Batttttty talks to
Phil Mogg
about the upcoming 2004 USA tour and more

Well Phil... first off... what went wrong with Pete's visa, after it was all looking so positive.....? Since 9/11 there's been this knee-jerk reaction on the part of America, and the process for getting into the country is so long-drawn-out. We've done tours there for 20 years, but it's only since 9/11 that people have had to attend the US Embassy in London for interviews and all that kinda thing. The grilling is unbelievable. And yet somebody who's living a high profile life in a band is far less likely to be a terrorist than someone unknown, whose background isn't documented. That's right, and the grilling is unbelievable. It's understandable, but it's unbelievable. You feel like saying "No... we're a rock band. We don't do terror...".
When my own visa was turned down I just couldn't believe it. As far as I was concerned, the Embassy interview was just a formality. They asked me if I'd ever been arrested over there, and I remembered getting pulled up on a visa incident on the way into America from Canada, but when they checked my fingerprints against the police records it turned out that I'd forgotten about the much more rocknroll crime of 'baring my anus in a public place'. In 1982 I'd mooned in Lubbock, Texas. I'd completely forgotten about that! You'd put it behind you, maybe, haha?

Hmmmm. okayyyy.... we'll come back to that in a few minutes.... but first tell us why Pete's visa was refused. Pete had a load of problems for a while after his wife Joanna died, and one time he was driving through Kentucky and got arrested. When it all came to court, he pleaded guilty and the authorities confiscated his passport. That was what caused the complication, because with no passport, he was forced to overstay. Pete's had three lawyers working on the case and they immediately appealed against the decision, so there is still a chance it could get overturned. But we just don't know how long that's gonna take. They could overturn it tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month or whenever. When mine was refused a couple of months back, my appeal came through within a week, so as far as the previous set of US dates were concerned, we could probably have gone ahead and done half the tour - but that would have been a risk anyway, cos at the time we had no idea how long the appeal would take. And it's the same for Pete. We can't keep cancelling, so we decided we've gotta go ahead with it.

How has the US Embassy's decision affected the rest of the band? How is Pete taking the setback? Of course we're all dispappointed - it knocked us a bit sideways - but we have to go on. We'd just got heated up with the first round of gigs, and obviously we were all very unhappy about it, but we have got to go ahead.

Vinnie has worked with Barry in the past, so do you feel that their chemistry might add a new dimension musically to the live gigs? Yes, Vinnie knows Barry well, and I know him from playing with Jeff, and from hearing his Cosmosquad collaboration with Jeff - and of course from the Uli thing (Donington and the Covenant tour) and we all get on fine. He'll be fine. He'll fit in, and he's a great bassplayer of course!

UFO fans admire Barry for his sunny personality and his shiiiiiit-hot bassplaying. I've suggested to him that he should wear a polka-dot blouse, and dip his hair in creosote before every gig. Yes! Pete's lent his stage clothes to Barry already. He'll soon be whipped into the UFO shape! Barry in red spandex? Oh dear...

What about after the US tour is over? We have plans for some Scandinavian dates, and also some more UK dates, and of course Pete will be able to play all those - and in any case, Pete's only lending Barry his stage clothes for the US tour - he wants them back as soon as it's finished, hahaha.

Do you think Barry might open UFO up to a wider audience, such as Dokken fans, Nugent fans, Yngwie fans etc? I check out the fan messageboards and it's surprising how little is known about UFO amongst the Dokken/Nugent fanbase. Maybe so - I don't know. I really don't know much about Dokken.

Will the fact that Barry hasn't played the new material before affect the choice of songs you play from You Are Here? No, he'll soon pick them up!

It was very moving to hear I'm A Loser sung live after all this time. And Fighting Man was an eye-opener too, and I'm sure made many fans get Sharks out and really listen to it. Fighting Man, yeh, that one really bops along. Hey, that's a worrying thing... with Pete not there I've gotta do double the work. I usually lay back while he's bopping around. I said to him the other day 'Listen you fuckin arsehole, I've gotta do double the work now that you've blown the visa'. Haha, I'll tell Barry to jump up and down and bounce around a bit. If he's wearing Pete's clothes he might take on some of Pete's characteristics. Hey, maybe it's the clothes that do the jumping, not Pete. Hmmmm now there's a thought...

So anyway... what songs from the Chapman era would you like to include? We're gonna have to discuss this when we all get together... it comes up time and time again. We're just not sure which songs to play. I'll ask the SITN crowd what they think, and let you know, ok! Yes, we'll definitely look into playing a few from the Chapman days. the Wild The Willing and The Innocent is one possibility. I pulled the albums out the other day, but I didn't want to chuck too much onto Barry, although he could probably learn them in his sleep, haha.

Would playing Chapman-era songs be a kind of purging - along the lines of 'Schenker has left the building'? No, not purging, no, I don't think so. That's not something I've thought deeply about.

Regarding Jason - there was a worry amongst some UFO fans that the Foreigner gig might be more than a one-off, and that he might be bailing out of UFO. That's not the case, is it? That was a charity gig, and no, he's still very much a member of UFO! And a very valuable member too! Yes, so he keeps telling me! He rings me up and tells me that alot - 'I am a very valuable member of UFO - when do I get paid?'. Hahahaha. Charming chap! I spoke to him yesterday and he's really lookin forward to the American tour. It's very disappointing about Pete, but what can ya do... Rocknroll says the show's gotta go on. We have to. Cos if we leave it, they might not have us back again!

What was your personal favourite gig so far on the Euro/UK tour? Hmmmm... maybe Paris. Oh yes, Paris had great reviews! I've not read the reviews. You start reading your reviews and the fatal thing is you start believing them, haha. Dave Ling of Classic Rock Magazine said the Paris gig was one of the best gigs he'd ever seen. Did he? Oh maybe I'll dig it out and read it then! Yes, do it!! What about Geoff Barton's review of You Are Here? He gave it FIVE STARS!!

It was also quite bizarre seeing Paul get about 20 years younger every night during the course of the set. That can't just be down to the embalming fluid kicking in, can it? He started the evening as errrrr... a 43 year-old, and was down to 23 by the time it got to Rock Bottom. Talk about thriving on the buzz - it was beautiful to watch the years dropping off him. Reminded me of the film Cocoon! Hahaha, well he's just had a holiday in the south of France, sunning himself. He's a 'Bronze God' now. He's been working up a tan. He'll shrivel up! Hahah yeh, he'll be a wrinkled prune! I tell ya, with Pete not around it will fall to someone else to be the subject of ridicule, the butt of all the jokes. Who do ya think it's gonna be....? It's gonna have to be Paul, isn't it...? Paul, yes - I think so!

Will there be a DVD of the tour, either from Euro/UK footage or anything planned from the USA gigs? Has the Pete/Barry situation affected plans for that? And what are the plans for the next album? Yes we want to do a DVD. But what we'd like to do is cook up something a bit different for that - put some new material together that hasn't been recorded before. We can't do the same stuff that's been recorded over and over again. Yes, we need something from the You Are Here album, but it would be nice if we had something up our sleeves.... like a couple of tracks that haven't been recorded yet. When we go to Vinnie's next week, we might knock up a couple of new tracks - for the next album and for a DVD. Do some writing, play about with some ideas. Get Pete to record the bass back in the UK after, but at least get some writing done, and get some ideas together.

In the past, UFO has often been a victim of errr.... The Nostradamus Effect... where the left hand hasn't always known what the right hand's been doing - such as lifting a pint or... whatever else you fellas use your right arm for. Now Michael is out of the band there seems a new level of professionalism about the set-up, not least of which is finishing a damn tour! Is this purely down to the new line-up, or what? When people ask me about Michael, I have to stop and think. This sounds almost rude, but... I don't think about Michael alot. I love Michael to death, he's a great guitarist, but... it's like, in interviews, Michael is still talking about things that happened thirty years ago. It's history, it aint that important now, it's so long ago, and it's tedious and boring. When I hear all that, I want to say 'Can't we get on with the next chapter of our lives'. The fans who have stuck with UFO for 25+ years do appreciate the new 'stability' that seems to be there (even with the work-permit problems in the equation).

At the recent UFO gigs there was the expected puntership of 35-50 year-old mulleted tattooed headbangers (and some of those were fellas!) - but also alot of younger fans. More than just a second generation dads-and-sons kinda thing. Are you particularly aiming for younger fans in the way you market the band - such as advertising or getting editorial in a different kind of magazine, or going for airplay on 'younger' radio stations or whatever - or doing anything positive to extend the fanbase? (without selling out to the MTV schlock, of course). Well, if we carry on just with the regulars, eventually they'll all be dead! We want to play to all ages. I went out to a club recently to see the Datsuns... but, having said that, I didn't see the Datsuns haha. It was at a rock club, and they had three supporting acts, and I kept thinkin 'they're good, they must be the Datsuns', but they weren't... We were standing by the bar, and each time a band came on we were saying, hey, they're really good, but each time it turned out that they weren't the Datsuns, hahaha. One band were exceptionally good - but no, they still weren't the Datsuns! I don't think I actually ever got to see the Datsuns, haha. That's the great thing about playing clubs though, as opposed to playing concerts - at a concert you only draw the people who are going there to see you, but if you go out and play clubs, you reach a different audience, and a much wider age range of maybe 18 - 40s. Clubs like you played on the $ign Of 4 gigs, yeh? Yeh! You know, I really LOVED the $ign Of 4 gigs. Yes, the clubs weren't big, but the fans who went to those gigs said the atmosphere was really special. They said it was like having the band playing in their front room. Absolutely! And it was the most relaxing tour I've done in years. Down on the floor with the people. A most enjoyable tour... and Jeff, Shane, Mark, Chris - lovely people, and great to work with!

OK, now this whole lyric thannnggggg. Writers say they hate being asked where they get the inspiration for their lyrics, so I won't ask that, but ... do you really hack into our brains while we're asleep and steal our subconscious, untangle it, and then weave it into the kind of poetry that's there inside all of our heads but just hasn't been woven into words yet? Poetry which we all recognise when we hear you sing it, in a 'Lyrics that make you go Yessssssssss!!!!!' kinda way.
It's the kind of poetry that if we'd have been able to study it for A Level it would have made Eng. Lit. our favourite subject and we'd all have stayed on at school and done the exams and ended up rich and intelligent and vivacious and articulate and the world wouldn't be in the mess it's in today. Blimey. The question is.... do you think in that kinda way all the time, walkin round the house, making a cuppa tea, putting the bin out, etc - or is it only when you're consciously writing lyrics? Do you have to hear the music before your brain can crank into eleventh gear and do the business? Tell us how it happens. Or should we not question it and just be grateful that is DOES happen? I think the answer to that is that I read the paper or see the news and I get really depressed, and then write about depressing things. You've only got to open the newspaper and there's a song on every page - it's all there before you. And it comes easy to you, does it? Sometimes... yes. With these guys it's easy to write. With Vinnie and Jason and all... there's no drama. It's pleasurable... And not only is the wordcraft wonderful, but you sing it in a way that I bet Shakespeare never could!

Hey, talking of lyrics, here's a funny story - on Dave Ling's most excellent website he relates a legend about when UFO were recording the Misdemeanour album, and you hadn't finished writing the lyrics, so they sent you down the garden with a pen and paper to get on with it, while they went for a game of pool. The story goes... 'When somebody came back a while later to check his progress, the chair was empty and there was no sign of Phil Mogg. They went out to the table to find his sheet of paper was still there. On it was written the words: ‘Buy Special Brew’. The silly old sod had made a shopping list, and then in his haste to quench his thirst had only gone and left it behind!' I explained to Dave that it wasn't a shopping list at all, but an attempt at the first verse of Night Run... "Love me tender, love me true, ooooh baby, buy some Special Brew' . Hahahaha, that's quite possible! That was one of those dodgy periods in UFO. A bit of a 'whoooooooooooooooooooow' period. That hasn't gone on since that time, but yeh I can believe that of then!!! They were going 'Come onnnnnnn when are you gonna come up with some stuff' .... 'I'm trying! I'm TRYING!!! I had a block - through quite a bit of the 80s, actually!

So then Phil... coming back to this Full Moon Over Texas thanggggg.... how did all that come about...? I really don't know! I've never mooned before - never mooned after, I don't know what was going on. And you're definitely not gonna do it this time, are you.... I AM NOT (says Phil in his most saintly, priestly, angelic voice... ) How about if you wear three pairs of drawers under your trousers, just to be on the safe side? Although maybe they WOULD think you were a terrorist if you did that, hahaha. Ohhh I remember going to jail, with the guy who'd been at the concerts and had got arrested with me and I was standing with my back against the wall with these really tight lycra trousers on, ohhhh it was awful.... Yeh... not a situation for a n-n-n-n-nervous boy! Haha, yeh, and I was thinkin 'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Godddd, I'm screwed', and this guy said,'I've just seen your fuckin concert, mannnnnnn. Greatttt, mannnnn....' Ohhhhh the memory of it now... it was awful.... Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing! Of course, when I say 'hindsight', I don't mean the sight of your hind, which of course is a horrible thing.... blimey...

So anyway, it's no wonder they didn't want you back in their country. Spandex should have been declared illegal by at least 1979! You're damn lucky that they're lettin you back in at all! So, what are you gonna say to the good people of America to put them at ease? OK, well.... Pete's got three lawyers on the case - there IS hope. As far as the gigs go, they're gonna be kick-arrrrrse. Vinnie's American, the album is with Vinnie and Jason, we want to play there - and we're going to play there! If Pete's ticket comes up, that's great, he'll fly over and jam in - it's an open door. If it doesn't, well, yes, that's unfortunate, but we'll play a great round of US dates with the excellent Mr. Sparks. We're coming over there to kick your butts! But without showing your own! Exactly!

This interview © Batttttty - September 9th 2004

All photos on this page © www.ufo-music.info, Vinnie Moore and Batttttty