Ten Years After. . . Well, More Than Twice Over

With the humblest of apologies to Alvin, Chick, Leo and Ric for my rather flippant choice of title and undisguised plagiarism. . . While reading the DNA paper one morning, almost 3-4 weeks ago, I saw a flyer for an event called the One Tree Festival and was casually flipping the page over when something caught my vagrant eye, a word called HEEP. Receptors in my brain start beeping frenetically, alarms start ringing, signals are sent to keep the heart pumping and not miss a beat and [editor’s note: you get the picture].

HEEP, in Mumbai? N, ah, that sounds almost too good to be true. I held the page and then read carefully… the flyer was very simple, Uriah Heep to perform in Mumbai on 10 February 2006 at the One Tree Festival, to be opened by Indus Creed. I made a few calls immediately to ascertain veracity [truth is always stranger than fiction]. Deep down, I was ecstatically screaming inside my mind, “Finally, it’s been 22 years. . .”

IIT Chennai’s Open Air Theater has been the venue of several rock acts over the years but unarguably the largest act to perform there were Heep in October 1983. I am not sure people who were not there could understand the experience of a 13-year lad (moi!!!) watching the FIRST rock concert of his life… The mind-f**k was just that, “. . . Something drawing me to where I do not know; I never really thought that I would lose myself; Now I’m going faster than anybody else”. . . The music was completely ethereal and alien to my ears. . . I was recently reading Terry Pratchett’s “Soul Music” and found myself nodding in agreement several times to the prose as I kept relating to the several concerts that I have attended that left an indelible mark in my mind’s eye. . .

Post that wonderful evening, I persuaded my father to take me to the nearest music store to buy some tapes of Heep… A week later, I remember endlessly playing Firefly and Fallen Angel much to the chagrin of my more civic minded family . . . and lapping every riff and arrangement. . . Chennai thankfully had no laws on noise pollution in those days. . . These guys had just awakened a hitherto latent chord deep down, one that would define my musical tastes then on. Over the years, I slowly and steadily kept accumulating and jealously guarding my music collection, worse than Smaug from The Hobbit watching over his cavernous trove, and Heep always had a special place on my music shelves… The albums from the 1972-75 lineup of Heep, among their finest – Mick Box, Lee Kerslake, Ken Hensley, Gary Thain and David Byron – still adorn my list of Heep collectibles. . . Over the years, their lineup kept changing but their signature composition and arrangement kept evolving.

So it was with a feeling of unbridled elation that I prepared for the concert all of last week. I just fished out the trusty I-pod and started reliving memories – “Gypsy”, “Wake Up”, Come Away Melinda”, The Park”, “High Priestess”, “Salisbury”, “Traveller in Time”, “Easy Livin’”, “Sweet Freedom”, “Stealin’”, “If I had the Time”, “Return To Fantasy”, “Woman of the Night”, “Come Back To Me” – it just kept going on. . .

Thanks to the good offices of a friend who works in MTV (thanks V homie for the assist, I really owe you big), I managed to rustle up three passes to the gig. . .Nandita and I were going so all I had to do was find another die-hard rocker who would be able t appreciate old school rock and metal. So I called Vijai “The Mighty Rearranger” and a plan was made. . .

The concert opened at 7:15 PM with Indus Creed playing their hit numbers from yesteryears but that just kept the entire crowd chomping at the bit. . . And then the pennies dropped!!!

Heep opened with a wall of sound, for a moment I was transfixed trying to figure out what came where… and by the time I got my bearings, Sweet Freedom came up. I had never heard Bernie Shaw ever perform before and I must admit I was quite impressed with his repertoire… A very good voice that could croon, do a mellow rendition and hit the high notes as required, epitomized by Stealin and July Morning. Shaw promised that the band would play music spanning three decades and they did. I had stopped listening to Heep post the Abominog album and some of the sounds were quite new, the trademark keyboard and lead riffs yet hauntingly familiar. I personally enjoyed Between Two Worlds from Sonic Origami, Bernie Shaw sounding a tad like Ian Gillian of DP

One aspect that stood out was that the “older” members – Bolder, Box and Kerslake were quite content and happy to do what they do best – just play music. . . The show was completely about musical experimentation, both on the lyrical and sound arrangement fronts. . . No over dramatic onstage gimmickry or individual showmanship from any of the performers . . . Heep just realized the crowd was thirsting for good music and played several of their classics. It was like listening to them without having lost a beat over the last two decades. I just enjoyed listening to (and trying to make myself heard, screaming in accompaniment. . .) Stealin’, The Wizard, Free Me, Sunrise, Sweet Lorraine, Gypsy and July Morning. Heep closed their sets with three classics from all time – Bird of Prey, Easy Livin’ and Lady in Black, the last with the audience participating.

The sound at the concert was almost flawless . . . The sound engineers and mixers working behind the scenes certainly deserve a round of applause. We could hear every single riff, lead or bass, clearly and distinctly on every track through the set list, especially numbers like Stealin’ or Gypsy, with their bass riffs or July Morning with its intricately experimental keyboard work. I would be remiss if I did not mention Lee ‘The Bear’ Kerslake . . . All through the performance, he just kept stoically playing, matching riff with beat and never losing count even once . . .

My only gripe was with the tele-visual flashed onscreen. Most of the performance was captured in Warhol-esque color and kept flashing in and out a’la Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun and I really missed closely watching Bolder and Box’s finger movements during their riffs, I mean you cannot watch these guys live and not be able to see them strum a complete movement can you? That would be a crime in my book!!!

The show ended with Heep promising to come back soon . . . Ah well, to paraphrase them from Very ‘Eavy… Very ‘Umble:

“So I’m gonna keep on trying till I feel like dying and I lay down and pass away
But that won’t happen till tomorrow
And by then I can borrow another day so I’m gonna keep on trying”

I would give this show a 8/10.

Peace
S