Ranking the UFO, Thin Lizzy & Offshoot Albums 1970-1983 (w/Martin Popoff) 

Renegade is one of those albums that keeps getting better as time goes by

Worth watching for Pete’s face when Martin does a Martin

“Dreaming” off Mechanix is such an underrated classic

Both groups cemented their legacy with both Live albums...

I have been so excited for this video. When I was in high school Pete inspired me to listen to UFO beyond the greatest hits. And two years later in college Butch inspired me to listen to Thin Lizzy beyond the hits. Now they are both in my top 10

Waysted: "Vices" and "The Good, The Bad, The Waysted", Ufo: "Mechanix" and "The Wild, The Willing and The Innocent", Thin Lizzy: "Renegade" and "Bad Reputation". Just excellent records!!!!!!!!

I'm about Martin's age (a little younger) and I'm really curious if our tastes will ever meet :-) Phenomenon and Force It by UFO are my favorites. I didn't listen a lot Thin Lizzy Nightlife when I was younger, now I love it!!! Martin, Pete, thanks for a great hour spent after a busy day. Greetings from Slovenia.

1. Live And Dangerous 2. Strangers in the Night 3. Bad Reputation 4. Jailbreak 5. Obsession 6. Black Rose 7. MSG 8. Johnny the Fox 9. Lights Out 10. Chinatown

Martin was spot on! (When he said Pete’s was the “right answer.” Not with his own list, lord no, I mean come on.) Still, these videos are so much fun BECAUSE Martin’s rankings seem to be based on a random number generator.

Funky Junction with the first incarnation of Lizzy in tribute-for-money mode doing Purple covers was certainly interesting. Our 3 friends playing Speed King, Fireball and Strange Kind of Woman is a fun listen, quite a good job.

My top dirty dozen of these 30 albums: 1) UFO - Obsession 2) UFO - Lights Out 3) Lizzy - Jailbreak 4) Lizzy - Bad Reputation 5) UFO - Force It 6) UFO - Phenomenon 7) Lizzy - Thunder & Lightning 8) Lizzy - Fighting 9) Schenker - MSG (2) 10) UFO - No Heavy Petting 11) Lizzy - Renegade 12) UFO - Mechanix

Incredible how underrated Renegade is.... One of greatest albuns from a band with long period in the road

Just listen to assault attack MSG, wow. Great album. Glad I watched your video, will add it to the rotation! Great drumming rhythm section

Shout out to the people who mentioned WILD HORSES should of been included IMO. Also GARY MOORE.

I would totally include Scorpions on that ranking. Schenker conection aside, those 3 bands started sounding one way in 1970/1971 and by 1974 they became their real selves.

Great show and idea guys per usual!! Thank you!

Right on Martin... Love love LOVE "Renegade"... ("Mexican Blood" could be my fave on album)... Another great show guys, was looking forward to it all week...

Great show - got me to listen to a few tracks I hadn't taken much notice of before. Good stuff.

That Waysted album is one of those albums I never would have thought to check out without streaming. I listened to it one day, not expecting much and was totally blown away. A real hidden gem. Force It I consider like the first KISS album. Good on its own but a good portion of it appears in superior versions on a mandatory live album. Awesome discussion, I really love both bands.

This is a very very good series. We are all loving it in live chat/ I can tell. Thx again. Martin. Pete. Also/ a great flow pace 👍💯

Terrific. Love this concept. Difficult to rank with so many great albums

Pete I'm glad you had Phenomenon high on your list. I bought that album long ago when it first came out at a locally famous record store in Calumet City Il. I always considered it a hundred percent album. All time favorite. Great show.

Great episode👍🤘

#1- Waysted - Vices great album and I seen that tour also. Now I’ll admit I don’t know the rest of the albums that you both ran through but I would say 99% sure this would still be my number one just because of my time with the album and how much I have always dug it. So I have some homework to do to at least give a listen. Great show guys.

Brian Robertson and Jimmy Bain's Wild Horses second album has some great songs. Robertson's Diamonds and Dust is worth a listen to as well.

LOL I loved pre Schenker UFO wonder why it took so long for me to buy lights out which blew me away long live UFO Pete way liked it as well... Rock n roll is so much more fun than than politics. When I was blue rock n roll really helped me through.

Just realized that Queen of the Deep and Boogie Woogie Dance have a lot in common - deceptively heavy closers. Martin Popoff's #2 choice, Black Rose, is surprising. I took up his challenge of naming 10 Gary Moore solos of note, when all I had to do was name Black Rose!

1. Thunder and Lightning (1983) 2. Lovedrive (1979) 3. Johnny The Fox (1976) 4. Jailbreak (1976) 5. Black Rose (1979) 6. Bad Reputation (1977) 7. Renegade (1981) 8. Force It (1975) 9. Lights Out (1977) 10. Assault Attack (1982) 11. The Michael Schenker Group (1980) 12. Fighting (1975) 13. Phenomenon (1974) 14. No Heavy Petting (1976) 15. Obsession (1978) 16. Chinatown (1980) 17. Built to Destroy (1983) 18. MSG (1981) 19. Nightlife (1974) 20. The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent (1981) 21. Vagabonds of The Western World (1973) 22. Mechanix (1982) 23. No Place to Run (1980) 24. UFO 2: Flying (1971) 25. Lonesome Crow (1972) 26. UFO 1 (1970) 27. Making Contact (1983) 28. Thin Lizzy (1971) 29. Shades of a Blue Orphanage (1972)

I love first 2 UFO albums ...Listening regularly, splendid albums ...

Well I'll do my Top 10 1) Obsession 2) Jailbreak 3) Lights Out 4) Johnny The Fox 5) Bad Reputation 6) Black Rose 7) Force It 8) Phenomenon 9) Thunder & Lightning 10) Fighting

We had a full solar eclipse in the UK in 1999. I remember it mostly because it was weird. It didn't go that dark, but the atmosphere became really odd. All the build up was about how dark it would get, but it became murky, and the atmosphere became kind of humid. It lasted about 10 minutes but it was gradual. Apparently it got quite dark in the South, in Cornwall and Devon.

Popoff and Pardo are at it again with what are becoming the 'grouping" shows for personal reference with UFO and Thin Lizzy are the ingredients for this episode. These episodes are proving to be a fascinating watch, particularly and Martin and Pete analyze their overall preferences amid the ranking of a number of albums. Don't have the depth of knowledge to provide any personal ranking of these 30 albums but the commentary and discussion is always interesting. Thanks once again, gents, for taking on what seems to be a herculean task. Another great episode. There ya go!

Great episode it shows what great bands both were when ye see the difference in the 2 lists

LOVE IT! Can't wait for next week!!! KISS = 11 (including solo albums) Aerosmith = 6 B.O.C. = 6 Nugent = 9 Including tha Amboy Dukes) 32 Total

I kept it to Thin Lizzy and UFO only, didn’t know about the family albums. Anyway, Thin Lizzy was the clear winner for me. They were always more than just a hard rock band, unlike UFO (ok, with the exception of Thunder and Lightning or UFO 1 and 2, respectively). Anyway, it was a fun week, in particular because of the cool Lizzy catalogue to dive into. 1. Jailbreak 2. Fighting 3. Johnny The Fox 4. Bad Reputation 5. Black Rose 6. Vagabonds Of The Western World 7. Nightlife 8. No Heavy Petting 9. Thin Lizzy 10. Force It 11. Renegade 12. Phenomenon 13. Chinatown 14. Thunder And Lightning 15. Obsession 16. Shades Of A Blue Orphanage 17. Lights Out 18. The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent 19. No Place To Run 20. Mechanix 21. Making Contact 22. UFO 1 23. UFO 2: Flying

I agree with most of Pete's UFO picks.. My top 10 are: 1) UFO - Obsession 2) UFO - LIghts out 3) Thin Lizzy - Thunder and Lightning 4) UFO - Force it 5) Thin Lizzy - Renegade 6) Thin Lizzy - Jail Break 7) UFO - No Heavy Petting 8) Thin Lizzy - Black Rose 9) Thin Lizzy - China Town 10) Michael Schenker - The Michael Schenker Group

Great episode guys - both bands that i got into around the same time('78), it is funny how the timelines are so similar here...my tastes usually mirror Martin more so than Pete, but agree with Obsession as my fav of the bunch...and i guess i'm the outlier on liking S&M(the song, of course...) since I got into it back when it came out, great drumming and guitar solo!

Renegade is seriously underrated was so impressed when i first heard it

Yeah, Pete loooves the 70s. I don't blame him, amazing decade for music.

I love the Mogg/way and sign of 4 albums. they were excellent!

My first gig was UFO, Mechanix tour. My second gig was Thin Lizzy, Renegade tour. Martin would approve but my listings are more like Pete's!

Angel -all 6 original albums-even Martin would agree-he wrote the book!

I'd go as far as to say that 'The Sun Goes Down' is possibly the finest song on a final album by a major rock band. That 'The Wild...' cover for UFO is a shocker, and it was by Hipgnosis apparently. They could come up with such brilliant, enduring images but they were responsible for some real turds as well.

I really like these shows, very interesting. I've tried to do what Martin & Pete are doing. But it's to hard to rank all those great albums by great bands. And I realize everybody has their own taste & I know Martin's taste is a little different. But his ranking of the classic UFO With Schenker is , well crazy. Looking forward to the next show guys.

I'm a big Lizzy fan. One of my favorite bands. Pretty unique band also with their well balanced records. Never made a stone cold classic album but their whole catalogue is awesome. Still have to dive into UFO. Have my eyes on that complete studio albums set. So ranking only Lizzy: 1st tier: Fighting, Jail, Johnny, Bad Rep 2nd tier: Renagade, Thunder 3rd tier: Night, Black, China, Vagabond, 4th tier: Lizzy, Shades Like Phil's solo albums but a but wobbly

I fall more in line with Pete's rankings with a few differences. I am almost 180 degrees from Martin on these rankings. As usual, Martin puts a heavy emphasis on production when he judges an album. I firmly believe this is the main reason he gravitates towards the late 70's - 80's albums in most of these ranking shows. On another note, he is Quick to dismiss the mellow material on the Schenker era UFO albums but embraces the mellow material on the Chapman era albums. Not to mention, the mellow songs off Phil's debut albums that he finds appealing are just not very good, IMO. Oh well, I still have tons of respect for you, Martin!

I loved the UFO album covers, which make them out from the typical heavy rock/metal cliches. What about Lonestar's Firing on all Six? Great programme on two wonderful bands.

Agree, it would be great to include 74-82 Scorpions album as well.... My top 10 are: 1. Johnny the Fox 2. Lights Out 3. No Heavy Petting 4. Fighting 5. Jailbreak 6. Phenomenon 7. Bad Reputation 8. Obsession 9. Force It 10. Renegade Competition between 80-90 Iron Maiden and Judas Priest would be funny too)).

Thin Lizzy all the way baby best band in the world!

My top 15: 1 - Thunder and Lightning 2 - Renegade 3 - Johnny the Fox 4 - Lights Out 5 - Bad Reputation 6 - Chinatown 7 - Jailbreak 8 - Phenomenon 9 - Fighting 10 - Black Rose 11 - Nightlife 12 - Force It 13 - Vagabonds of the Western World 14 - No Heavy Petting 15 - Obsession I hate Kiss: Aerosmith Blue Öyster Cult Grand Funk Railroad Jimi Hendrix or Alice Cooper (band)

1. Mechanix 2. The Wild, The Willing and The Innocent 3. Fighting 4. Michael Schenker Group 5. Jailbreak 6. MSG 7. Lights Out 8. Black Rose 9. Obsession 10. No Heavy Petting 11. No Place To Run 12. Assault Attack 13. Force It 14. Johnny The Fox 15. Chinatown 16. Making Contact 17. Vices 18. Renegade 19. UFO 1 20. Bad Reputation 21. Nightlife 22. Built To Destroy 23. Thunder and Lightning 24. Vagabonds of The Western World 25. Phenomenon 26. UFO 2: Flying 27. Thin Lizzy 28. Shades Of A Blue Orphanage 29. Solo In Soho 30. The Philip Lynott Album

Great ranking. Hey Pete, Idea for the show. I think it would be awesome to rank the bands Mike Portnoy has played in. Transatlantic, Winery Dogs, Flying colors etc... Anyway, you could either just pick an album from each band or maybe the debut album. Whatever you could come up with would be very interesting. I immediately thought of Rick LaBonte, George Lamie and Steve from the Prog Corner. Would love to see it.

Great show

The best UFO offshoot that never was is actually Fastway - the combination of Pete Way and Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead. Unfortunately Pete Way had to leave because of record company contracts, but the album is excellent. What could have been eh?

Love the show🥃

Michael Schenker: You may not like him, but your favorite guitarist does. :-) I wish for UFO they would've been bigger, but for me it's great having a bad that awesome as my own secret band.

@12:35 - Mick Bolton is the most underrated guitarist. fantastic player.

Good show dudes 👍👍

On that back cover shot on Phil's solo album he kinda looked like Gene Shalit. Something tells me that wasn't the look he was shooting for.

Lizzy is my favorite band of all time, and tbh I have not heard one ufo song! I’ll have to look into their stuff. Phil’s solo albums are wonderful if you haven’t heard them. Full of interesting, sometimes all time songs (Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, Girls, Kings Call, with Old Town being my fave song ever) I’m surprised Pete ranked them as he did, but to each his own!

I love Hero and the Madman on Vagabonds. I gotta disagree with the guys though I love UFO Flying. Im not one of those that thinks Mick Bolton is their best guitarist ever, but I dig it.

Speaking of S&M, just heard the demo. It's off the hook. It's like twice as fast. It also has 2 guitar solos, Scott Gorham first then Gary Moore. "Thin Lizzy - S & M (Fast Version Demo)" I always liked the song. It has Scott Gorham's best guitar solo. First time I heard it on the Black Rose album, I thought it was Gary Moore.

Assault Attack is one of my favorite all time albums

I'm with Team Martin. I much prefer the Chapman-era of UFO to the Shenker-era. No Place To Run, The W, The W and the I and Mechanix would be my favorite UFO-albums.

I'll rank what I know (and love): 24. Making Contact 23. The Phillip Lynott Album 22. Phenomenon 21. Wild Horses 20. The Michael Schenker Group 19. Renegade 18. Built to Destroy 17. No Place to Run 16. Obsession 15. Vices 14. Chinatown 13. Fighting 12. Mechanix 11. Assault Attack 10. Black Rose: A Rock Legend 9. Johnny the Fox 8. Lights Out 7. No Heavy Petting 6. MSG 5. Jailbreak 4. The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent 3. Force It 2. Bad Reputation 1. Thunder and Lightning I don't really care for the first 2 UFO's. Need to buy and become more familiar with the first 4 Thin Lizzy's. Don't know Phil's second solo album or Wild Horses' second album. I'll check them out eventually. Sorry, if I'm cheating.

omg...again, too many to rank, so i'll just do my favorites from each Thin Lizzy - Johnny the Fox UFO - Lights Out Phil Lynott - Solo in Soho Eric Bell: Funky Junction - A Tribute to Deep Purple Gary Moore - Victims of the Future Scott Gorham: Black Star Riders - All Hell Breaks Loose Brian Robertson: Motorhead - Another Perfect Day Midge Ure: The Phil Lynott Album Dave Flett: Manfred Mann's Earth Band - The Roaring Silence John Sykes: Whitesnake - Slide It In Brian Downey: Gary Moore - Still Got the Blues Mark Nauseef: Ian Gillan Band - Child in Time Darren Wharton: The Phil Lynott Album Phil Mogg: Mogg/Way - Edge of the World Larry Wallis: Pink Fairies - Kings of Oblivion Bernie Marsden: Whitesnake - Ready an' Willing Michael Schenker: The Michael Schenker Group Paul Chapman: Lone Star (1976) Andy Parker: Waysted (1984) Neil Carter: Gary Moore - Victims of the Future Vinnie Moore: Vicious Rumors - Soldiers of the Night Pete Way: Waysted - Vices Paul Raymond: Michael Schenker Group - MSG Paul Gray: Johnny Thunders - So Alone Robbie France: Diamond Head - Canterbury Laurence Archer: Phil Lynott's grand Slam - Studio Sessions Clive Edwards: Electric Sun - Earthquake Simon Wright: Dio - Lock Up the Wolves Aynsley Dunbar: Whitesnake (1987) Jason Bonham: Black Country Communion (2010)

OK! my list is revised! LOL! and I really like the bottom half of the list. I love doing these! with that said... 30. UFO 1 29. UFO 2: Flying 28. Thin Lizzy 27. Shades Of A Blue Orphanage 26. Built To Destroy 25. Making Contact 24. Mechanix 23. Vices 22. Vagabonds of The Western World 21. The Philip Lynott Album 20. Solo In Soho 19. Nightlife 18. No Place To Run 17. No Heavy Petting 16. Phenomenon 15. Chinatown 14. Thunder And Lightning 13. Michael Schenker Group 12. The Wild, The Willing and The Innocent 11. Renegade 10. MSG 9. Force It 8. Johnny The Fox 7. Fighting 6. Assault Attack 5. Lights Out 4. Jailbreak 3. Bad Reputation 2. Obsession 1. Black Rose

I guess that Pete’s choices would be closer to the average SoT viewer than Martins. However, Martins quick analysis that he favours the 80’s and Pete the 70’s with respect to these catalogues was informative. Whilst I still find Martins choices a bit weird I admire him for ranking the Chapman era UFO albums as high as he did. Probably neither Peter or Martin re listened to many of these albums in preparation for this task, realistically they don’t have the time and so their ranking comes down to memory, which is fair enough, but sometimes a re listen makes you realise that you were wrong about an album. Pete mentioned that Butch (whom I love) dismisses the non SitN tracks on the Schenker era albums and I do get that, I bought all the studio albums after the live album and, other than Obession, they are lightly spun pieces of vinyl. Apart from the odd track, such as On with Action and Try Me, I dismissed the quality of the deep tracks on these albums. However, years afterwards my opinions about Force It, No Heavy Petting and Lights Out have changed for the better 🇬🇧

Why not the 2 Mogg/Way, Sign of 4 disk or the rest of the Waysted catalog? These would have eclipsed a few off these lists. I get the time limit, but would have made the discussion better imho.

Queen of the deep is indeed fantastic!

A ranking the albums show on The Damned with Martin guesting needs to happen

My two favorite bands of all time. How do i rank these? 1. Thunder and Lightning - Lizzy 2. MSG - MSG 3. Lights Out - UFO 4. Chinatown - Lizzy 5. Obsession - UFO 6. MSG - S/T 7. Renegade - Lizzy 8. Assault Attack - MSG 9. Force It - UFO 10. Jailbreak - Lizzy

Man I’m old. I remember seeing UFO opening for Rush at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium the year they recorded ‘Strangers In The Night’. Rush had released All The World’s A Stage’ & I thought UFO blew them off the stage that night. Also the same year I saw Thin Lizzy promoting’Bad Reputation album opening for Queen at the LA Forum. That was just before ‘Live Killers’ came out. Both bands kicked ass that night as I remember.

Thin Lizzy and UFO are two of my all time favorite bands. Haven’t heard any of the “family“ bands’ material, but I’ll rank what I’ve heard from these bands, and list my favorite song from each. Oh, and keep in mind that I at least like all of these albums, and I love most of them. 19. Nightlife - Thin Lizzy (Philomena) 18. Shades of a Blue Orphanage - Thin Lizzy (Baby Face) 17. Obsession - UFO (You Don’t Fool Me) 16. Thunder and Lightning - Thin Lizzy (Holy War) 15. Thin Lizzy - Thin Lizzy (Remembering) 14. Renegade - Thin Lizzy (Leave This Town) 13. No Place to Run - UFO (No Place to Run) 12. No Heavy Petting - UFO (On With the Action) 11. Johnny the Fox - Thin Lizzy (Massacre) 10. The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent - UFO (Long Gone) 9. Force It - UFO (Too Much of Nothing) 8. Bad Reputation - Thin Lizzy (Opium Trail) 7. Lights Out - UFO (Lights Out) 6. Fighting - Thin Lizzy (Wild One) 5. Chinatown - Thin Lizzy (Chinatown) 4. Phenomenon - UFO (Rock Bottom) 3. Vagabonds of the Western World - Thin Lizzy (Vagabond of the Western World) 2. Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy (Emerald) 1. Black Rose: A Rock Legend - Thin Lizzy (With Love)

Thin Lizzy ground breaking band.

Who did the best 1970 rendition of Come Away Melinda, UFO or Uriah Heep?

For solar viewing basically make sure the item you're using is made from mylar or conforms to the ISO 12312-2:2015(E) international safety standard. Great show. My favorite would be Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation, then UFO's Phenomenon, Lights Out, Lizzy's Johnny the Fox and finally Jailbreak. Later edit: I thought I was the only one who''s favorite UFO song of the Schenker era was Can You Roll Her. Glad to see I'm not alone.

Keeping it to a top 5 - pretty much mirrors how much my bands at the time covered the songs! Force It Jailbreak Lights Out No Heavy Petting Johnny the Fox

Absolutely agree with you Pete regarding No place to Run . Some really good songs with completely unsuited production. A real shame.

Martin Birch ranking would be interesting

Great episode, but Where's Wild Horses guys?

I thought "Assault Attack" would be Pete's top pick but then again "Obsession " has always been noted as a top UFO favorite.

I think that my #1 would be Assault Attack followed by a bunch of Thin Lizzy records (Thunder and Lightning, Jailbreak, Bad Reputation, Black Rose). Cheers.

Love Pete's face when Martin ranked Jailbreak pretty low and the Lynott solo records among his top 10 😆 As a Lizzy fan my top five would be my top Lizzy albums followed by Lights Out and Obsession.

I’m trying to remember…. When they film these on Friday mornings, is it around 9 or 10am? The reason being, I wonder if Pete felt the infamous little 4.8 earthquake that happened in the region.

Yep Jailbreak is the best Thin Lizzy album and in my top ten albums all time.

I didn't hear any mention of the Wild Horses album, did I? Brian Robertson and Jimmy Bain! Surely should have been in each's top 10!?!

Assault Attack my favorite,by far

I’ll have to give Assault Attack another listen. I skipped over that one

funky junction tribute to deep purple,is the best early lizzy line up,remember buying it for 1 pound from woolworths department store,music for pleasure records.who put out cheap comps of elvis,bing crosby etc didnt know that funky junction were lynott/bell/downey plus someone else on vox for years

The weather in Germany is fine by 25 celcies. ufo and thin lizzy are my favorits

I love Prince Kajuku by UFO.

You could’ve put Skid Row on here too.

I am sort of with Pete on Alone Again Or. I even went and listened to the Love - Forever Changes album which has the original, and the album is always in the top ten albums of all time lists, but I don't get it myself

Off ur rocker to rate Contact over Force It but for production! Nuts

44:52 Interesting you say that, Martin - “Sarah” was recorded for Phil’s solo album (the only Lizzy’s on it are Phil and Gary, who said it ended up on Black Rose because they were short of material). Imho, “S&M”also sounds like a Phil solo song, although they had played it live with Robbo. I don’t like it either and wonder why they didn’t record “Are You Ready” instead. Maybe they just forgot they hadn’t or it felt like an old song, as it featured on Live And Dangerous 🤔

the eclipse is coming through here in East Texas at 1:42 PM

Mott the Hoople and Spooky Tooth are two other great and interconnected bands.

A side by side of Scorpions and UFO would make more sense to me.

"Force It" , "No Heavy Petting" , ...