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CLASSIC LIVE RELEASES
Two separate classic lineup live albums were released well after this era in Uriah Heep had long passed. First Live At Shepperton '74 was released in December 1988 with the soundtrack to the original recordings from Don Kirshner's Rock Concert 1974 and also on the video "Easy Livin' The History of Uriah
Heep". In May 1997, King Biscuit Flower Hour released a live radio recording from 1974 at San DIego Sports Arena which featured multiple covers (one even had the wrong lineup of the band pictured).
WONDERWORLD
During an interview with Chris Tetley, Mick talked about the Wonderworld album cover. "They wanted to make each of us a statue." After misreading the instructions the band had received, Mick only sent in his jeans instead of an entire outfit. Mick ended up shirtless and shoeless on a pedestal. "All they managed to do was gray up the hair and my jeans were covered in concrete stuff." Mick also joked that Lee resembled a "garden gnome" on the cover!
THAIN LEAVES HEEP!
In the later part of 1974, Gary was shocked during a concert in Dallas while adjusting his amplifier. As Ken told Barry Lombardo recently, "All I remember is that Gary was very strung out at the time on heroin and very weakened by that condition. I know that the shock that Gary got which was measured after the show was something that you 
or
I or any healthy person would consider to just be a jolt. Because he was so weakened by his condition for him it was much more than that and it threw him across the stage. It wasn't the shock that knocked him unconscious, it was the impact of the ground and the amplifiers and stuff like that. He crumpled into a pile! I just remember it was a pretty bad scene! " Soon after the incident, Gary Thain gave
an interview to Sounds magazine in which he gave his side to the story. "All I remember was going to the amplifier to adjust the equalizers so I could get more treble on my bass. The next thing that happened was I blacked out. David immediately realized I was electrocuted and he rushed over and pulled the bass from my hands. At first he thought I was dead because I wasn't breathing and I was lying there stiff as a board." Gary also aired his displeasure with Gerry Bron. "In some kind of way, I think he thinks I'm putting it on! The music's been forgotten and now it's a financial thing!" Although the remaining US and UK were cancelled, Heep did tour Australia and New Zealand (with Thain) before finally sacking him for unreliability in February 1975. On December 8, 1975; Gary was found dead in his tub by his girlfriend Yoko Sugiria. His death was from an overdose of heroin. The world had lost a tremendous musician and the band had lost a dear friend.
I SAID TO BREAK A LEG... NOT AN ARM!
Mick Box joined the Heepsters Mailing List for a couple of weeks in September of '97 and answered a lot of our questions. He related a night in Louisville in August 1975 when he broke his arm. "Well, all I can remember about the broken arm incident was that it was the first night of our American tour. We always had a black carpet on stage and as per usual I came running on stage at the end of our intro tape, full of energy and the lighting trusses were a little more forward than I had anticipated and I fell into the front pit 6 feet below. This time I hurt my left arm really badly which looked like it had been dislocated. I was
dragged back up and carried on the show in great pain. I did not know but somebody had organized for a nurse to come to the stage and see what the damage was. This happened in between David*s announcements. Meanwhile to kill the pain, there was a bottle of Remy Martin brandy on my side of the stage that came in very handy. The nurse checked out my arm which was very painful and I carried on the show with my mate Remy. At the end of the show, I felt no pain until I put up my arms to salute the crowd still wearing my guitar. I lost my balance and went down again, this time breaking 4 bones in my right wrist. I remember laying in hospital and a lot of the fans had come from the show and managed to get into the emergency room where I was waiting to be seen by a specialist doctor. Those floppy plastic doors with porthole type windows in them had what seemed to be a endless stream of faces peering at me. I had to wait for an eternity for the doctor and as well as having a very sore left arm and a broken right wrist, I was beginning to get a hangover too!! Eventually the doctor came and before I knew it, I had our manager Gerry Bron sitting on my chest and nurses were holding down my legs whilst the doctor pulled my wrist up and placed it in a spring like device. He snapped the bones back into position. It was then and only then he could give me anything for the pain. The next show was in Detroit Cobo Hall I think and although I said I would be able to do the show I wasn't 100% sure but there were a lot of people reliant on me so I had to give it a go. I knew that if I turned up the amp pretty loud, I could do most things even though my left arm was sore and seeing as I have a rolling style of playing, I could get a pretty good representation with a few adjustments. Holding the pick was difficult due to the
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