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Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium |
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Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium |
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Uriah Heep |
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Notes From The Bospop Area Interview with Mick Box & Bernie Shaw on the 2nd of July 2005 by Vera, pics Jany & Vera At the beginning of July, the British hard rock formation Uriah Heep visited our areas again. The band has been around for years and they coloured my musical youth significantly. My heart was knocking fast when I shook hands with Heep-man of the first hour Mick Box and singer Bernie Shaw who joined the band in 1985. We are at the Bospop site where the band just finished a very successful gig. We sink comfortably in the seats of the press bus. Because they did a concert in Belgium the night before, my first question was: Was it alright? Mick tells: “It was a good night, only a few problems with the PA and stuff. I think some idiot there put the lights on the same phase as the back-line, but it was fine in the end and it was a good night”. Bernie adds: “Eventually we played loud enough so they could hear us haha”. But tonight it was fun I guess, everybody was shouting and singing along… Bernie: “Very good today”.
Even though it was afternoon when you played… Mick: “I think that’s a good spot for us, you know. We enjoyed it and the crowd was ready for it. Before the evening falls”. Are you doing festivals most of the time now? Mick: “We are doing lots of festivals until the end of the year. Then we start headlining again through Scandinavia and Germany.” And will it be around the time of the new album or is that later? Bernie: “No, we got an album out on Sanctuary then, it will be a box set, for promotion at the end of the year. And then hopefully next year we start working at the new album. Most of the songs are written, but we have to rehearse and record them”. Mick: “It is in the hands of lawyers”. That’s a shame, isn’t it? There you are with the music and things get delayed… Mick: “It’s always been that way, you know. That’s music business. We got the music down pretty quickly, the rest is waiting for business matters.”
But you survived it. I remember at the time of the first live album, there was a female reporter who claimed: “If this band’s going to make it, I kill myself”. Pretty lousy statement… Mick laughs with this memory and remembers it like yesterday. He continues: “Yes, and at that same section she was writing that we were sounding and looking like Jethro Tull. I had never heard of Jethro Tull when I started the band. Just to show you that she had no musical taste whatsoever”. Bernie: “I never stand on one leg at all, haha. I can only hope that she has fulfilled her prediction”. Mick “After selling millions of albums and 35 years in the scene I think we have proved that she was wrong.” Without any doubt. You also have to look for a new label now, I guess… Mick: “We are not looking, we are in negotiations.” First the box set will come out via Sanctuary and the new album will be a fresh start with the new label. Mick lived in Australia for years but now he lives in England again, he’s always been a ‘London boy’. Do you still follow the music scene of today? A big affirmative sound rises and Mick explains: “Sure, you have to be aware of what’s going on in the scene”. Bernie adds: “A lot of the bands, especially today on the bill, we are good friends with. I just had a good laugh and a few drinks with Steve Lukather. We know Peter Frampton from the seventies. We are good friends with the guys of Marillion, another English band. Joe Cocker we have played with on numerous occasions.”
If I’d ask you to resume every decennia with the band, what would you say? Mick: “It’s life. Life is never straight. Life is up and down, and up and down.” Bernie: “Sometimes you think, I better not think about that period, but in the end it all makes sense. When you look back it has been a growing process.” What do you consider yourself as the nicest period? Bernie: “When you are up there on stage. That’s what it’s all about. I mean, there are 15000 people right here, it’s brilliant. Everyone was in a perfect mood, one good atmosphere. We are here just to have fun. I mean, in England we sometimes have those bottle fight between fans, they throw things at each other and at the stage and it seems like the music is secondary. But when we come to Europe, it’s like: have a good time, listen to the music, it’s a family. There are even kids out there, from people that have grown up with the band.” Mick: “Our music is very positive. Everybody feels that when we are up on stage.” Bernie: “And it is not five guys who meet incidentally and put a show on a stage. It’s a family on tour, it’s a family on stage”. Do you still have to rehearse? Mick: “We rehearse for the new album. The rest… (smiles)… we are musicians you know, we are professionals, we know how to play and it’s not necessary to spend a lot of time on rehearsing, the best way to do it is on stage”.
What do you think about internet? Mick: “We have to accept it. There is no time for ignorance, you have to be a part of it”. Bernie: “You just have to be aware of the positive things and the negative aspects. Like today, I mean, we are doing a concert and a few minutes later it’s up there on the net (when we entered the bus, we saw a picture of Heep on a laptop standing there – Vera) live pictures are there for the fans. Even before we took our shower, the reviews will be out, that’s great, you know.” Mick: “In the old days you had to wait for a letter. That’s snail mail, now we’ve got e-mail”. Do you still have contact with the former members of the band? Mick: “Not really. We are always out working and everybody’s doing their own things I guess”. What was the musician you suffered most of when he left the band? Mick: “Gary. That was very sad”. (bass player Gary Thain was killed in 1976 by an overdose and was found in his bath) Somehow you have been at the cradle of hard rock and heavy metal. I don’t know if you see it that way… Mick: “We are a melodic rock band”.
Yes, but when you started you were considered as a very heavy band… Mick: “Yes indeed, but in those days, in those terms, we could see it that way. As you see now, the music is getting harder and heavier, way beyond. So reflected on what we are doing right now, it is just melodic rock”. Is there any band you like in the heavier branch or maybe in the doom scene? Mick: “Linkin Park are doing good stuff, and Fear Factory in the beginning. Coal Chamber. System Of A Down, very interesting. They are all good players you know. Doom metal is way too gloomy for me sometimes. By nature I am a positive person, so… I appreciate bands in the doom scene and what they are doing, but most of the time it is too down for me”. Yeah, you got all kinds of separate scenes in music these days in metal… but I was always open-minded to discover something… Mick: “oh, you have to be…” Bernie: (enthusiastic) ‘Yes!’ Mick: “It is the best way to think. You have to be open in life for everything, not only in music. You should not have a tunnel vision, or it will just destroy you.”
Do you still remember when you entered the band, Bernie? Bernie: “Oh yes. It just seems like a long time ago. It was a good time, it completely changed my life. Very positive things came out of it!” Bernie Shaw entered the band as a singer in 1985 to replace Pete Goalby. Bernie was a member of Grand Prix and Praying Mantis before. Uriah Heep was founded in London in early 1970 by guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron. Nowadays bass player is Trevor Bolder back again since 1983, who once was a member of David Bowie’s Spiders From Mars band. On keyboards we have Phil Lanzon (ex Grand Prix) and on drums the grey eminence of Lee Kerslake, since 1972, he left the band in 1979 for Ozzy Osbourne, but came back to the band in 1982 for the 'Abominog' album. Mick Box has seen a huge amount of outstanding musicians come and go, but standing as a rock in the breakers, he always succeeded in spreading the positive vibe of music, even though he lost a wide range of gifted musicians along the way. Gary Thain, David Byron, Ken Hensley, John Sloman, Chris Slade, John Wetton, Nigel Olsson, John Lawton, Bob Daisley,… an immense rock encyclopaedia joined Mick Box in his ways to express his emotions into music. The cab is waiting outside, we have to finish our conversation, Mick and Bernie have to travel to other boundaries. Not before I have thanked them for their words and attention and wish them all the best. With thanks to Louis Rentrop to make it all happen!
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Last updated:
26/07/2005 . |
