[Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds
I.barnes3
I.barnes3 at ntlworld.com
Thu Jan 1 10:35:31 EST 2015
Thats a great review, thanks fir taking the time to share on the list.
Iain
Sent from Samsung Mobile
-------- Original message --------
From: Tapio Minkkinen <tapio at uriah-heep.fi>
Date:31/12/2014 12:01 (GMT+00:00)
To: heeplist at travellersintime.com
Subject: [Heeplist] Rockin' Christmas with Heep and Yardbirds
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 didnt 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 theyd had to cancel some shows and probably wouldnt 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 werent even born
yet in the 60s so it didnt 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 70s and
have now formed a band to play both their own songs as well as covers
of mainly British rock & blues band of 60s and 70s. 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 dont 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 didnt 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 wont 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 Cant Take
That Away. Now they had total of five new songs in the set which was
great for me as theyre 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 cant 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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