High Stakes & Dangerous Men: The UFO Story

by Neil Daniels, Eddie Trunk (Foreword)

This band have been around since 1969 and are still going strong. Hailing from London, they have a substantial fan base in North America as they have frequently toured here and are a band who have a host of high profile admirers including Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam and Slash from Guns N' Roses amongst others. Their songs, like 'Doctor, Doctor', 'Lights Out' and 'Rock Bottom' are rock classics. The musicians who have passed through their ranks reads like a Who's Who of rock: Pete Way (God bless him), Michael Schenker, Larry Wallis, Bernie Marsden, Paul Chapman, Billy Sheehan, Jason Bonham, Aynsley Dunbar and more have all done time in one of the most enduring, and endearing, bands. The secret to their success is their longevity. If they make it to 2014, they will celebrat their 45th anniverary and founder member Phil Mogg is still on vocals. They have cut over 20 albums during this time. Plus, they never stop working and pleasing old fans, as well as winning new ones. This affectionate look at the band, which has a reputation for playing loud and partying hard, covers their beginnings as space rockers in London, through to the 'glory years' with Schenker in the 1970s, and the various break-ups and reformations. They'd kill you for saying it, but they are a bit of a Spinal Tap. The wife of Pete Way, the original bassist, was sick of him touring so much. So, he didn't tell her he had a tour planned, went out to get some cigs (with his passport) and returned 3 months later! They are that kind of band. This is a hard rock group, which means their fans are intensely loyal. There is only one other book about the band and it is only available from the author's own website and currently out of print.Fans are waiting for this book. High Stakes & Dangerous Men includes a foreword by Eddie Trunk which will carry weight in the States and an afterword by British rock journalist Peter Makowski. Let's Rock!

Genres: Music

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

Based in the UK, Neil Daniels has written about rock, metal and pop culture for a wide range of magazines, fanzines and websites.

He has penned books on Judas Priest, Robert Plant, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi and Journey, and co-authored Dawn Of The Metal Gods: My Life In Judas Priest & Heavy Metal with original Judas Priest singer/co-founder Al Atkins. His third book on Judas Priest is Rock Landmarks: Judas Priest's British Steel.

His acclaimed series, All Pens Blazing: A Rock & Heavy Metal Writer's Handbook Volumes I & II, collects over a hundred original and exclusive interviews with some of the world's most famous rock and heavy metal scribes. His other duel collection, Rock 'N' Roll Mercenaries - Interviews With Rock Stars Volumes I & II, compiles over sixty interviews with many well-known rock stars and rock writers.

His books have so far been translated into Brazilian, Bulgarian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Swedish with more foreign titles in the works.

2012 saw the publication of his books on Metallica, Iron Maiden and You Me At Six.

2013/14 saw the release of his books on AC/DC, Pantera, UFO, ZZ Top, Bon Jovi and Iron Maiden.

It's not just rock 'n' roll. Matthew McConaughey – The Biography was published in November 2014 by John Blake Publishing. 2015 saw the release of more film biographies, including actor Martin Freeman and film director J.J. Abrams.

His Createspace books include AOR Chronicles, Rock & Metal Chronicles, Hard Rock Rebels - Talking With Rock Stars, Rock 'N' Roll Sinners - Volumes I, II & III, Rock Bites, Love It Loud and the fictional rock 'n' roll novel, It's My Life, amongst several more weighty tomes. And then there's a book on former American Idol contestant turned Queen frontman Adam Lambert. Also, In A Dark Room - Exploits Of A Genre Fan collects his articles, features and reviews on books, comics, TV and film and is also published by Createspace. His 'Casual Guide' series (also published by Createspace) includes titles on Neal Schon, Bryan Adams, Richie Sambora, Rob Halford and Brian May. Further Createspace works are planned for 2015/16.

His reviews, articles and interviews on music and pop culture have been published in The Guardian, Classic Rock Presents AOR, Classic Rock Presents Let It Rock, Rock Sound, Record Collector, Big Cheese, Powerplay, Fireworks, MediaMagazine, Rocktopia.co.uk, Get Ready To Rock.com, Lucemfero.com, musicOMH.com, Ghostcultmag.com, Drowned In Sound.com, BBCNewsOnline.co.uk, Carling.com, Unbarred.co.uk and Planet Sound on Channel 4's now defunct Teletext service.

He has also written several sets of sleeve notes for Angel Air and BGO Records.

He can be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Tumblr. He has author pages on both Amazon US and UK sites. Further details can also be found on Wikipedia.

His primary interests are music, films and books. He has a degree in Film Studies.

His official website is www.neildanielsbooks.com.

Please take some time to check out his latest business venture - an online reselling business called otherrealmscollectibles primarily dealing with action figures, toys and superheroes merch as well as t-shirts, books, CDs and DVDs. Favourites include Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Toy Story and Disney. There are hundreds of items for sale.

Here is the link: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/otherrealmsc...

And here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aag/main/...

Reviews

[Lance Anderson]

I just started reading browsing through this..a supposed UFO 'expert' Neil Daniel's refers to 'This Fire Burns Tonight' as a 'ballad' (?) This is one of Paul Tonka Chapmans greatest riffs! SMH🤔
This will be an interesting read..be back to complete my review later!

[Bob Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite bands growing up in the 70/80's. I still listen to the classic UFO songs, but thought this book would help me learn more about the later stuff from their catalogue. I enjoyed the walk down memory lane for the older stuff and the inside stories that came along with it. The info on the non-Schenker/Chapman years was interesting and I found myself downloading a few of the albums from iTunes as I read along. I thought some of the chapters were a bit long winded and could have been reeled in a bit, but overall a good history of a band that didn't get the recognition I think they deserved.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The History of the Band UFO. well...up to a point. The band is still active and still recording.
Phil Moog and Pete Way are still present.
Their most recent album was all cover songs and got bad reviews. I was not happy with it either.

As for this book, it is a good read,but I think Martin Popoff's book about UFO is better.
I do recommend this for serious fans of this great band.
I think STRANGER'S IN THE NIGHT Is the Best Hard Rock Live album EVER.
That's a fact.
Rock On.