[Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds

[Bob Winward]

Tapio, it is awesome that you saw Yardbirds.  This is some Heep relation, as
Mick is a fan of Jeff Beck who at one time played guitar for the Yardbirds.
Also famous in the Yardbirds was Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.  They alos had
a great song Train Kept Rolling that Aerosmith covered in the 70.s


On 12/31/14 7:01 AM, "Tapio Minkkinen" <tapio at uriah-heep.fi> wrote:

> 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 didn¹t 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 ³Rockin' Christmas² 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 they¹d had to cancel some shows and probably wouldn¹t 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 weren¹t even born
> yet in the 60¹s so it didn¹t 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 70¹s and
> have now formed a band to play both their own songs as well as covers
> of mainly British rock & blues band of 60¹s and 70¹s. 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 don¹t 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 didn¹t 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 won¹t 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 Can¹t Take
> That Away. Now they had total of five new songs in the set which was
> great for me as they¹re 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 can¹t 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!
>