7th January 2018
It is with great sadness that we learn today, of the sudden and unexpected passing of our friend and producer Chris Tsangarides.
I first met Chris in 1974 whilst making Phenomenon at Morgan studios. Many years later, I had the good fortune to reconnect with him when he recorded and produced our album "Conspiracy of Stars".
Most recently, Chris worked with us on "The Salentino Cuts" bringing his unique style and artistry to the project. Always happy and with an interesting story, Chris had a way of making work just plain fun. I will miss his wry sense of humour and his immense talent. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Jane and his entire family.
So long Chris, you will be greatly missed.
4th January 2018
Well, another year is upon us, and if you are anything like me you are probably still wondering where the last one went! Is it only me, or does anyone else feel that each year seems to go by quicker than the one before? Having said that, I have to admit that we packed a lot into 2017. Two tours in the U.S., festivals in England, Germany, Holland, France, Spain and Belgium, plus several shows in England and the release of a new album. Whew! Makes me feel tired just listing it all. But looking back, I have to say, that all in all 2017 was a very successful year for UFO, largely due of course to you guys.
Those of you who caught one of the U.S. shows will, I’m sure, agree that the UFO - Saxon - Jared James Nichols package was an excellent combination, and I thank our agent Dan DeVita at TKO for putting it together. Hopefully we can do something similar in Europe in the near future.
As I mentioned earlier, 2017 saw the release of our album The Salentino Cuts, which for those of you who don’t know, is an album of cover songs, released on the Cleopatra Records label. In general, the album was very well received, although I did see a couple of negative reviews, oddly enough from the U.K.
To set the record straight, and for anybody who was wondering, this wasn’t initially our idea. We were approached by Cleopatra quite some time back and asked if we would be interested in doing a covers album. After careful consideration, we decided that as we had never done one before that it might be fun. The hard part was deciding on which twelve songs to record out of the vast library available.
After months of deliberation and the tearing up of countless lists, we eventually narrowed it down to the dozen tunes that are on the record. As I said, we weren’t out to prove anything, we just thought it would be fun, and as it turned out, we had a blast making it. Everyone did a great job, especially (in my humble opinion) Mr. Mogg and I for one, am very proud of the result. Thanks to Matt Green and all at Cleopatra for an outstanding job, and just in case you are wondering about the title, Salentino is the name of a favorite Italian restaurant in Hannover, where a lot of the discussions concerning the album took place.
I hope I have answered any questions that you might have had, and so all that remains is for me to wish you all a very happy, peaceful and prosperous new year. As for me, I will begin the new year braving the cold weather as I start work on an addition to the Parker Homestead, so wish me luck.
One final, sad note, Nancie, partner and soulmate of my longtime friend and colleague Bobby Barth passed away on December 29th after several months of illness. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him at this most difficult time. Rest in peace Nancie.
See you all in 2018,
Andy
