Uriah Heep (up through Sweet Freedom, that is) was a terrific band.
And their newer stuff isn't half bad either
Uriah Heep (up through Sweet Freedom, that is) was a terrific band.
And their newer stuff isn't half bad either
The Prog Corner
Any recommendations on new stuff?
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
I quite like Sea Of Light.
Yeah, good album. Sounds very much like the old Heep!Originally Posted by JJ88
NB.:Mick Box told me that Ken Hensley did not play keys on spice as he only joined the band right after. He was however part of the srudio production. Most of the songs on that album were written by Mick Box and David Byron.I didn't want to post this on NP thread, because it probably won't be noticed. Uriah Heep is a band I like very much especially their early stuff, while hoping some of you feel the same, many have not heard this before also may not know that prior to Uriah Heep they were called Spice (also with David Byron, Mick Box, Ken Hensley etc.)
This track is so good, I hope in some way it might make others just as happy like me, when I first heard/discovered this and continue to love!
My ultimate favourite track from Uriah Heep is Salisbury, others are July Morning, The Wizard, Rain etc.
I've loved pretty much all of Demons and Wizards from the day it was released, apart from All My Life which I generally skip. And the opening of Gypsy on the Uriah Heep Live 1973 album is incredibly great. I can even listen to UH songs I don't especially care for just because of Hensley's organ playing, one of the masters of the rock Hammond and Leslie.
BD
www.bdrak.com
Sea Of Light was a real return to form imho. They found a way to bring back some of the old magic.
The following albums have been good, if a bit repetitive to my ears.
I agree.
Toe Fat was another pre-UH band, which featured Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake.
I like the first... eh... NINE Uriah Heep albums a lot, with Very 'eavy Very 'umble and Salisbury being the best of the best and Return To Fantasy (with John Wetton) being the last good album.
After Return To Fantasy, it started getting boring and accelerated into boredom after Byron and Wetton left. Oh well. Sad.
Wake the Sleeper. Best since Firefly.
Technically true, but I assume you are aware that Toe Fat was simply The Gods with a new name, and nearly all the same members, when they reformed after a short break.
That is my ending point with Uriah Heep as well.
Thanks for the suggestions, they're pretty good!
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
Already mentioned. Toe Fat also included a pre-Jethro Tull John Glascock, and when Kerslake got fired from the band, he was replaced by John's brother Brian Glascock, who later moved to LA and played in The Motels I remember seeing that LP cover in a used record store when I was like 10, and was kinda creeped out by it at the time. But I already knew the band name, because once it again, ti's mentioned in the Uriah Heep Live liner notes.Toe Fat was another pre-UH band, which featured Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake.
I somehow wasn't aware that John Glascock and Lee Kerslake were also in The Gods, but I suppose you have a point. My understanding, though, was that the group was formed by Cliff Bennett, who hired Ken Hensley as guitarist and keyboardist. Hensley then roped in Glascock and Kerslake, so I suppose you're correct.
I have the Toe Fat album on CD. I also have UH in the form of:
…Very ‘Eavy… Very ‘Umble
Salisbury
Look At Yourself
Demons and Wizards
Magician’s Birthday
Sweet Freedom
Wonderworld
High & Mighty
Firefly
Innocent Victims
Conquest
Abominog
Waken the Sleeper
Into the World
Celebration
Outsider
Some exciting news on a remaster series of Heep albums:
BMG have announced an extensive CD and digital reissue programme which is curated by Uriah Heep's founder member Mick Box. The campaign starts on 30th September 2016, and continues through 2017, with the new two disc anthology 'Your Turn To Remember: The Definitive 1970-1990' and an expanded edition of their classic debut 'Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble'.
The reissues come as 2CD expanded packages, with the original LPs on CD1 re-mastered by renowned engineer Andy Pearce of Lou Reed and Black Sabbath fame and complete with liner notes by the bestselling rock author Joel McIver. Box and Heep's sometime member Ken Hensley, composer of many of the band's best-known songs, contribute to each album's notes.
Evoking an era when prog, hard rock and Heavy Metal co-existed in an era of glorious, boundary-breaking music, the songs on this 2CD collection trace the evolution of Heep from inexperienced studio musicians with everything to prove to bona fide, limo inhabiting rock stars. The Anthology cherry picks tracks from some of Heep's most celebrated albums including 'Demons And Wizards', 'Look At Yourself', 'Return To Fantasy', 'Equator', 'Conquest' and 'The Magicians Birthday'.
Mick Box explains: "We were very green! If the engineer had said, 'Stand in a fire bucket and plug your guitar into that radiator', we probably would have done it. We had no experience of the studio at all. Two years later we were in America, playing to between 10,000 and 20,000 people a night.
"We were in a big bubble, with all the private Learjets and so on: I don't think I went through an airport for 10 years! We were picked up by limos on the tarmac, and all that stuff. We'd take whole floors of hotels, with bodyguards outside each room. It got to those heady, silly heights, but I was personally always up for the fun of it. I never believed it was going to continue, but some did, which was a bit unfortunate..."
Additionally released in August is Heep's 1970 debut album '...'Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble' - a must-buy for many fans. Originally released on the magnificent Vertigo spiral label with original mint condition first pressings now commanding a price of £500+, it is bursting at the seams with creativity and a desire to make a mark in the most fertile era that rock music has ever known, the album was a powerful statement of intent, showcasing the incredible vocals of the late David Byron.
Witness the opening cut 'Gypsy', the musicians stop and start on a dime in a classic opening sequence before Byron's soaring vocals introduce the ever-lovin' subject matter. Hensley's immense organ solo, which not only occupies most of the song's midsection, but also restarts the entire song towards its back end, is a showcase of a young, hot musician with everything to prove.
This new issue of 'Eavy brings together the newly re-mastered original album with a second disc of never before issued alternate mixes. Three tracks on CD2 are from the late period Spice (pre Heep) sessions (just prior to Ken Hensley joining the fold) and the rest are all from the Very 'Eavy sessions, recorded over a period of several months in late 1969 and early 1970.
Mick Box adds: "Creativity in Uriah Heep was at a peak at the time. Nobody was breathing down our necks, so we moved into a more progressive field after 'Very 'Eavy... Very 'Umble'. We were getting into a period where we would just write things and let them go where they wanted to go, rather than writing to a format. Not that there had been a format before, but this time we really let our hair down, if you like! We decided that there would be no restrictions whatsoever."
Organist Ken Hensley looks back at this era fondly, saying: "It was beginning to sink in that we were onto something. The management company, the record company, the publishing company and everyone else were all on board, and we had made a bit of an impact with the first album, especially in Europe, so we had some momentum. I took most of the tracks in their rawest forms to the band, and together we turned them into full songs."
'Your Turn To Remember: The Definitive Anthology 1970-1990'
Disc 1
1. Gypsy
2. Come Away Melinda
3. Bird Of Prey
4. Lady In Black
5. Look At Yourself
6. July Morning – Japanese single edit
7. Easy Livin'
8. The Wizard
9. Sunrise
10. Sweet Lorraine
11. Stealin'
12. Sweet Freedom
13. The Shadows And The Wind
14. Suicidal Man
15. Return To Fantasy
16. Devil's Daughter
Disc 2
1. Weep In Silence
2. Can't Keep A Good Band Down
3. Sympathy
4. Firefly
5. Free n' Easy
6. Free Me
7. Woman Of The Night
8. Come Back To Me
9. It Ain't Easy
10. No Return
11. Too Scared To Run
12. Chasing Shadows
13. Straight Through The Heart
14. The Other Side Of Midnight
15. Rockarama
16. Poor Little Rich Girl
17. Voice On My TV
So now there's going to be a full CD of bonus tracks for each album? Madness. I have the previous set of remasters which contain as many bonus tracks as they could fit on one CD along with the original albums, and quite a few of those already reek as very desperate attempts to scrape something from the bottom of the barrel that could be called an "extended version" or an "edited version". So if these bonus tracks are just going to be "never before issued alternate mixes" of tracks I already have several versions of, my expectations are not very high.
I like Uriah Heep, but I'm not going to buy their albums for a second time.
I saw them three times, which is more than most of the bands I have seen. The first time was the Sweet Freedom tour, at GA Tech Colosseum. That one was very memorable because it was my birthday and the opening acts Tucky Buzzard and Earth, Wind & Fire were very good. The next two shows were Wonderworld and Return To Fantasy tours. Those shows were good bot not nearly as great as that first show.
I first got into Heep when a friend of mine and I were getting stoned and listening to my older brothers 8-track collection. So my friend goes "Oh wow! they have "Look At Yourself"! That's a great album
Little did we realize that the unmarked tape that had been playing was about halfway through "July Morning" and when my friend punched in the Look At Yourself tape it started at almost the exact same spot in the song! I told him "Why did you put that that unmarked tape back in?" He bust out laughing and said "I DIDN'T" "This is the Uriah Heep tape playing! We had a pretty good buzz going at the time, and I think we both had laughing fits for the next 15 minutes.
They really rocked in concert though. One of my brothers' friends looked a lot like David Byron (including the curly hair). He made us laugh when he immitated Byron down to a "T".
[QUOTE=JJ88;579959]Not more of these so-called 'alternate versions'. I think the previous Sanctuary remasters were clogged up with these unnecessary inclusions.
It's a solid selection with one horrendous exception...a single edit of 'July Morning', ugh. Who wants that?
One more oddity...it doesn't contain the song it's named after
My top three songs:
1. Easy Livin'
2. Look At Yourself
3. Wonderworld
Third - the first round was in 1996. At that point, the bonus tracks of Very 'Eavy were the single version of Gypsy, alternate version of Come Away Melinda and Born in a Trunk.
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