Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman
June 9, 1954 – June 9, 2020
Former UFO and Lone Star guitarist Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman has died at the age of 66. No cause of death has yet been made public.
Nobody from UFO remembers for sure who was responsible for coining Chapman’s nickname ‘Tonka’, although the band’s vocalist Phil Mogg suspects that bassist Pete Way is to blame. Regardless of who it was, it was an inspired choice. During the 1970s, Tonka toys were advertised as being indestructible. When Chapman became part of the UFO madhouse for a second time, in 1978, this was a necessary quality.
“Paul fitted in perfectly,” Mogg tells Classic Rock now. “He was in charge of procurement. Those days were extremely colourful, and we made some really good music together, but when Paul joined the band maybe we went a bit too far in the pursuit of a good time. Paul was our leader.”
In 1971, Cardiff-born Chapman replaced Gary Moore in the Irish band Skid Row, Three years later he became part of a short-lived twin-guitar line-up of UFO. “Paul and Michael [Schenker] started off really well,” Mogg recalls, “but one guitarist wanted the limelight a bit more than the other, so we parted ways for a while… until Michael went off on walkabout.”
Chapman then became part of the newly formed Lone Star, which included future Uriah Heep singer John Sloman. While their two albums were highly rated, the band never managed to break through, and disbanded when Chapman was asked to rejoin UFO following Schenker’s exit in 1978 (Chapman had filled in on a US tour with Rush before the appointment became permanent). Over the course of four UFO studio albums – the George Martin-produced No Place To Run, plus The Wild, The Willing And The Innocent, Mechanix and Making Contact – the band proved that there was life without the talismanic Schenker.
Chapman set a high-water mark early on, writing his iconic lead solo for the track Profession Of Violence while paddling in the surf on the Caribbean island paradise of Monserrat. “There were no waves. I’d just stand there for hours while my feet shrivelled up,” he told Classic Rock’s Neil Jeffries. “I came up with the melody there.”
UFO’s wild living was every bit as compulsive as their albums. Almost every week the pages of Sounds magazine included stories of hell-raising, Special Brew-fuelled globe-trotting tales, often related by writer Garry Bushell, who recalls: “The only person I ever saw drink Tonka under the table was Phil Lynott’s mum.”
As might be expected, life on the road with Tonka and UFO was never dull. Laughing, Phil Mogg relates: “At the start of each tour, the bus would pick him up and he’d say: ‘Hold on a minute, I’ve just got to pick up my guitar.’ And he’d go into the pawn shop.”
Chapman loved a barbecue, and on more than one occasion UFO were thrown out of their hotel after he lit one up – not necessarily outdoors.
“Paul would fucking barbecue anywhere – hotel bedrooms, car parks alongside the bus, you name it,” Mogg says, laughing. “He had this fucking crock pot. He’d buy cuts of meat and leave it cooking while you did the gig, and serve up a stew at four a.m. on the tour bus.”
After leaving UFO, Chapman joined former bandmate Pete Way in Waysted, and played on the albums The Good The Bad The Waysted and Save Your Prayers. Way was “shocked and saddened” by the news of Chapman’s death, particularly so soon after the untimely demise of UFO’s rhythm guitarist/keyboard player Paul Raymond in 2019. “This is a reminder that we are all mortal, it could happen to any of us at any time,” Way said in a statement.
Mogg speaks of Tonka with affection, saying he was “a great musician, a wonderful character and a sweetheart”.
Former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell commented: “Paul was my main influence for many years, and a brilliant bloke.”