UFO 2: Flying

The same four musicians, Phil Mogg, Mick Bolton, Pete Way and Andy Parker, made UFO's second album. On the British sleeve the word "Flying" fills the top of the front, with the "UFO II" logo and the words "Space Rock" at the bottom, and the labels title the record "FLYING"; the subtitle "One Hour Space Rock" comes from the front of the German Decca edition. It was recorded at Nova Recording Studios in London and produced by UFO themselves, with Milton Samuel again the executive producer, and all five songs are credited to the four members. Side one holds "Silver Bird", the eighteen-minute "Star Storm" and "Prince Kajuku"; side two holds "The Coming of Prince Kajuku" and the twenty-six-and-a-half-minute title piece, so the two long tracks alone run past three quarters of an hour. Where the debut had only hinted at space rock, Flying put it squarely at the centre, and the two records together placed UFO in the company of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind. Record Mirror, reviewing "Prince Kajuku" as a single in its issue of 16 October 1971, nonetheless heard hard rock in it, and named the album it came from as Flying. In Germany "Prince Kajuku" entered the singles chart on 4 October 1971 and peaked at No. 26. Commercially the space-rock records did little anywhere but Japan, yet the band still put out a live album that same year. Bolton then left, and UFO did not make another studio album until Phenomenon in 1974, with Michael Schenker on guitar.