[Heeplist] Uriah Heep in Hanko 10th August

[Tapio Minkkinen]

Let's see if this comes through and hopefully everyone on the list is 
receiving it.


URIAH HEEP HANKO 10th August

Uriah Heep played four concerts in Finland this Summer. The first in 
Tampere in July I attended but the second one in Forssa 4th August I 
couldn't go to because I had to somewhere else. The last two shows I 
just had to attend because there were their own gigs and they would play 
a full set. Tampere & Forssa shows were both festival gigs and the set 
was shorter.

My friend Martti Suhonen was also going to Hanko. I was coming from 
Helsinki - East of Hanko - and he was coming from his home town North of 
Hanko so I took a bus ride to a town where our routes crossed and he 
picked me up with his car. On the way to Hanko we picked our friend 
Tuula from a train station on the way and continued to Hanko.

Hanko is a small town on the seaside in South West corner of Finland. 
It’s a very popular place in the Summer for tourists because there are 
long beaches, several harbours and lots of accomodation. Heep were 
playing at Casino. I don’t know if there ever has really been a casino, 
it’s an old wooden building buit sometime in the 1880’s. it’s been 
recentlt renovated and there’s a high class fine dining restaurant 
operating there. Seemed like an usual place for a Heep concert and it 
really was.

We arrived there at the same time as the band but missed them by less 
than a minute and didn’t get a chance to meet them. We saw their minibus 
arrive but at the time we arrived they had already gone inside the 
building and the doors were closed. We stayed outside for a while to see 
if someone would come out but after a while decided to go to the place 
where we were staying. After some rest we took a little sightseeing 
around the town center and then went to Casino by the time the support 
band was about to start their set. This was a local covers band, played 
well and the vocalist was good but most of the audience was more into 
drinks and socialising, clearly just waiting for Heep.

Inside Casino I met some more Heep friends including Joe Keenan from 
Scottland. He’s been at several Heep gigs in Finland because he has 
become friends with some Finnish Heepsters and it’s pretty easy for him 
to get here as he can get direct flights and quite cheap tickets. 
Because of my work as head of the Finnish fan club and other Heep 
activities I’ve also come to know lots of people so there are always 
many familiar faces in the audience when I go to a Heep gig.

The inside of Casino was mostly just one big open hall with glass 
windows on every side. One of the strangest venues I’ve seen the band 
ever. As it was already August it was getting dark already at 10. p.m. 
when the band hit the stage, otherwise it would have been even weirder 
if the sun was still up. It would also have been even hotter inside than 
it already was. There were lots of supporting pillars that blocked some 
of the visibility so if you weren’t close to the stage it was difficult 
to actually see the band. The stage was also low, because the hall 
wasn’t that high they couldn’t build it any higher.

So the settings weren’t really good but this didn’t affect the band’s 
performance at all. As usual they gave it 100% as they do at every 
shows. It soon became clear that this was going to be a very hot and 
sweaty gig. There was no air conditioning and you couldn’t open the 
windows, there was only one door at the back of the hall open where you 
could exit to the terrace. I stayed in the front for most of the set but 
during the last couple of songs I had to go pull back a bit to be able 
to get some air.

This was now a full set compared to Tampere show that was a festival gig 
and only ca 75 minutes. The set was exactly the same that they’ve played 
this year since the North American tour.

1. Gypsy
2. Look at Yourself
3. Shadows of Grief
4. Stealin'
5. The Law
6. Sunrise
7. The Magician's Birthday
8. The Wizard
9. One Minute
10. Between Two Worlds
11. July Morning
12. Lady in Black
13. Easy Livin'

After the show there were about 10 who stayed near the stage hoping to 
get to meet the band backstage but after a while the tour manager came 
and told that there wasn’t a proper backstage area at all and the 
dressing room was so small that you couldn’t have any people there. 
Eventually only Russell and Bernie came to meet the fans. Then I heard 
that Mick hadn’t stayed at dressing room at all but had already left and 
neither Phil nor Dave was there anymore I figured it was about time to 
leave.

The next day was the final Finnish gig for the Summer in Lahti. More 
about that soon...


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TapioM.
tapio at heepfiles.net
www.heepfiles.net