UFO's Andy Parker: "I'm The Sort Of Person That Needs Some Sort Of Stability"
January 9, 2007, 17 years ago
RockSomething.com has issued an interview with UFO drummer Andy Parker, conducted by Adam Harrold. The following is an excerpt:
In a somewhat unusual career change Parker was soon to become a licensed building contractor – a far cry from playing drums for one of Britain’s premier rock bands. After a decade out of UFO he rejoined in 1993, but once again (Michael) Schenker’s behaviour eventually aggravated the percussionist into leaving for a second time.
“We cut Walk On Water in ’94 and that was with Michael and it was fun, but there was still this tension that I didn’t like. Michael wasn’t… he still had problems and for me that wasn’t where I wanted to be so I did the album and that was great but I decided that I didn’t want to go out on the road with them and in hindsight, which is an easy thing to have, I made the right decision. They had a lot of problems after that.”More time passed, but finally on August bank holiday 2005 Parker received a call from UFO’s Paul Raymond: “Out of the blue Paul phoned and said, ‘Andy, Phil says you won’t be interested because we’ve asked you before but Jason [Bonham] has left and gone with Foreigner now and we don’t have a drummer. We have a gig in Spain in November and would you be interested in doing it?’ Well yeah, I’ll do it!” Parker recalls, “So I did the gig and for me it was kind of a one off, see how it goes, but it just felt so good being in the band and sat on that seat that there was just no moving away and so I decided that I wanted to stay!”
Of course nowadays Schenker is no longer within the band – in his place is the American virtuoso, Vinnie Moore. It’s a change that has not only finally allowed UFO to step out of the shadow of their earlier, best-known albums, but also one that Parker feels is making the band a better, stronger unit.
“I’m the sort of person that needs some sort of stability,” Parker says after a lengthy pause and a swig of his drink, “I like to know what’s going on and to rely on things and unfortunately with Michael’s stage right now you can never rely on him, you never know if he’s gonna finish a song, let alone a set, let alone the tour. With Vinnie it’s a whole different thing, he’s such a great player and he’s such a stand-up solid guy that the band has fun. There’s a whole different vibe in the band, the band is actually enjoying themselves and it reflects on everybody when one person lets the side down. Before I couldn’t stand to actually be up there and not be delivering what we should be delivering. Now we don’t have that problem and as far as I’m concerned I’ll stay until it changes.”Check out the full interview at this location.
