Pete Way - Solo Albums 2000-2004

Although he was a founding member of UFO and had released albums with the bands Waysted and Fastway, as well as a couple with his UFO bandmate Phil Mogg as Mogg/Way, in 2000 bassist Pete Way, alongside guitarist Walt James and drummer Scott Phillips, released his first solo album Amphetamine.  Unlike the music from his other bands, which were primarily on the melodic rock end of things, Amphetamine found him moving in a grittier, dirtier, rawer direction, often with more of a punk/garage rock sound, most notably found on tracks like “Hangin’ Out”, “American Kid (What A Shame)” and most notably “Crazy”, which sounds like a band at the end of the night after a few too many drinks.  While the whole album has that vibe, other songs like opener “That’s Tuff” and the slower “Fooled Again”, mix in a bit more of a bluesy sound (interestingly there are spoken word sections in “That’s Tuff” where his delivery is a little reminiscent of “Fight For Your Right To Party”), while “Hole” is a punked up country song and “Hole 2” is a stripped down, acoustic version of the same track.   The band closes things out quite impressively with “Hand To Hold”, a track that has a lot of dynamics that really aren’t found elsewhere and really showcases James’ guitar work.  Disc one also includes demo versions of three album cuts.

In 2002 Way, James and Phillips took the album out on the road and disc two is his set from the Revolution in Cleveland on October 4th of that year.  Along with playing Amphetamine in its entirety, the set that night also included four cuts from The Plot’s sole album (his collaboration with Michael Schenker and Jeff Martin), UFO’s “Too Hot To Handle” and Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else” (after hearing this cover you can definitely hear Cochran’s influence in some of Way’s songwriting).  The sound quality here is surprisingly very good and all the raw, raucous energy from the album is on full display.  The band sounds really tight and James guitar work is especially impressive.  Way sounds relaxed and seems to be enjoying himself, even breaking into a little of The Temptations’ “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” and The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” during “You and Me” and “That’s Tuff”.  There is a bonus acoustic guitar and vocal track “Paradise” at the end of disc two.  There is no information on this track, so I don’t know the details, but it is a nice, simple little track with a good vocal from Way.   

For his next album, Acoustic Animal, the last disc in the box, Way shifted directions completely, stripping it down to just his vocals and himself and Michael Christian on acoustic guitars.  In addition to six tracks from Amphetamine, there is a take on his Waysted track “Heaven Tonight”, another version of “Paradise”, which sounds almost exactly the same as the one at the end of disc two, and covers of Fats Domino’s “If You Need Me” and Lennon’s “Working Class Hero”.   While this disc is my least favorite of the three, there are some definite high points here, especially “That’s Tuff” and “American Kid”, both of which maintain the ragged grittiness of the originals, “Fooled Again”, “Hangin’ Out" and the aforementioned “Heaven Tonight”.  Unfortunately the same can't be said for the two covers.  They really don't work, and Way's vocals pretty much make them unlistenable.  Overall this is a very enjoyable box set and an interesting glimpse into this era of Way's career. 

(HNE Recordings)