The band's classic line-up comprised Mogg, Parker, bassist Pete Way, keyboardist Paul Raymond and former Scorpions guitarist Michael Schenker.

[13] Lead singer Phil Mogg, guitarist Mick Bolton, bassist Pete Way and drummer Andy Parker formed the band in 1968.

Their first album, UFO 1, released in 1970, is a typical example of early hard rock; it includes a heavy version of the Eddie Cochran classic "C'mon Everybody".

Mick Bolton left the group in January 1972 after arguments with Mogg and Parker,[16] and UFO set out to find a guitarist who could provide the band with a more standard rock sound.

After brief trial runs with guitarists Larry Wallis (February–October 1972) and Bernie Marsden (who toured with UFO in Europe and recorded a pair of demos, "Oh My" and "Sixteen") the band recruited Michael Schenker from the Scorpions in June 1973.

In 1974, under producer Leo Lyons (formerly of Ten Years After), UFO recorded Phenomenon, which highlighted the band's harder-edged guitar sound.

[14] By the time of the Phenomenon tour, ex-Skid Row guitarist Paul "Tonka" Chapman joined the group, but he left in January 1975 to form Lone Star.

In July 1976, the band recruited keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Paul Raymond from Savoy Brown to make 1977's Lights Out.

While Obsession was not as successful as Lights Out, the band still maintained their arena status while touring for the album, playing with AC/DC and Rush again,[17][19] and other bands like Blue Öyster Cult, Styx, Foghat, Jethro Tull, REO Speedwagon and Molly Hatchet;[20][21] as part of the Obsession tour, UFO recorded the live album, Strangers in the Night, which was released in January 1979.

[14] Strangers was a critical and commercial success, reaching Number 7 in the UK Albums Chart in February 1979,[14] and a tour to support the live album followed, playing with bands like AC/DC, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Journey, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth and Judas Priest,[20][22] and appearing at the California World Music Festival with Aerosmith, Van Halen, Toto and April Wine.

[25] After Schenker's exit, UFO rehired guitarist Paul Chapman,[14] who brought unused track ideas from Lone Star's drummer Dixie Lee.

He was replaced by John Sloman from Lone Star on keyboards for a couple of months, then by former Wild Horses guitarist and keyboardist Neil Carter, who helped fill the void in the songwriting left by Schenker's departure.

[14] Carter debuted with UFO on stage at the three-day Reading Festival on 23 August 1980, when the band played as the Saturday night headliner.

[26] At the beginning of the following year, UFO released the self-produced The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent, which had a lighter, contemporary pop rock sound.

[27] The band played a UK farewell tour with Paul Gray (former bassist with Eddie and the Hot Rods and the Damned).

[30] In 1991, Mogg and Way decided to put a new UFO line-up together with former Wild Horses members Clive Edwards on drums, Laurence Archer on guitar, and keyboardist Jem Davis joining the band and they released High Stakes & Dangerous Men.

The following year, the classic late-1970s UFO line-up – Mogg, Schenker, Way, Raymond and Parker – reunited, and the resulting album was Walk on Water (1995).

Mogg and Way continued working together throughout this fluctuating band membership, releasing two albums under the Mogg/Way name in the late 1990s, Edge of the World and Chocolate Box.

On the 2008 tour, Pete Way was unable to get a work visa to enter the United States, Rob De Luca (Sebastian Bach's band, Of Earth, Spread Eagle) filling in.

[33] UFO released their 19th studio album, The Visitor, in June 2009,[34] and followed with a tour of the UK, but without Pete Way, who was suffering from a medical condition.

I don't want to call this a farewell tour as I hate that word, but next year's gigs will represent my final tap-dancing appearances with the band."

He added that "the timing feels right" for him to quit, and that "there will be a final tour of the U.K. and we will also play some shows in selected other cities that the band has a strong connection with.

[44] Two weeks later, it was announced that Raymond's initial replacement Neil Carter would be rejoining UFO for the remainder of the band's final tour.