Phil Mogg Confirms UFO Is Done: ‘It’s Come to a Conclusion’

Phil Mogg says UFO is officially done.

“I think it’s come to a conclusion,” the frontman admitted during a conversation with UCR’s Matt Wardlaw. “We did that last U.K. tour in 2019, just before COVID. So that was kind of the end of it and the time was right.”

UFO had planned to sign-off in a more elaborate way. The hard rock group launched their farewell tour in 2019 to coincide with the band’s 50th anniversary. Dates eventually stretched in 2022 and UFO announced that a final show would take place on Oct. 29 that year in Athens, Greece.

Unfortunately, two months before what was supposed to be their last gig, Mogg suffered a heart attack that required two stents to be implanted into his coronary arteries. Under doctor’s orders, Mogg stepped away from performing. The remaining dates of the farewell tour were canceled and never rescheduled. A July 16, 2022 show in Germany now stands as the group’s final concert.

New Expanded Edition of UFO’s ‘Lights Out’

UFO recently released an expanded reissue of their classic 1977 LP Lights Out. The new version features alternate renditions, along with a newly-mixed recording of the band’s first performance on the Lights Out tour.

READ MORE: 10 Bands Who Had Final Tours That Weren’t Final

Ron Nevison, best known at the time for his work on the Who’s Quadrophenia, produced Lights Out. In his conversation with UCR, Mogg noted how Nevison changed the band’s approach.

“He brought a different kind of professionalism to it in his own way, because of his engineering and producing experience,” the singer recalled. “He managed to put up with Pete [Way] and everything else. [Mogg chuckles] He was remarkably stable at that point. It was a breath of fresh air, a different bloke, a different way of working. He had different ideas, which we welcomed. We loved working with Ron.”