Uriah Heep (Official Thread)

recgord27

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What I liked about this album ( and others of this time.) was the tuning up of guitars in between songs - which allowed for banter with the audience... Jagger being a case in point, "I've burst a button on my trousers", whilst Keith twiddle.
Well polished crouching guitar techs handing a perfectly tuned axe.. ain't rock n roll.
This and Live & Dangerous are my faithful friends.

Sunrise.
Have to agree with you on that point. I also love the banter while the guitars are being tuned. Even Zep do it on a couple of the bootlegs that I have.
I also have a slew of 70's live albums that act as my "comfort blanket" when I feel untoward. UH Live, Live and Dangerous and strangely enough, The Song Remains The Same (the original album, not the remastered with extra tracks) and Little Feats' Waiting For Columbine are my favourited at the moment. I like your term "faithful friends" because that's what they are.
 

recgord27

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The first 3 DP albums weren't really groundbreaking the way the next few would be. UH definitely had management issues with Bronze, especially when it came to getting a foothold in the US. I mean, I remember hearing some of their stuff on the radio here at the time, but they weren't being pushed as much as Deep Purple (by then) or Zeppelin.

I definitely agree that their management had a lot to do with their lower status in the early days. Later on they shot themselves in the foot with their substance abuse. However, they still remain my all time favourite band, especially the albums up to Innocent Victim. They should have been much bigger imo.
Uriah Heep were always referred to as the poor man's Deep Purple which I find a bit simplistic. Their music was completely different in a most ways. Ritchie Blackmore and Mick Box don't even have same/similar styles of playing and the same for Ken Hensley and Jon Lord. Maybe the press of the time also had a lot to do with their status as well, especially magazines like Rolling Stone with all their negative publicity.
 

Nai Noswad

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Some great valid points here: I never considered bad management, and yet it's obvious now, was it Gerry Bron? Peter Grant was indeed a force to be reckoned with! I kept tabs on Kerslake over the years and time wasn't kind to him- I suppose, unless you are made of iron, booze, pills and powders do catch up. Good point about 'comfort blanket' recgord Heep Live- Lizzy Live and Gallagher '74 are my go to albums. Strangely...not a single Stones live album, apart from a 1978 bootleg in Memphis.
When the boys are on point. Live videos have to be Moodies at Isle Of Wight and The Who...back to Heep, I remember the excitement of their new release days, I recall getting shop posters for High and Mighty and got laughed at by mates for buying Ken's first solo album...philistines!!
 

Ar-Pharazon

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Some great valid points here: I never considered bad management, and yet it's obvious now, was it Gerry Bron? Peter Grant was indeed a force to be reckoned with! I kept tabs on Kerslake over the years and time wasn't kind to him- I suppose, unless you are made of iron, booze, pills and powders do catch up. Good point about 'comfort blanket' recgord Heep Live- Lizzy Live and Gallagher '74 are my go to albums. Strangely...not a single Stones live album, apart from a 1978 bootleg in Memphis.
When the boys are on point. Live videos have to be Moodies at Isle Of Wight and The Who...back to Heep, I remember the excitement of their new release days, I recall getting shop posters for High and Mighty and got laughed at by mates for buying Ken's first solo album...philistines!!

I haven't seen the various article(s) for years, but I do remember the band were seriously P-O'd at Bron for "poor management" of his label in general and hyping the band specifically.

From Wikipedia:
"Soon after going out of hospital, Thain, in Sounds, openly accused manager Gerry Bron of having turned Uriah Heep into a mere "financial thing" and was fired two months after the group's final gig of 1974 at New Theatre in Oxford, England on 14 December."

"A meeting at the manager's office concerning the songwriting dissent was the last straw and, in September 1980, Hensley quit. Gregg Dechert, a Canadian who had worked with Sloman in Pulsar, came in and the band went on a 23-date tour of the UK. After that Sloman left, citing musical differences for a reason.[25] He would later go on to work with UFO, Gary Moore and Robert Palmer. Hensley's acrimonious departure left the group in a state of collapse. Box and Bolder visited David Byron with attractive propositions. "We couldn't believe it when he said he didn't want to know," the guitarist remembered. Bolder, who by that time, "...had had enough of Gerry Bron and the management,"

"By this time Gerry Bron was Uriah Heep manager no longer (they were looked after by Neil Warnock in Europe and Blue Oyster Cult's management team in the US) and then, finally, Bronze Records collapsed under the weight of debts, which, according to Box, "...cost Heep a lot of money."
 

Ar-Pharazon

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Good info, thanks- I often wondered what happened to the label, Motorhead were on Bronze also, it does annoy me that musicians get ripped off. The t.wat that owned RSO was another gangster.

Luckily Bronze was distributing via other labels or we may never have heard UH in the states. I remember owning a couple cassettes with the Mercury/Polygram label, including Demons & Wizards (which doesn't line up with Wiki saying Bronze was distributed on Island Records from 1971-1977). I also had the Abominog cassette.
 

recgord27

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I always wondered what happened to Bronze. Besides Heep, they had a couple of good bands on the label. Last I heard was that his wife was living in Cape Town a few years ago. Don't know what happened to him.
When I listen to Ken Hensley's "Blood On The Highway" I always get the impression that the Ken and the chaps were coerced into their contract with Bron (that is if the album is indeed Ken's life story). I also read the book by Ken, and if I remember correctly, that was the feeling I got then as well, though he never spelt it out. Maybe it was like that in those days for everyone until Peter Grant came along and changed the rules. Most bands were indeed run by corporate thugs like Don Arden, Mickie Most, Robert Stigwood and others of their ilk.
For some fascinating insights into the band, David Ling's "Uncensored; On The Record" and another book/magazine called "Uriah Heep - Music Legends", author unknown (maybe David Ling again?) but it has a foreword written by Bob Carruthers which gives it some credibility for me.
 

Nai Noswad

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Not thought about the band 'Fury' until today... as I was tidying up and putting albums away, I am sure (?) that Fury supported Heep when I saw them in '77 in Brum....we did hear rumours that Nazareth were to play... but that fizzled out- ( I doubted that rumour as they were big in their own right.)
Anyways, I was astounded at how technically brilliant they were... and so loud!
I purchased a badge(button) - but the programme was pricey... and at the time didn't realise the value of such a thing later on in years.
The set list: Stealin' - Look At Yourself - Gypsy- July Morning- Sweet Lorraine and a long version of Firefly (more I know) ... I don't even recall much merchandise.. like T. Shirts etc... in those days you just lived for the night that was in it!
 
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