both versions feature new liner notes by Michael Hann with interviews with Phil Mogg and drummer Andy Parker.
Young Blood – 2025 Remaster – is released today as a single. For more details visit UFO.lnk.to/YBL.
UFO – No Place To Run – 2025 Remaster
LP1 / CD1
Alpha Centuri
Lettin’ Go
Mystery Train
This Fire Burns Tonight
Gone In The Night
YoungBlood
No Place To Run
Take It Or Leave It
Money, Money
Anyday
LP2 & LP3 / CD2
Live at The Marquee, London, 16th November 1980 – Newly Mixed / Previously Unreleased
Introduction
Chains Chains
Lettin’ Go
Long Gone
Cherry
Only You Can Rock Me
No Place To Run
Love To Love
Hot And Ready
Mystery Train
Too Hot To Handle
Lights Out
Rock Bottom
Doctor Doctor
