Ufo - No Heavy Petting (Classic Hardrock UK 1976)

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Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

No Heavy Petting is the fifth studio album by the British rock band UFO, released in 1976. It is the first UFO album to feature a full-time keyboard player as a member of the band, making this their first record as a five-piece band. While keyboardist Danny Peyronel only stayed in the band for this one album, he did co-write several tracks on the record.

In the beginning UFO cranked up some excellent space rock for a few years but as soon as the band recruited Michael Schenker on guitar, their direction shifted towards a more hard rock based sound that proved to be hugely influential for later groups. With 1976's "No Heavy Petting", the band continued to show artistic growth although not as much as with the previous collection "Force It" (1975). Still this album tends to be the most overlooked one form the Schenker period containing many examples of UFO's great songwriting. In addition to Michael Schenker on guitar, the line-up features Phil Mogg on vocals, Pete Way on bass, Andy Parker on drums and a new addition to the band since the "Force It" tour: Danny Peyronel on keyboards/backing vocals who was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina! I've always thought that is really cool since... that's where I'm from too! It's great to be able to listen to UFO with a member from my own city and country of birth!

The intense hard rock opener "Natural Thing" starts the album with the rhythm section of Way/Parker playing tightly. The verse, the pre-chorus and chorus are all killer and a seemingly The Who-inspired passage provides an effective link to the second verse. This tune has always been a crowd pleaser and while this studio take delivers the goods, an even better version of it appears on the immortal live LP "Strangers In The Night" as a medley with the awesome ballad "Out In The Street". After it's over, we go into "I'm A Loser", in my opinion the album's best written and most complex song. An acoustic guitar introduces it with an harmonized melody on top. Mogg is in excellent form throughout and Schenker plays one of his best ever solos! It's very melodic yet highly technical for its time. Before its conclusion Peyronel plays a fast three chord pattern eventually concluding with the F, G, and A chord progression that sends it into the stratosphere! It's an epic finale!
Drummer Parker lent a hand in the songwriting process for "Can You Roll Her" (Mogg/Schenker/Parker) providing a killer dual bass drum beat! This is the shortest song on the album (2:50) and the lyrics talk about a motorcyclist doing well over the speed limit with Schenker delivering an appropriately fast, aggressive solo towards the end. Definitely a highlight!

Now it's time for a ballad: the Schenker/Mogg written "Belladonna". The emphasis is put on guitar arpeggios with Peyronel doubling them on harpsichord. The result is a solid, atmospheric, haunting composition with a brilliant lead melody form Schenker in the middle plus an emotional vocal performance from Mogg. I have always felt a little disappointed with the song's arrangement though since it is totally devoid of Parker's drumming! Perhaps it would have been cool to incorporate a "Stairway To Heaven" type of dynamics, that is to have the drums come forward in the middle or just like the band did on the following album with the ballad "Try Me" with Parker coming forward in time for the final solo! On my first listen, I was expecting something like that to happen but it never came...still it's an excellent tune! I liked how that E major chord is added during the solo.

The riff-driven "Reasons Love" comes next with some heavy drumming from Parker (perhaps to make up for his absence on the previous track). The main riff is augmented by a funky chord on the verses. But wait...in the middle Schenker delivers a blistering lead that makes use of the mixolydian scale! This is it folks: air guitar heaven! Now pay attention to track number six "Highway Lady": a fast-paced hard rocking tune written by Peyronel on his own and it is a tribute to the ladies of the road. The guitar and piano blend well throughout while Schenker managed to come up with another highly melodic solo again!

In "On With The Action" the band slows down the tempo considerably. Lyrically, it's a tale about the night-life of the city. Schenker is playing at his melodic best here but this time the scale is based around a combination of bluesy/minor! An amazing performance from him! I'm gonna go ahead and tell you that this song actually sounds much better live! The "Doctor Doctor" (live version) '79 single, taken from "Strangers In The Night" actually had a b-side...an excellent live take of "On With The Action" recorded during the Obsession tour in 1978. The problem? That version is still hard to find! It was disappoinitng to find out that the 2008 "Strangers" remaster version left that b-side off.

Their cover of Frankie Miller's "A Fool In Love" follows. Here the band brings forward a bluesy hard rock style with a pop twist that is similar to the group Free. The solo is short & sweet and right before it there's a cool bridge. Very enjoyable! The last piece "Martian Landscape" is another composition that Peyronel provided and it's an amazing reflective ballad. His tremolo-phased keyboard dominates but Schenker added a cool harmonized motif that repeats until the fade out. Peyronel explained in an interview that the song was not written about Mars, it is actually about Argentina! That's really cool...UFO has a song about my country! That was the end on the original album but today is our lucky day... [By Chappa "Larcha"]

* Phil Mogg - vocals 
* Michael Schenker - guitar 
* Danny Peyronel - keyboards, vocals 
* Pete Way - bass 
* Andy Parker - drums 

01."Natural Thing" (Michael Schenker, Phil Mogg, Pete Way) - 4:01 
02."I'm a Loser" (Schenker, Mogg) - 3:55 
03."Can You Roll Her" (Danny Peyronel, Mogg, Andy Parker) - 2:58 
04."Belladonna" (Schenker, Mogg) - 4:32 
05."Reasons Love" (Schenker, Mogg) - 3:17 
06."Highway Lady" (Peyronel) - 3:49 
07."On with the Action" (Schenker, Mogg, Peyronel) - 5:03 
08."A Fool in Love" (Frankie Miller, Andy Fraser) - 2:50 
09."Martian Landscape" (Peyronel, Mogg, Parker) - 5:11 

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