Alex is the administrator of his own site, "The Alex Gitlin Homepage". He also publishes weekly musical PICKS http://members.aol.com/uheep2/np.htm and his own Nederpop encyclopedia at http://members.aol.com/uheep2/nederpop.htm as well as web sites for a variety of musicians, most notably Eddie Hardin at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Concert/6848/hardin/

He lives in Boston, Massachusettes and seems to have crammed a lot of living into his life. He was born September 15 ,1970 in Leningrad, USSR, now St Petersburg, Russia.

Alex is a true lover of rock music, he has a varied taste and likes to collect old and rare vinyls. He is a big Heep fan. It's best to let him explain:

"Born and raised in Russia, where Heep are significantly bigger than over here, fan since 1981, when I heard "Look at Yourself" for the 1st time. I was immediately taken aback by the majesty of "July Morning", "What should be done", unabashed energy of "Love Machine" and the title track and the out-of-this-world harmonies and the slide guitar of "I wanna be free" which remains my favourite song to this day.

Through the years, as my interest in English blues-based hard rock of the 70s and the 80s increased, I got to hear "Demons and Wizards" (my second favourite album by Heep, ever) and immediately liked it as well! At that point, I was a fan of such diverse bands as Livin' Blues, Montrose and Whitesnake - must've been early 80s. Towards the mid-late 80s I got into heavy-metal headbanging, and a whole slew of bands followed: seemed I could get into anything at that point - my mind was wide open; some good bands, some crappy ones: Bonfire, Krokus, Nazareth, Scorpions, Warlock, Accept, AC/DC, Rainbow, Ozzy, Deep Purple, Running Wild, Mekong Delta - British, Swedish, Swiss, American, you name it... I was into... heavy metal, in a big way! :-) But I was avidly following Heep and their releases as much as I could, in Russia, although it was difficult during the Soviet years - Western releases weren't freely available to the public, so one had to exert some efforts in order to get that kind of music... and usually it would be a copy of a copy of a copy on a bad quality tape, mono!

We also customarily used big reel-to-reel tapes... Those sounded much better and had a stereo effect. Domestic tape players (mono) were total crap!

When "Head First" came out, I was already a Sabbath/Motorhead/Judas Priest/Dio/Schenker-head, so this was just one of the albums for me to check out... And... I liked it! Especially the cover of "Lonely nights". I was completely unaware that David wasn't even in the band - I just... sort of noticed that the vocals don't sound the same but didn't pay much attention. I was 13 at the time. Then when Equator came out, I thought, that's an OK album also! Especially "Angel" and "Night of the wolf"!

The period between 1985 and my immigration in 1988 wasn't exactly paved with Heep releases, so I was just happy to be jumping different bandwagons (Pink Floyd, Santana, Rose Tattoo, Raven, Helloween, Dave Lee Roth and other stuff) and almost forgot about Heep, except I still hang on to my copy of "D&W" - a truly magical & timeless record!

I remember getting really envious when my friend in Leningrad got to see Heep live (and I still haven't - to this date!!) He later told me they had a different vocalist and that Byron's no longer in the band. It wasn't until 1990 that I found out that Byron died in 1985 and it was a shock to the system! I was literally numb for days after finding out!!

After I left Russia Heep toured there again - and my friends over there went to see them again in Moscow and Leningrad. We settled in Lynn, MA, a town on the North Shore where noone had heard of Heep. Everyone had heard of Aerosmith and Zeppelin, so I tried to adjust and just go with the flow, and listen to whatever everyone else was into. But the music was horrible (Kingdom Come, Quiet Riot, Grateful Dead, Run DMC) and I really missed my Heep.

So in 1989 I finally got around to checking out used record stores... and got vinyl copies of "Innocent Victim", "Firefly", "Return to Fantasy", "Wonderworld", and more! I was overjoyed!!! I must've been the youngest kid to frequent "Salem Record Exchange" and people just wouldn't understand why I find it necessary to dig out those old dusty vinyls from the bins that time had forgotten.

In 1990, I permanently got into the 70s and decided to pretty much dedicate my life to exploring, studying, writing and performing 70s/70s styled music. Afterall, it had always been my favourite decade, music and fashion and attitude wise. Television's best shows were made in the 70s. Best music and movies ever, too... and so forth. So while my peers were happy to bounce around from Vanilla Ice and New Kids on the Block to Nirvana and Soundgarden to other rubbish, I kept buying more and more 70s records that I was interested in.

My CD acquisitions (and CD imports weren't as easy to find back then as they are now) included "Sweet Freedom", "Live in Moscow" and "Live at Shepperton" (for which I was charged $33, shipping included - robbery!!!) Oh, and I'm a proud owner of the Legacy picture disc (vinyl) of "Raging Silence".

I didn't think much of "RS" except it was OK. Just OK. Their cover of Argent's "Hold your head up" was very good, but the rest, to me, had "80s MOR metal" written all over it, so I could take it or leave it. It wasn't the Heep of old that I liked and enjoyed so much.

In 1991, I did a 3-hour radio special at WJUL, 91.5 FM (with a friend) - a radio station of UMASS, Lowell in Massachusetts. I still have a tape to prove it - well, 2 tapes actually. We not only played records, but also told the band's story from the 'umble formations and roots (Gods, Spice, Toe Fat) to the latest developments covering a 20+ year span of Heep's history. Other artists I'd covered included Thin Lizzy and Gary Moore and more. I had plans grandeur to cover bands as disparate and varied as Barclay James Harvest and Sensational Alex Harvey Band, but it wasn't meant to be. In 1992, I moved to New York city while my friend lost his night spot at that radio station and got himself a "real" job.

Thus, I didn't become America's answer to John Peel, Kid Jensen or "whispering" Bob Harris. I marched on, however, writing more radio specials' manuscripts, which were never meant to be aired. I also offered my services to publications such as Goldmine and Record Collector, as a young and aspiring musical journalist but again, this was not meant to be.

In New York, life was lean, I was living in a roach-infested slum, barely making ends meet... It was a Heepless and depressing year, except when I got my copy of "Live Legends" video, I was overjoyed!! I remember watching it for the first time... "July Morning" and "Gypsy" were pure delight!

A year earlier, "Different World" came out - this was one album I never got into, at all. Tried it, hated it, thought this is where Heep have lost all of their identity, and credibility with me - and sold that CD. Tried it again a year ago, and still hated it. Sounded like poor man's Aerosmith, to my ears. :-) "Equator" is another album I can't seem to be able to get into... Everything else they've done, in my book, is good to GREAT!

When in 1995 Sea of Light came out, I was very critical of it (and it is about to get a domestic release here in the States). I thought, the melodies are good, and I welcome the return of the Hammond, but some modern overtones in drumming and Bernie's singing I wasn't prepared to accept... So it left me with mixed feelings, but since then, some songs grew on me tremendously. It's probably the best album they've ever done with Bernie and their best since 1978's "Fallen Angel" (IMHO not better than F.A.), i.e. their best album in 17 years! (Sonic Origami also a good pop-rock album, but more on the AOR side - too much so, perhaps, for my liking, but I still somewhat enjoy it. Just not as much as SOL).

My original 1995 review of Sea of Light, which I submitted to UHAS at the time, can be found on Hani's site.

Then "Spellbinder" came out and this set just blew me away! When Bernie puts all of his prior stage demeanor aside, the boy can really sing!! It really pleased me, cause it was the first (IMHO) proper live album from the band since Live 1973, and although not nearly as great or majestic (how can you top Live 1973 anyway) it was IMHO pretty damn close! I immediately wrote a rave review to UHAS which got subsequently published! It also pleased my ear that they chose to do all the older classics and not too much of the newer (Bernie era) stuff which I could take or leave.

Throughout the years, I dug up more and more of Heep spinoff projects, especially since Repertoire has been doing such a great job reissuing some of them: Byron and Hensley's solo albums from the 70s, for starters! And so now I have such remotely Heep-related items in my collection as Natural Gas (Mark Clark & Joey Molland) 1976 eponymous album, "Cressida (Ian Clark, pre-Heep - killer Hammond!, great psych-prog records!) and all Lucifer's Friend albums, as well as Ken's "Gods", "Toe Fat", "Weed" and "Head Machine" projects. I guess I'm a real fan of 16 years!!

Records like "Champion" (1978, eponymous album by the same personnel as "Rough Diamond" except Byron) I simply treated as "new releases" at the time I was getting them, while my peers were indulging themselves in the atrocity of "Soundgarden" and "Alice in Chains" so you could say I'm also a bit of an oddball and an "old music" nut. I'm proud of it though. If I had to do it all over again, in terms of gathering various pieces of music for my collection, I would've gone for exactly the same things.

So maybe I'm not the best looking guy on the planet and maybe chicks would dig me more if I was going out to techno dance clubs and listening to techno/hip-hop/rave crap, wearing Armani suits and trendy short hairdos, but I'm proud of who I am, what I am and the way I look.

Oh, did I also mention I'm a singer/songwriter/keyboard player in my own right? Always popping in and out of different bands, always in search of that "perfect band" for me, never seem to be able to find it. :-) But trying damn hard, still - at the moment, I play keyboards in a blues band called Shaky Deal, http://members.aol.com/ShakyDeal1

I asked Ken once (through Richard) "Now, in the 90s, what's a Heep-oriented Hammond player to do - what's the first step?" and Ken replied, "Get a REAL job!" I guess times have changed... :-)"