DISCO FEVER... IT'S CONTAGIOUS!Bob Daisley disliked "On The Rebound" so much that he refused to play bass on the track. John Sinclair probably used his keyboards to play a synthesized bass track.
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DISCO FEVER... IT'S CONTAGIOUS!
Bob Daisley disliked "On The Rebound" so much that he refused to play bass on the track.
John Sinclair probably used his keyboards to play a synthesized bass track.
WORST ALBUM COVERS OF 1982
The Abominog album cover was voted as the second worst cover in the USA for 1982.
The top spot.... or maybe that should be the bottom spot
went to Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Oz. Lee Kerslake and Bob Daisley
played on both albums!
WRITING UNDER PRESSURE
Pete Goalby told Dave Owen of UHAS that during the recording of
the Head First album, producer Ashley Howe
didn't feel that Heep had a "real rocker" for the album so the band locked themselves in a room and wrote one... "Weekend Warriors".
DUHHH !
Bronze Records released "Lonely Nights" as the first single from Head First without realizing Bryan Adams had recently
scored a huge hit with the song!
HEAD FIRST
When John Sinclair played keyboards with
Uriah Heep on the Head First album, it was deja vu all over again! John had also played on an album named Head
First when he was with the group The
Babys. As another coincidence, when John left Uriah Heep after the Equator album,
he took a job playing keyboards with Ozzy Osbourne.
That means that three members of the Uriah Heep lineup that recorded Abominog and Head First played
in Ozzy's band at some time. Mick joked in an interview that John had to go. Ozzy threatened to bite his head off!
SPECIAL EFFECTS
Mick Box also told Sigmund another story from
the road. Uriah Heep had just finished a major US tour with Def
Leppard who was very popular at the time. Heep
played a very large festival with Motley Crew and Eddie Money with thousands and thousands of fans.
There was a tremendous fireworks display after each band and
Mick was very happy Heep had been a part of such an exciting show. The next day Heep was scheduled to play Bombay, India. "We went down for the
sound check and what it was, was a stage erected in the middle
of a field with a little fence built around it and a turnstile
for in and out. And we looked at the stage and the equipment we had was just ridiculous. It was
'steam-fired', you know. And I got tapped on the shoulder and a
guy says 'Do you have time for an interview?' And I said,'OK,
fine.' He says to me, 'So you're an international band & you've just come from
America' all this kind of stuff, 'You've just toured
the world, what kind of effects can we expect from you?' I
looked at the stage and there are four lights on either side. So I said,
' I think on and off is about it!' "
DAISLEY RETURNS TO OZZY
Ozzy Osbourne asked Bob Daisley to rejoin his band and co-write the band's next album, Bark at the Moon. Lee Kerslake thought it was too good an offer to pass up and he told Bob as much. Although Bob did take the offer, he stayed in the Uriah Heep camp long enough to lay down the bass tracks for the Abominog sequel, Head First.
GOALBY BITTEN BY A FAN
Mick Box also told of another incident that occured
at the Bombay concert "... some drug- crazed (guy) jumped up on stage
and bit into Pete's back, and he wouldn't let go!" Mick said
that he thinks that the
man just wanted to give Goalby a
hug but he panicked when the police jumped on stage. Then
he was trying to hold on for dear life with his teeth!
" A load of police jumped up on stage and they're beating this guy to death with riot sticks and
still he continued to hang on." Mick also said Pete never missed a note
despite the pain. After the concert, Pete was taken down to the hospital for
a series of shots. "Pete still has the scar to this day."
BRONZE FOLDS!
After the release of the Head First album in 1983, Bronze Records financial troubles came to a head. Spurred
on primarily by the failure of Gerry
Bron's airline, Executive Express, the Bronze empire went belly up.
Not only was Heep without a record label,
but also the rights to their previous catalog
were lost to boot! Meanwhile the heavy touring schedule in support of Head First
was taking a heavy toll on the band both mentally and physically.
