Uriah Heep at Rottenberg Prison and Butlin's Style Heepvention 2008

Uriah Heep will play a special concert for the inmates of Rottenburg prison in Germany tomorrow

The prison, housed in a former castle will serve as the site for the release of their new album

'Wake the Sleeper', their first in ten years.

If you are a card carrying cult member of the Uriah Heep fan club you can also get yourself accross to Grenada, Spain September 19 and 20 for Heepvention 2008.

Heepsters (like Deadheads or perhaps more like Trekkies) follow every move of the band, with a special cult following in Europe.

Heepfest 2008 includes a Heepster Song Contest! A Heepster Jam Band ! Free Tapas ! Sounds a bit like Butlin's holiday camp.

Wizard Rock ! Forget Black Sabbath or Uriah Heep, Here Come Draco and the Malfoys (plus 449 More)

There are some pretty amazing songs about Wizards in rock; 'The Wizard' by Black Sabbath with that fantastic harmonica intro, The Wizard by Uriah Heep, first track of their classic Demons and Wizards album.

Then of course there is Pinball Wizard by the Who and covered by Elton John plus the doom metal majesty of the kings of sludge-rock, Electric Wizard ('Dopethrone' is a pretty good name for an album as is their latest 'Come My Fanatics')

Less recognised, however, are the 450 bands (yes, 450..) dedicated to playing nothing but songs about Harry Potter (known as Wizard Rock or WRock). They have names like Draco and the Malfoys, The Remus Lupins, Kingsley and the Shacklebolts, and the Whomping Willows, I think you get the picture. It all started in Massachusetts but has become a world wide phenomenon of Harry-Potter-Rockers. A full-length doco film project , The Wizard Rockumentary: A Movie About Rocking and Rowling premiered Washington this April

More info here

Uriah Heep Wake the Sleeper Gets Rave Reviews

Uriah Heep's Wake the Sleeper has to be the most exciting release of the month or even the year for fans of 70's rock. It's only been out a week and the reviews are all in high praise of the band. Here's some outakes, check out the sites for the full review...

Running to a dozen tracks, the Heep’s latest offering simmers down somewhat for the final third, hence its near-perfect, but not quite perfect scoring. The preceding eight tracks, however, are a veritable treasure trove of visceral melodic hard rock that will have fans salivating and should by rights convert many more.The Record Collector

Heep is back. A 10 year wait that , in the end, was worth it....
I liked very much SOL and Sonic but for a Heep fan it was kind of a let down, there was something missing. With this album, everything has fallen into place. The early Heep sound is back on about all of the songs...
A big and enthusiastic 5 star Prog Archives

Well, it's been 10 long years since a new Uriah Heep CD landed on my doorstep. So, at the end of a hot English summer's day, what a pleasure to just sit in the dark and simply LISTEN to this new CD. I haven't done that to a new CD for long time. Fantastic !
The whole band excel themselves on this album.Play.com

Uriah Heep are back, first album in 10 years and best album in nearly 20. Record company probs aside (those who would only fund a series of annual acoustic live sets), it's good to see the band signed to a major label....it's a great album, a solid feel throughout. Not so progressive, but thoroughly enjoyable.Get Ready to Rock

Who Loves Uriah Heep ? Bad Prog or Good Fun ?

I recently came accross a great music review site called Only Solitaire George Starostin' Music Reviews, it's still up on the web despite no entries for a very long time and contains some very well informed reviews of Psychedelic, prog, art-rock and metal bands and many other genres.

It's pretty comprehensive, sometimes disagreeable and a great resource for research.

One set of reviews that cuaght my eye was a review of every Uriah Heep album; George is pretty scathing of the band, which he is entitled to because he argues it so well.

Here's a small part of what he says about their 1970 debut : Very Heavy Very 'Umble

"Apparently, Uriah Heep wanted very much to be cool from the very beginning, and in desperate search of success they ripped off every popular style of 1970, including riff-heavy metal ('Gypsy'), Southern blues ('Lucy's Blues'), the most pathetic aspects of Bee Gees-style balladeering ('Come Away Melinda'), embryonic progressive rock ('Dreammare', 'Wake Up'), and retro boogie ('Real Turned On'). Amazingly, they blew it on all counts - I wasn't expecting all that much from their debut record, but I sure was expecting more than I got."

The comments section is where it gets interesting:

'"It's interesting to note that in lumping together selected elements of Cream, Hendrix, Vanilla Fudge and (probably) Procol Harum, DP Mk 1 arrived at a lumpy hodgepodge of embryonic proto-metal that was immediately seized on and devoured by the fledgling Heep at the very same moment Purple themselves transcended it. I think a comparison of Shades and Very 'eavy is therefore far more revealing than the usual comparison of In Rock, regardless of the fact that both were released in the same year. I maintain that while Heep at this stage were an essential derivation of the already derivative DP Mk 1, the fact remains that Heep expanded the limits of the Mk 1 Purple style far more convincingly and coherently"

and

"I think you have a wrong approach here. Why on earth is UH a prog band? Well, just why? Prog-rock is a kind of serious rock music with constant rhythm changes, classical elements and all. What's progish about Heep? The thing that Hensley has an organ? It's like calling the Rolling Stones a Jazz band because they have sax here and there. UH were never trying to be an art-rock band. They were never trying to look even a bit serious! Comparing them with Genesis is like comparing ABBA with Mozart."

Personally I completely love Uriah Heep and especially their first; I agree with the guy above; who really cares if it is not serious art; how often do you really listen to Amon Duul, to Captain Beefheart, compared to say Alan Parsons, Supertramp (or one of my favourite lollypop metal bands Sonata Artica). If you've got the time it's great to mull over a complex album until you 'get it'. Same with classical; if you study it, think about it your suddenyl let into a world that you never heard before. Sometimes, however, this is a luxury and there is nothing wrong with a sugar hit.

It's like the difference between Relayer and Going for the One. Smile is interesting, Pet Sounds is timeless, but Barbara Ann is pure joy.

What do you think ?

Images: Courtesy Mercury/Parlophone/Polar/Capitol/Spinefarm

Who Loves Uriah Heep ?

I have noticed from the amazing number of hits on our piece on the new Uriah Heep album that it must still be a much loved band out their amongst rock bands.

For those who don’t know (New Zealand’s Prime Minister aside, who recently stated it was her favourite band) Uriah Heep are an English rock band who formed way back in 1969.

Their music drew on lots of influences, from hard rock to prog and even jazz and country, with a special focus on multi-part harmonies, which was pretty rare at the time.

The New Zealand connection comes from bassist, Gary Thain, who joined the 27 club early on due to his heroin addiction.

Their break through album was Demons and Wizards from 1972 (a Prog metal band has taken the name of this album as a tribute), which sported the single ‘Easy Livin’.

The Magicians Birthday also went top ten Down Under, containing their biggest hit, Sweet Lorainne.

Other great tracks include, July Morning, Look at Yourself, Wizard, Stealin and Gypsy.

They have released an amazing 61 albums since their inception and while maintaining a cult following in Germany, Scandinavia, Japan and Russia (touring regualrly in these countries) they have slipped off the radio in the US and the UK to a large extent since their heyhay.

Look out for their new album, Wake the Sleeper (see post about this album)

Image: Courtesy Mercury/ Bronze

Uriah Heep 'Wake the Sleeper' Finally Due in March 2008

Whoever called Uriah Heep ‘the Beach Boys of Heavy Metal’ was being extremely unfair.

They formed way back in 1969 and specialised heavy riffs and multi-part harmonies

Without Uriah Heep there would be no Dragonforce, Blind Guardian, Kamelot, Mastodon, Hammerfall or Stratovarius; they were the first to add metal to prog and by doing so were 10 or 20 years ahead of their time.

Their most famous tracks are Easy Livin and Sweet Lorraine but they have a total of 24 studio albums to their name and 15 live albums.

Wake the Sleeper is their much anticipated 21st album, due for reelease in 2007 but postponed due to a record company take over.

Uriah Heep have now announced a definite release in March 2008. Tracks below..

"Wake the Sleeper"
"Overload"
"Tears of the World"
"Light of a Thousand Stars"
"Heaven's Rain"
"Book of Lies"
"What Kind of God"
"Ghost of the Ocean"
"Angels Walk With You"
"Shadow"
"War Child"

Image: Courtesy Mercury/Bronze

Transmissions: New Live Releases From Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Uriah Heep

Storming Music is releasing Transmissions, a series of live cd and dvd's, in hardback book style packaging, including 72 paged colour booklets with track by track analysis. These are known as Grey releases, they are not published by the bands original record companys, are not bootlegs and are available freely in record shops and other venues.

There are actually two Dylan releases, Transmissions ,released a month ago and Re-Transmissions due on March 3. Each has rare TV and Concert performances from his very early days and the present.

The Frank Zappa collection is taken from late 1970 appearances on Saturday Night Live and includes I'm the Slime, Dancin Fool, The Purple Lagoon. The Uraih Heep collection is taken from a 2001 London Concert featuring all their best know hits, including Easy Livin, Free 'n' Easy etc.

It's a rare occasion that we get so much new material placed on the market at once. Have a feast !