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THAIN JOINS BAND!
Exhausted from touring and near a mental breakdown,
Mark Clarke left Uriah Heep during an American tour. Gary Thain, formerly
of the Secrets, The Strangers, and Keef Hartley Band (who had previously toured with Uriah Heep)
replaced Clarke and his first gig with the band was on February 1, 1972 at
the Los Angeles Whiskey- A-Go-Go. Gary brought
a melodic style of bass playing which greatly enhanced the bands
rhythm section.
LEE JOINS THE BAND!
When Iain Clarke left the band, Lee Kerslake
was asked to come in and audition for the
drummer position. Although he had been invited
to try out before, he had been reluctant to leave
his band, the National Head Band. According to Mick Box, all
the band was convinced that Lee was the
right man for the job but Mick. Mick
suggested Lee and he jam and the rest of the band left
for a while. When they returned,
Mick was convinced! So it was Lee and Mick's turn
to head down to the pub.
THE DEAN OF ROCK ALBUM COVERS
Uriah Heep will be forever associated with one of the most popular and unique album cover artists
ever, Roger Dean. Roger's artwork worked hand in
hand with the themes of "Demons
and Wizards" and "The Magician's Birthday" in a very powerful way. After
a twenty year absence from Heep albums cover, Roger Dean returned to do the beautiful cover for
the "Sea of Light" album in 1995. He recently has prepared artwork for
many Heep projects.
ROCK 'N ROLL MEDLEY
Todd Fischer (along with Del Roll and Mel Baister) was an integral part of Heep's
stage crew in the early 70s. Todd joined the Heep team in early 1972 and he is the one who introduces the band on "Live
73". During 1997, Todd joined the Heepsters
Mailing List for a while and told us some very interesting stories
of touring with Heep. Todd said that during a day off in 1972;
Todd, Mel, Del, Gary Thain, Ken Hensley and Ken's girlfriend Shelley rode
to Amsterdam from Lubeck, Germany. During this round trip, they listened to a cassette of
the group "Mountain" nearly 15 times. The tape included a version of their Rock 'N Roll medley. Three days later, Heep first played their Rock 'N Roll Medley in a gig in Munich, Germany. That isn't where the story ends, however. Soon after the medley was added, several
member of Electric Light Orchestra heard the Heep rendition during a performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and they were inspired
to record "Roll Over Beethoven" which became a big hit for them.
NO MAGIC... BLACK, WHITE OR OTHERWISE
During an 1972 interview, Ken Hensley was asked if the
band's albums (Demons & Wizards, The
Magician's Birthday) had anything to do with black magic or the occult. Ken responded,
"No, I took great pains to mention in the sleeve
notes of each album there was no connection with
any magic... black, white or otherwise." He went on
to explain "I was into fantasy and I've got a very strong imagination." He had decided to gear the albums
toward fantasy and away from current events or social commentary. He also mentioned that the only thing he could
think of that the band had done that
was associated with the supernatural was the band attended a seance in Italy once. The song "Circle of Hands" took it's title from
that experience but the substance of the song had nothing to do with magic, occult, etc.
THE T. REX INCIDENT!
Todd also recalled the famous incident where Uriah Heep reportedly clashed with Marc Bolan and
T. Rex at the Chicago Auditorium Theater on February 24, 1972.
Although the English press later fictionalized events claiming Heep and Bolan
exchanged words, in truth Heep had already gone to the hotel when things got ugly. Todd and Del noticed
the T. Rex roadies were less experienced and effective than
Heep's crew early on. Whereas Heep had
a two-legged power distribution to give them a backup in case of a problem, T. Rex's supply was more sloppily arranged. Heep had a very good show that night and played three encores to a crowd of about 8,000. The first sign of trouble was when T. Rex's people asked to use Heep's power setup. Since Heep's roadies were protective of their equipment, they semi-politely refused. Del and Todd stuck around to see T. Rex's show and sat in the upper balcony. As T. Rex was announced some of the fans continued to chant "Uriah Heep, Uriah Heep, Uriah Heep!" However, Heep had already returned to the hotel. Marc Bolan came out with his acoustic guitar and some of the crowd began booing. Bolan sat on a stool at center stage and began to strum, trying to ignore the chanting and booing that was continuing. After about three minutes finally Bolan said "F**k'n' 'ell, man! I've come a long way to play for you!" About this time some of the security began to throw out some of the hecklers. About 50 fans were ejected before Bolan began his set again. After they had played for about two minutes, the power went down! Bolan tried to improvise on acoustic guitar but the crowd was
getting even uglier. After about ten minutes, power was restored and with the crowd still heckling, T. Rex continued their set. The band only played about 30 minutes and there were no encores. Later on, Todd and Del were told that T.Rex's crew had accused them of sabatoging their equipment and inciting the crowd to riot!
HEEP PLAYS FOR 100,000
Uriah Heep played the Germensheim Festival on May 11, 1972. Heep's audience was estimated at approximately 100,000 people!
