August 2009
Hello,
Well things have been moving fast in the Heep camp and we have just finished
recording a new CD with a re-record of some of the classic tracks and 2 new
numbers written by Phil and myself called "Only Human" and Corridors of
Madness". There will also be on the same release a short DVD of our
appearance when we headlined the first day of the prestigious Sweden Rock
Festival.
This will be released on Edel a German Record Company but it will have a
worldwide release. It was fun to record and the backing tracks all went down
live including most of the solos and a lot of the lead vocals too. 14 songs
in 8 days was a mammoth task especially as Bernie, Phil and I one morning
before recording went down to
my son Romeo's school and played an hour
acoustic set for about 100 boys.
There is nothing like fitting it all in, in true Heep style. Mike Paxman the
producer was fantastic and the result is a rewarding showcase of the bands
energy and passion for our music.
Ioannis has taken on the artwork once again and we are extremely happy about
that as he has some wonderful ideas. Most of you know now that we have new
management in Martin Darvill and although it is early days in our
association the signs are very good indeed. Martin has an abundance of ideas
and a positivity that reflects the bands own feelings and we are starting to
shape up our touring plans for the rest of this year and into the next.
I would like to thank all of you that have written letters to me and I try
and look at as many as possible and answer as many as I can and Dave White
makes sure I do not miss anything no matter where I am in the world which is
great.
The Shirt Off My Back Cancer Charity is going very well this year
thus far and I thank every single one of you that participates.
There are many other exciting items to be auctioned this year and I hope
that it continues to raise more monies towards fighting this awful disease.
I cannot wait to get out on the road and play my guitar and rock out with
the band as it is still such a buzz. We have quite a few festivals coming up
and the long touring spells will happen towards the last few months of the
year before we break for Xmas.
There is so much to look forward to and I am still pinching myself that we
are almost on our 40th Anniversary!
Fantastic!
'Appy Days!
Mick
November 2008
Well we are half way through our European tour Oct/Nov for this year and so
far it has been great.
The new set list has been very well received thus far and the reactions and
reports have all been positive. Long may they continue! We are really
enjoying playing this set of songs and the challenge of playing the whole
album each night is most welcome and rewarding. Because of this even the
classic songs sound fresh which is great.
The Ioannis artwork on the backdrop looks fantastic and we even have screens
made from the artwork to cover Trevor and my amplifiers which add to the
production. We cannot always display these because of the stage sizes but
when we do it looks great. We have travelled many miles on the tour bus and
one journey alone from Zlin in the Czech Republic to Tallin in Estonia was
30 hours.
Despite this we are all coping well and the spirit in the camp is high. As I
am writing this we have just finished a 2 hour 30 minutes ferry from
Helsinki to Tallin and a 10 hour bus journey lies ahead as we travel to
Lithuania .
Along the way it has been quite eventful as we have been stopped by the
traffic police twice, we only played 1 hour of a 1 hour 30 minute show in
Helsinki at the corporate show as it was stopped by the police because the
audience were too drunk, (I kid you not but we got some good press out of
it) we missed a morning TV show in Tallin by 15 minutes after the 30 hour
journey and our trailer that we carry the backline on the back of the bus
was damaged (it is fixed now) but on the whole it has all been good.
The merchandise has been going down great and the tour programmes have been
a definite hit and I must say they look fantastic. We try as often as we can
to come out after the show and do a signing at the merchandise stand which
Jason the jolly swagman organises. We sign merchandising and have pictures
taken and generally meet the fans that have stayed behind. This has been a
great success but it is not always possible. We try to do it whenever we
can.
There is a long way to go yet and we are all missing our families but the
rock n’ roll circus continues and there are many more miles to travel, shows
to play and fans to meet. Everyone that has bought a ticket for the show and
purchased merchandising and of course the Wake the Sleeper CD/Vinyl we thank
you for your support as it means the world to us!
There are many exciting times ahead on this roller coaster called Uriah Heep
and there is a positive air that smells just great.
‘Appy Days!
Mick
15th October, 2008
Hello everyone!
Well we have played 4 shows now and the set list is really beginning to bed
in now. You probably know by now we are not playing it safe and we are
performing the whole of the WTS CD plus some of the classics Heep songs.
This is a very brave move but we had to give it a go as we had been playing
the last set for quite some time. It was time to stand up and be counted.
The set has been very well received so far and the response each night has
been wonderful, very warm and very heartfelt. I am sure the people who come
to the show can see the effort we have made to get this set of songs as
powerful as we can and with a nice balance between the old and new songs. We
have even introduced the original intro to Gypsy which Is going down a storm
each night and sounds super powerful.
We have been getting on very well with Thin Lizzie and these German shows
are a rock night extravaganza for the fans and one they will never forget.
Although we have only been on the road for nearly a week the dreaded cold
germs have began to surface. First to be hit is Phil and Christos and we can
only hope it does not get passed on to everyone. The set is very demanding
and very rewarding at the same time. I will be interested to read the
reviews as they surface. They certainly cannot deny the fact that we have
been brave and not taken the easy option as some bands do and just play a
couple of new songs amongst the hits and the classics. The backdrop when we
can get the whole thing up looks tremendous and helps give a freshness to
how the stage looks and having merchandising is a real plus too. We even
have a programme which we have not had for at least 20 years.
This is a very exciting phase of our career and there is a genuine buzz and
excitement surrounding us at the moment which is very uplifting. We look
forward to seeing you all out on the road and a big thanks to all of you
that have bought WTS and merchandising so far as we do appreciate your
support.
‘Appy Days
Mick on the tour bus from Saarbrucken – Nurenburg in Germany
(We have just been pulled over by the police on a routine check stop
17th
September 2008
Well we are all very happy
with the reviews from both the fans and the media regarding “Wake the
Sleeper”. In general I am very happy that we delivered to the fans the CD
that they were waiting for. To be honest we have been overwhelmed with the
response and to be even nominated in the Classic Rock Magazine Awards UK for
best CD of the year is amazing after our 10 year hiatus. I hope you have all
been voting!
We start rehearsals soon
to revamp the set and we cannot wait. Don’t worry we will still be playing
some of the old classics alongside the new numbers as we are very proud of
both sets of songs. The European tour starts on the 10th October
and runs through Germany , Czech Republic , Lithuania , Estonia , Italy ,
Poland , Switzerland , Finland , Holland , Austria , Belgium and the UK .
With the success of the reviews and articles in magazines I am hoping next
year we will get to play other European shows that are missed on this leg
i.e. France, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, more shows in Italy and as many
other countries as we can possible fit in.
We are in for the long haul so it will be a good 18 months of touring
scheduled. Because the way that the Record Industry has changed and there is
little revenue to be made on CD sales everyone has now taken to the road to
make a living. This unfortunately has spread the touring markets pretty thin
as everybody is out there. However as we are known as one of the hardest
working touring bands in the world and we have a touring base in 53
countries, we hope we can weather the storm and continue to tour constantly.
With your continued support, that we do appreciate more than anything, this
is possible.
We are presently looking at, for the early part of next year a long overdue tour of the USA and Canada . Our New York agent is working on this now to see what the possibilities are. We would love to make the USA/Canada a big part of our touring calendar again so fingers crossed.
I am so delighted that I
was able to hand over the first “Shirt Off My Back” cheque for £1,500 to
Cancer Research UK last week and I thank Katie Billingham of Cancer Research
UK for helping make this possible. There will be many more exciting items
auctioned over the coming months so keep checking the site for the latest
news. A big thanks to those that have participated thus far.
While we are on the thank you run I would like to thank on behalf of the band all of you that have bought WTS and we are pleased that everyone is enjoying it as much as we enjoyed making it. I think you will agree that Mike Paxman was a wonderful choice of producer and he brought apart from a good set of ears to the table, a bucket load of enthusiasm that was infectious. He did manage to get the best out of everyone of us and was never short of an idea or two.
On the CD front Ioannis did fantastic work on producing a class cover that
will translate well to merchandise, backdrops and the like. To say we are
happy with it would be an understatement. Well we are entering into another
exciting part of our career and there is a wonderful positive air of
expectancy and excitement surrounding the camp.
We are all focused 100% on promoting WTS in every way we possibly can. I
look forward to seeing you all out on the road!
‘Appy days!
Mick
ROTTENBURG PRISON 24TH JULY 2008
Well what can I say I
never thought that UH would ever play a show in a prison but it ended up
being a very rewarding experience.
The Warden of the prison Mr Williard approached our manager Simon Porter to
see if we would perform a show in the prison for the inmates. Never to shun
a challenge and as we were headlining the Rock of Ages festival the
following day that was 30 minutes down the road from the prison we agreed to
do it. This ended up being fraught with problems on the day of the show as
the P/A and equipment truck were stuck in a traffic jam for a few hours in
the morning so they arrived late.
As you can imagine to organise something like this you have to keep to the
schedule as all of the prisoners have to be shuttled out of their cells and
into the courtyard in an orderly fashion and at a set time. The equipment
arrived and they started to set everything up but it was impossible to get a
sound check in the time span given so we pretty much went on without testing
anything. Our poor crew were pulling their hair out trying to make it all
work on time. Plus we were doing a press conference right up to the last
minute before hitting the stage. Running on stage it was then that it hit me
that we were actually going to perform in front of a load of prisoners and
you could not expect them all to be Uriah Heep fans. Well we started the
show and there was a slow trickle of prisoners coming down to the front of
the stage and they seemed to be loving it. Eventually most of the crowd had
come forward and were really enjoying themselves.
The thing about it all that really has left an imprint in my mind is as
follows. One of the songs we had in our set was a song called “Free Me” from
of all album titles “Innocent Victim”. Well we deliberated about playing
this song and we asked the Warden and some of the Prison Guards if this was
appropriate and they said of course you must play it as it is one of your
most famous songs.
We did play it and back to the imprint on my mind that will stay with me
forever there was the Warden standing next to the Prison Guard standing next
to the inmates all facing the stage with their fists in the air singing Free
Me. Bernie did change the lyric to Free me from my cell and the loved it.
Once again I was reminded of the power of music.
The fact that the Warden, Prison Guards and Inmates were all standing beside
each other singing at the tops of their voices in front of the stage was
amazing. The good thing was that for 1 ½ hours we gave them all escapism of
the mind and the smile on their faces at the end said it all.
‘Appy Days!
Mick