[Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds

[Stan From Home]

Seems like Bernie would insist on doing shows in Canada!

Stan
> 
> On Dec 31, 2014, at 8:39 PM, Don Malecic <docofun at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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