Proggies rejoice! UK 2011 Reunion (+ a black Victory on a badly lit stage)

Aussie Mark · April 20, 2011, 05:46:28 PM

Quote from: TBird1958 on April 20, 2011, 01:54:04 PM

When I finally did get to see Uriah Heep it was with Wetton, he played fine, but in my mind no one was going to replace Gary Thain.

I love the Thain-era Heep albums, but my favourite Heep basslines and tone are the albums that Wetton played on.

eb2 · April 20, 2011, 10:45:48 PM

I have always liked Wetton, and bought the UK lps because of him. But they never did anything for me. It is rough comparing that to the King Crimson stuff as the songs just didn't have anything comparable. Oddly enough I like The Family stuff with Wetton, which was more listenable by nature. UK was more listenable or mememorable than the Wetton/Manzanera lp, but those were among the first batch of LPs I sold to a used shop and I can't say that was a bad move.

Mogul Thrash is more fun too.

Freuds_Cat · April 20, 2011, 11:07:34 PM

Thain then Bolder is my preference with Uriah Heep. Wetton I prefer to listen to when he plays with Crimson. As unpopular as it may seem to some, my ears like John Payne in Asia. Anyone heard any of the stuff Payne has done with GPS?

uwe · April 21, 2011, 04:21:55 AM

Quote from: Aussie Mark on April 20, 2011, 05:46:28 PM
I love the Thain-era Heep albums, but my favourite Heep basslines and tone are the albums that Wetton played on.

I'm with the other Mark on this one, Thain had that subtle melodic groove. Wetton is able enough as a bassist, but compared to Thain he sounds more angular and rigid which is fine with his prog outfits, but Thain gave Heep more depth and warmth. That said, be it Bolder or Daisley, Wetton or Thain, Clarke or whoever, Heep have never had a bad bassist. In their instrumental ranks I always felt that the bassists were all above par and played more than just the mandatory stuff. Today, Bolder is de facto their lead guitarist one octave lower because Mick Box lets him graciously have all that space and Bolder can play all the Heep stuff in his sleep by now.

Stjofön Big · April 21, 2011, 05:14:20 AM

Must admit I've only owned one album with Uriah Heep. Look att yourself, must have been in -72, I guess. I tried to listen to it, but the album was so ridiculous in my ears that I got rid of it. Never gave myself the time to listen to the band again.
Was that a mistake? Why would anyone listen to Uriah Heep? Was it just that album, Look..., that was especially, well, ridiculous in it's pomp and phony lyrics, or's that a good example of the band?
Or is it just a matter of me being a lost soul, as the music I appreciate is on the other end of the stick, Byrds (cirka -70), Little Feat (cirka -72), Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead (any ol' time), Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Television, Stones, Zeppelin, Connie Francis, hell, I even dig the new instrumental album by Brian Setzer?

uwe · April 21, 2011, 07:17:14 AM

Heep had the image of being poor man's Deep Purple and in their formative years often sounded like it - minus the instrumental extravaganzas of Messrs Lord and Blackmore as Hensley (a great all-round musician and songwriter, but not in the Lord-Wakeman-Emerson league as a keyboardsmith) and Box (as they will be the first to admit) weren't as technically strong as their DP counterparts. Look at Yourself was still very raw and naive, full of Purple'isms. Early Purple and early Heep shared rehearsal rooms across to each other and the DP guys would always mumble darkly at hearing at Heep rehearsals what Purple had rehearsed just a week before.

But Heep gradually grew away from that. By Demons & Wizards and Sweet Freedom (their strongest studio outputs with the Gary Thain line up) they wrote catchier chorusses than Purple, had their wall of sound backing vocals down pat (something Purple under Gillan never had) and had given up those lenghthy instrumental jams which they could never pull off as artistically convincing as Purple anyway. So I would start from there. Return to Fantasy (with Wetton) is good too as is Firefly and the otherr John Lawton-line up stuff which was poppier in places but featured matured songwriting.

If Led Zep, DP and Black Sabbath made up the A team of Brit seventies hard rock, errrm, stadium rock, then Uriah Heep were probably top of the B team which featured such luminaries as UFO, Nazareth and Thin Lizzy. While Heep's music was in many ways more accessible than any of Purple's, Sabbath's or Zep's output, no critic ever took them seriously (the A team at least received grudging respect). They have still carved their deserved piece of rock history.

nofi · April 21, 2011, 07:41:05 AM

i liked the first 5 or 6 heep records but i found the lyrics plain silly, even by 70's standards.

gweimer · April 21, 2011, 07:43:12 AM

Quote from: uwe on April 21, 2011, 04:21:55 AM
I'm with the other Mark on this one, Thain had that subtle melodic groove. Wetton is able enough as a bassist, but compared to Thain he sounds more angular and rigid which is fine with his prog outfits, but Thain gave Heep more depth and warmth. That said, be it Bolder or Daisley, Wetton or Thain, Clarke or whoever, Heep have never had a bad bassist. In their instrumental ranks I always felt that the bassists were all above par and played more than just the mandatory stuff. Today, Bolder is de facto their lead guitarist one octave lower because Mick Box lets him graciously have all that space and Bolder can play all the Heep stuff in his sleep by now.

I couldn't have said it better. Thain was probably my biggest influence, and I wasn't even TRYING to mimic him when I first started playing. "Sweet Lorraine" is a perfect bass song from Thain.

Stjofön Big · April 21, 2011, 08:15:25 AM

All right, Uwe! And thanks for the info! I'll give it a try with Return to Fantasy, when it comes my way. But not right now. Because now I'm gonna make a Boeuf Bourguignon that will make the world astound!

uwe · April 21, 2011, 09:16:54 AM

Quote from: nofi on April 21, 2011, 07:41:05 AM
i liked the first 5 or 6 heep records but i found the lyrics plain silly, even by 70's standards.

True, they got a lot of flak for it too. NME held a contest "who writes the silliest sword & scorcery lyrics in rock" and Heep, Rush and Zep were the "lucky" winners. To be fair, that fantasy stuff peaked with Heep on their masterpiece Demons & Wizards and the rushed follow-up Magician's Birthday, after that they toned it down though it would from time to time continue to rear its orcly head again.

"I've done the rancher's daughter and I sure did hurt his pride - hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo aw-aw-aw" seemed suitably prosaic though! They were not afraid to grapple with serious and timeless sociological problems too, you see?!

TBird1958 · April 21, 2011, 09:28:45 AM

I really like Sweet Freedom, and Magician's Birthday best as studio work, Uriah Heep Live has some great work by Thain - Stylistically I don't play anything like him (I sure wish I could!) but as a teenager he was quite inspiring to me, "Sweet Lorraine" and later my fave "Stealin" got played till the grooves were white! RIP Gary Thain!

"Stood on a ridge and shunned religon
thinkin' the world was mine.
I made my break and a big mistake
stealin' when I shoulda been buying."

Basshappi · April 21, 2011, 09:52:24 AM

I've made no secret of the fact that I love both prog and fusion.

Saw Wetton with UK on the "Danger Money" tour and was unimpressed with him and the band. I bought the first Asia album as soon as it hit the stores and was bitterly disappointed, not so much with the musicianship but with their pseudo-prog pop music style. Never paid them any attention after that.

As for Heep, Demons & Wizards and Mr. Thain has always been my mental image of them. Though I have always intended to dig more deeply into their music it is just something I haven't gotten around to. I need to do something about that.

Pekka · April 24, 2011, 01:37:58 AM

Quote from: uwe on April 20, 2011, 11:11:11 AM
That is because Gustafson - silly boy - did not want to tour with Roxy because he'd rather waste time on his futile power trio project Hard Stuff which went nowhere. Later on he even had an offer to join them (something they have not done with any bassist before or after) and still declined.

Agree with Hard Stuff, especially when they let John DuCann sing his own songs...

But Gus did tour with the Roxy, it was in 1975 after Wetton had joined Heep and before Gus joined Ian Gillan Band and was replaced with Rick Wills. Gustafson is also featured on "Viva!".

Johnny Gus also worked with Shawn Phillips at that time (1974). They even reformed Quatermass with Barry DeSouza on drums and backed Shawn on a tour. Some work was done with Janne Schaffer too, also featuring alumni like the mighty Peter Robinson on keys.

Pekka · April 24, 2011, 01:42:58 AM

Quote from: nofi on April 20, 2011, 04:24:52 PM
as i recall zappa played bass all/most of the time on the record. i guess o'hearn was busy gearing up for his stellar 'new age' career. imo that was the weakest band zappa ever put together.

Zappa played quite a lot bass on "Zoot Allures" because the band was on transition but usually he let the bass players do their job and who wouldn't if you have O'Hearn, Scott Thunes, Arthur Barrow, Tom Fowler etc.

One of my fav lineups was Bozzio/O'Hearn/Mars/Wolf/Belew/Mann/Zappa, i.e. the 1977-78 touring band that produced "Sheik Yerbouti" and the posthumous "Hammersmith" albums. There's a great bootleg from Germany, February 1978. I hate the term "kills" but O'Hearn just does that.

Pekka · April 24, 2011, 07:32:10 AM

Speaking of Heep, there's a UK B-side (the flip of "Night After Night" 7") called "When Will You Realize" that sounds like Uriah Heep. Penned by Wetton only and hands down the worst track they ever recorded, even worse than "Nothing To Lose".

Speaking of UK, I quite like both their studio albums and if I'm not terribly mistaken Wetton used his black '70s Jazz Bass on them. On stage it was still the '61 Precision and for the last tour a black Ibanez RS900.

The best bass sound he has ever achieved is on King Crimson's "Live in Zurich 1973". Just listen to "Easy Money" from that. Hiwatt/Precision heaven.