It's Halloween night, and Uriah Heep came to town.
This is the second 35st anniversary tour I seen this year; makes me wonder how many of today's flavours of the month will still be around in a generation's time. The venue was Manchester Academy 2, part of the Manchester University student's union. But the age profile of the audience suggested there were very few students in attendance.
Support was a local band called Coldflame, who I'd never heard of before. Their appearance was a one-off for the Manchester show, which for some reason was arranged by a different promoter from the rest of the tour. Don't ask me why! Coldflame played bluesy hard rock with some very Tull-like flute playing from the singer. A good sound mix and some excellent musicianship made them the best support act I've seen for a long while. They do in fact moonlight as a Jethro Tull tribute band, which explains the flute. This time, though, they were playing their own material.
The mighty Uriah Heep hit the stage at nine. One thing I've always noticed about them is how much they clearly enjoy being on stage, especially guitarist Mick Box. Many, many years on the road, but it's clear this is not bunch of jaded has-beens going through the motions. While they went through a lot of lineup changes in during the 70s and 80s, the band has now been stable for something like half their 35 year history. Mick Box (the only remaining founder member!), Lee Kerslake and Trevor Boulder have been around since their 70s heyday, and joining them are Phil Lanzon on keys and Bernie Shaw on vocals. All five of them were on excellent form. The sound perhaps was a little bit muddy, but not enough to spoil the show.
Article comments
1 - Keith
One of the greatest prog-rock albums of all time by one of the greatest bands! Bravo Tim! Seeing them perform live must have been wonderful! I have seen enough DVDs over the last few years to know that these guys still have what it takes. Thanks for the post!
2 - Eric Olsen
thanks Tim, and I agree about Demons and Wizards, still love it - I didnt' realize David Byron and Gary Thain were both permanently former band members. the last time I saw the Heep was about 1975 - zounds!
3 - Tim Hall
David Byron sadly died in the mid 80s, several years after leaving Heep in 1976.
Think it's been a long time since Heep made it across the Atlantic; their main market nowadays seems to be continental Europe, especially Germany (perhaps the Germans need to atone for liking David Hasselhof), and Russia. They've had a bit of a revival in Britain the last few years; for many years all they did was a few one-off shows in London, but this is the second national tour in the past couple of years; and it's five years since their last album.