By Dave White:

Hi Gang,

It was an amazing experience..

I am sitting in the lobby of the hotel waiting to go to supper with Dave
and Yvonne, and the memories are simply overwhelming.

Apart from the actual concert, there are the events leading up to the
night, and the events following, and there are 6 pages handwritten so far,
which I'll try to summarize.

Louis and I hooked up Thursday afternoon, and spent a very nice evening
with Mick , Dave and Yvonne, Bob Carruthers and Brian and Lorainne, and
Jyrki and a few others I believe..heard Micktales, drank lots and generally
had a very nice time. We were pumped for the day ahead...

Slept in late, hit some record-stores, and had navigator Louis lead us
around until it was time to go to the various film premiers. All are
stunning.... visually as good as it gets and sitting in a movie theater
listening to the full stereo sound with fans and the band there is too much
to deal with. There were more red eyes after the Melinda screening then
just mine. A clip of the promo will be available on the website in a few
days.

The scenes from the December Acoustically Driven concerts were absolutely
encapsulating...they simply draw you in, and keep you...the pipes on Circle
of Hands will go down in Heepstory, no question in my numb mind about it.

The Sailing the Sea of Light is a really well done "Heepumentary" of the
current line up...and it's REALLY well done. Mick, Bernie, Trevor, Lee and
Phil are all interviewed and Tommy Vance (thanks DaveO) does the main
narration...it's something that all of the Heepsters worldwide will love.

Louis and I walked over to the Astoria, and heard just a little bit of
Stray getting tuned up...we signed in, and stayed a bit, ran into Rinus,
Willy and Sandra, and thirsted for a beer, but the Astoria Bar wasn't open
yet...

I think after this we went back to the Hotel and cleaned up and left in the
rain to walk and find the Roger Dean exhibition. After NOT finding it, we
somehow hooked up with Mick and went back to successfully find it...we HAD
been there....just didn't know it. Seeing these paintings very close up is
remarkable...you can see the brushstrokes, and the colors as they became
other colors, and even the real butterfly wings on the Demons and Wizard
original. Suffice to say that the works will be treasures to someone
surely. It's amazing how good they look from a few feet away...mind
boggling really...The band members were there, and wives and friends, and
some of the heepgang...champagne and treats were served. It was very cool,
and I really felt out of my element there ... just awesome.

Time to go to the Astoria...most of the gang were in the Royal George, but
we couldn't find it, so we just went into the Astoria and waited for the
gig to start.

Eventually the crowd came in and it started. Stray was very good..the
guitar player is a trip...elements of Jimi, Pete Townsend, Robin Trower,
Johnny Winter and maybe just a touch of Mick were recognized in his
playing. Stray is a 3 piece band...the bass player is very good, and the
drummer was tight...but the guitarist/vocalist puts on the show...

He knows all the classic 70's ways to play , and has a little routine where
he uses his guitar like a rifle and "shoots" the music out to the
crowd..pretty cool actually. Playing a vintage Gibson Firebird, he uses a
slew of pedal effects...a vibratone (ala Jimi/Trower), a wah, an octave
doubler, some nice chorus effects, but it's his persona that grabs the
crowd...he's a very good guitarist...and fun to watch ! He was all over he
stage, and did a cool guitar solo for about 5 minutes.

During it, he actually takes off the guitar and puts it ON one of the
monitor cabs and leaves it there to feed back ! Quite cool...takes the cord
from the guitar laying up there, and uses it like a jump-rope...every once
in a while it hits the strings and started a whole another bunch of
feedback that fit the songs well :-) Then, it was over to Mick's Marshall
cabs, and he was sliding the neck of the guitar up and down on the face of
the cabinet..very 70's ! Hell, I thought he was going so smash the
thing..did I mention that he switched to a Fender Squire Strat for this
long solo? He would be nuts to beat up on that Firebird that way..

I quite enjoyed his part of the night...will have to go to the Stray site
and buy a CD...highly recommended...

After lites out, and equipment teardowns, it was Naz that blasted into the
night. I'll make this short...they did all their hits and the Naz crowd
was wild...REALLY wild...Like Mike Taylor, I was on the receiving end of
some Rabid Naz fans as well...being in the front row, everyone seemed to
be crashing into Rinse and I...but we survived...Naz started with a long
pre-recorded quiet thing, and when they started, they were LOUD!!

When Heep started, they were ENORMOUS !!! A true WALL of sound...preceded
by their own 2-3 minutes of a pre recorded piece as they sneaked onto the
stage in the darkness...

They without a doubt, completely captivated the 2,500 people there...now I
KNOW why there were rumors of other band saying they didn't want to tour
with Uriah Heep...it was simply the best sounding concert I have ever
heard.... am I biased ?? Nawwwww...

Starting with Return to Fantasy, and ending 70 minutes later with Easy
Livin' as the encore, there was NEVER a dull moment...somewhere in there,
Mike Taylor found me, and I said" Hi Pete" !! I think I was brain
dead...that's cool...no problem here :-)

Pete DID join us there eventually, and I made friends with the Naz Guys,
and they were as into the Heep part of the night as anyone it seemed...

Bernie Shaw is by far the best sounding I have heard him yet...he can range
from silky soft to midrange punch to a high scream without batting an
eye...this man can sing..and SING he does !! He was very pumped up that
night...worked the crowd who were just begging for all of it...you could
tell he was rippling with adrenaline, and I asked him about it later..he
said " Yep ! It was all together tonight..we were THERE...it was the best
show of the tour I think"..Trevor expressed the same later that night...

Mick was in great form, and never seems to miss a lick...he had a bad cord
for a minute or so, but that was replaced without a hitch, and away he
went..it was good...really really good...

Phil had his B3 sounding sweet as hell...we were about 5 feet off center
toward Mick, so this time I really could hear it all, and Phil is as good
as it gets...I think he sleeps with that thing...:-) Trevor was
blinding...all over the bass neck, and on July Morning, he does this little
thing where the lifts up the bass, drops it down to playing lever, and he
slides down the neck without missing a note...but he did it about 6 times
in a row during the heavy last 1/3 of the song..it was VERY cool...

And there was Lee Kerslake : Forever holding down the fort, and doing his
now trademark percussive style...you just KNOW it's him on the
drums...hell, it was just like listening to The Legend Continues wearing
some HUGE headphones !!! The guys were simply great...and when they
finished, and started the encore of Easy Livin' it totally brought the
house down.

Sadly, my Video cam is on the blink, or I could have taped the whole damn
show...but I will have these memories of that night, and the days before
and after forever anyway...I'll never forget the sound...

If I had to state the show in one sentence it would be this...

It sounded like it was one person...one entity playing up there...it was so
tight, and so well performed.

The after show was very fun, and we all had a numbing time again...but the
gig was the event of a lifetime.

THIS is Uriah Heep !

back