Hardcover
UFO: A Visual Biography
is my yummy 1.5 kg, 8 ½” x 12” hardback coffee table book on esteemed UK hard rock institution UFO, covering the band’s origins through to the here and now, 50 years later. Also treated with as much detail as UFO is the entire Michael Schenker story as well as that of Waysted. The chief mission is to showcase more than 450 images across 224 pages on sumptuous 100 lb. gloss paper. There’s also a fulsome band timeline with quotes that takes in all solo project releases as well.
UFO: A Visual Biography is my weighty 1.65 kg, 8 ½” x 12” hardback coffee table book on classic UK hard rock institution UFO, featuring detailed timeline for UFO, MSG and indeed all of Michael Schenker’s bands, plus Waysted and assorted other side and solo projects. There are more than 450 pictures.
As the back cover sez:
“Rock Bottom,” “Mother Mary,” Lights Out,” “Love to Love,” Too Hot to Handle,” “Only You Can Rock Me” but also “Doctor Doctor” and “Shoot Shoot” (songs so good they hadda name them twice)… these are the timeless hits of esteemed British institution UFO, who we celebrate within the plush pages of UFO: A Visual Biography.
Martin Popoff has already brought us (most of) the story of the band across two previous Wymer titles, Lights Out: UFO in the ‘70s and Lettin’ Go: UFO in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but now we get to see what all the fuss is about in terms of the band’s explosive live-on-stage swagger, along with their remarkable album graphics, most notably through the band’s long association with famed design house Hipgnosis. As well, unlike those titles, this is the complete UFO story, from the band’s school kid origins in the summer of ’69 through to Phil Mogg’s retirement announcement in 2018 and in fact beyond.
What’s more, accompanying the bursting celebration of over 50 years of UFO in 450 pictures, Martin has conjured one of his famed detailed timelines, adding myriad details not addressed in his two more narrative chapter-by-chapter titles on the band. Also a feature of UFO: A Visual Biography, Martin has ascribed just as exhaustive scholarship to the careers of Waysted, the Michael Schenker Group and all of Michael’s other projects, not to mention side-projects and origin stories of other UFO alumni
What results is a highly utilitarian reference work housed within a sumptuous coffee table book, the most visually involved publication to date on this classic hard rock band of loveable rogues.
