Mechanix

Mechanix, UFO's tenth studio album, was released by Chrysalis in February 1982 (CHR 1360). It was the first album on which Neil Carter, who had joined for The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, took a full part in the recording, on guitars, keyboards and saxophone, with Phil Mogg, Paul Chapman, Pete Way and Andy Parker. Parker remembered Carter as easy to work with and already on top of everything, and Carter said the prospect of writing gave him "a rush of adrenaline"; he arrived with demos made in his room. Gary Lyons produced and engineered it, and the sleeve lists Mountain Studios in Switzerland, the Manor in Oxfordshire, and Scorpio Sound and Maison Rouge in London. Besides the band's own songs it includes "Somethin' Else", credited to Bob Cochran and Shari Sheeley. "Let It Rain", which entered the UK singles chart at the end of January 1982, peaked at 62, and "Back into My Life" was also cut down to a single edit. The album entered the British chart in the week of 20 February 1982 and climbed to number 8, the highest placing any UFO studio album has reached there; only the live Strangers in the Night, at 7, went higher. In America it joined the Billboard 200 the same week and peaked at 82 in April. The lighter, poppier direction frustrated Pete Way, who quit in 1982. He set out to form Fastway with the former Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke but left before it recorded anything, played in Ozzy Osbourne's live band and then formed Waysted, so the remaining four made the next album, Making Contact, without him. A 2009 remaster added the B-side "Heel of a Stranger" and three live tracks, and a Chrysalis two-CD and three-LP deluxe edition with a release date of 4 December 2026 includes the band's concert at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 28 January 1982.