[Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds

[Tapio Minkkinen]

Hi Heepsters

As it seems the list is now working I'll send my review of the Uriah  
Heep concert in Jyvaskyla 13th December that I tried to send already  
before Christmas. As this is the Heepsters mailing list and it's  
supposed to concentrate on Uriah Heep I usually do not talk about  
other bands but this mail exceptionally contains talk about two other  
bands because they were both support bands at the show in Jyväskylä a  
week ago which makes them Heep related.

Heep played two shows here in Finland that were the last shows for the  
band of year 2014. The first one was in Jyväskylä only 300 kilometers  
away so that was an easy decision but the other was in Rovaniemi which  
is in Lapland near The Arctic Circle and another 600 kilometers North  
from Jyvaskyla so driving 1800 kilometers over one weekend at Winter  
time didn’t seem like a good idea so I decided to go to Jyväskylä  
only. Also I was aware that there were some concerts already planned  
for April next year in Southern Finland.

The concerts were titled “Rockin' Christmas” and featured also  
Nazareth as the second band and as third act in Jyväskylä  
Silvennoinen-Maijanen Band and in Jyväskylä Melrose, both well known  
Finnish bands. Unfortunately one week before the shows it was  
announced that the vocalist of Nazareth had problems with his voice  
and they’d had to cancel some shows and probably wouldn’t be able to  
come to Finland. On Thursday only one day before Jyväskylä show this  
was confirmed and The Yardbirds would play as support band instead.  
Personally for me it would have been more interesting to get to heard  
the new Nazareth singer live but hopefully I'll get to see them later.  
Of course I know the band and I remember a couple of songs by them but  
have never actually listened to them. It also seems the line-up  
currently has only two members who were in the band in the early days  
and the rest of the members at least look like they weren’t even born  
yet in the 60’s so it didn’t seem that interesting.

I had taken Friday off from work and Martti Suhonen came in the  
morning to pick me up. The drive to Jyväskylä went well and after we  
had checked in at the hotel it was three p.m. and there was three  
hours before there was a concert preshow party held at our hotel. This  
was hosted by Mika Järvinen who has written the Finnish Uriah Heep  
book which was published last year and Mika has also played with both  
Heep, Ken Hensley and John Lawton over the years. He had a bass player  
with him and they played an hour long acoustic set. It was nice to get  
to hear some Heep songs as acoustic versions already before the actual  
concert. The played at the hotel bar and the audience was almost all  
members of our Heep fan club. They played some rarer Heep songs like  
for example The Park that has never been played live by Heep. There  
was going to be an afterparty as well (and at Rovaniemi there was an  
afterparty  as well).

After Mika's set was over we all headed to the venue Paviljonki that  
was on the other side of the city. There we go to meet yet more  
fanclub members and soon it was time for the first act. Silvennoinen &  
Maijanen Band constints of two musicians. Heikki Silvennoinen and Pave  
Maijanen who have been in the Finnish music scene from the 70’s and  
have now formed a band to play both their own songs as well as covers  
of mainly British rock & blues band of 60’s and 70’s. In the set there  
was for example a couple of Cream songs. This was a nice opener and  
really a good quality live band. They don’t play that many shows as  
they both have their own solo careers but I would go to seem them if  
they played in Helsinki.

Then it was time for The Yardbirds. I had not heard anything by this  
line-up before but it soon turned out to be a real good live band.  
Drummer Jim McCarty and guitarist Top Topham - the two original  
members - seem to be in good shape and the second guitarist and bass  
player also seemed to know their business. The vocalist was pretty  
good and he also played some great harmonica solos at a couple of  
songs. This was a very enjoyable gig and I would think that for  
someone who was a fan of the band in the early days would enjoy seeing  
them now.

What I remember from the set was For Your Love (this was the only  
Yardbirds song that I remembered beforehand), Heart Full Of Soul,  
Still I'm Sad (familiar to me only from the Rainbow cover on their  
first album), Dazed And Confused (known best because of the version by  
Led Zeppelin) and Shapes Of Things. Nazareth cancellation was  
announced so late that there seemed to be a lot of people in audience  
who were not aware of this as I heard several wondering why does  
Nazareth both look and sound so different from before.:-)

Then it was time to get ready for Heep. After Yardbirds had finished  
it took quite a while for the technicians to get everything sorted out  
and a fellow standing behind me who seemed to be quite drunk became  
irritated because of the delay and started shouting loud and cursing.  
Finally it was enough so I turned out and told him that nothing was  
keeping him here so could freely go home if he didn’t want to stay.  
That calmed him down a bit and also his lady friend told him to shut up.

Then at 11.30 Heep came onstage and for the next 1 h 40 min. offered -  
as always - a very energetic, enthusiastic and positive live set.  
Considering that these were the last shows of the tour and they had  
already played around 25 shows in one month it was suprising that they  
were in such a great spirit. They had played the last show of the  
German tour the day before  in Munich, had travelled for 14 hours to  
get to Jyväskylä and had had only a few hours rest at the hotel after  
arriving to the venue.

I am always impressed with Bernie at live shows when his voice is in  
good shape and now it really was! The set was the same as was on the  
first date of the tour in November that I have already posted to the  
list so I won’t repeat it here in full, you can also see it at the set  
list page of my site here: http://www.heepfiles.info/sets/

Earlier in June when they toured here in Finland Outsider was already  
released but they played only two new songs: One Minute and Can’t Take  
That Away. Now they had total of five new songs in the set which was  
great for me as they’re all my favourite songs on the album except The  
Law but as a heavier song I thin it suited the live set well and  
sounded better than on the album. Otherwise the live versions of the  
new songs did not offer anything different or new, nowadays they  
record the albums in the studio mostly live so it's no wonder they can  
reproduce the same sound also live.

There were two songs, The Hanging Tree and The Magician's Birthday  
that I had never heard live by Heep before and they were both  
highlights of the set because of that. What Kind Of God was also in  
good place as a bit more peaceful and melodic song in the middle of  
the set.

I would imagine there was at least 1000 people in the audience during  
Heep set so the concert was a success. I would imagine the tickets had  
sold well also in Rovaniemi as people up there in the North rarely get  
to see any international big rock bands that play as far North.

After Heep had finished there were a few of us who were there as  
guests of the band and were invited backstage. I had as usual tried to  
get a meet & greet with the band organized for the fanclub members but  
as the schedule of the band was so hectic this time it wasn't  
possible. They will be here again for three shows in April so I hope  
we have better luck then. The guys were cheerful and in good mood, you  
can always clearly see that this is a band where the members are all  
good friends with each other and enjoy earch others company.

I asked Bernie how is it possible that at the end of the tour his  
voice in still in such great condition and he said he can’t explain it  
either and this new set is especially demanding vocally as there are a  
lot of songs where you have scream really high and loud.

We stayed there for about an hour until it was time for the band to  
get on the bus and start driving to the next show. It had been snowing  
for the whole day so the conditions were not the best possible for  
travelling. At moments like this when I myself can go to hotel bed for  
sleep I don't envy the guys and I understand what a though job it  
really is for a rock band like Heep who tours around the world and  
especially when they tour countries like Finland where there can be  
long distances between venues.

I have heard Rovaniemi show was also a success and the band got to  
meet Santa Claus in person and they were even announced on stage by  
Santa! As I hope everyone on the list knows that Santa Claus naturally  
lives in Lapland in the North of Finland. I have heard there have been  
some evil rumours that say different but at least we Finns know the  
truth.:-))

That's it for now. We here in Finland have been very fortunate in  
recent years that we have gotten to see Heep frequently and it's less  
than four months till the next shows in April!


-- 
TapioM.
tapio at uriah-heep.fi

www.uriah-heep.fi