[Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds

Wed Dec 31 20:39:51 EST 2014

Hi Tapio,
If you have a chance to talk to any of the band members again, could you
ask them why not come to Canada for a few shows ?
Would like to hear what their thoughts are on
That?
Are we that not Heep friendly here in Canada ?
Anyway, have a Happy New Year everyone !
Don

On Wednesday, December 31, 2014, 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 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
>
>
>
>
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