Friday, May 20, 2011

Uriah Heep - 1975 - De Montfort Hall - Leicester UK (Bootleg)


TRACKLIST:

01 - Devil's Daughter
02 - Stealin'
03 - Suicidial Man
04 - Shady Lady
05 - Prima Donna
06 - Rainbow Demon
07 - July Morning
08 - Return To Fantasy
09 - Easy Livin'
10 - Gipsy
11 - Mick Box Guitar Solo
12 - Sweet Lorraine (incl. John Wetton Bass Solo)


Good audience record from the Byron-Box-Hensley-Kerslake-Wetton line-up. Sound quality not very good but listenable.


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Uriah Heep - Ternitz, Austria - 14.5.2011


Another bootleg from the current tour. Basically the same show as the previous one with the omission of I can see you 


Disc 1:
01 Intro (1:12)
02 I'm ready (4:44)
03 Return to Fantasy (4:40)
04 Stealin' (6:25)
05 Rainbow Demon (5:00)
06 Money Talk & Drum Solo (7:05)
07 Nail on the Head (5:15)
08 The Wizard (4:26)
09 Into the Wild (4:44)

Disc 2:
10 Gypsy (4:34)
11 Look at yourself (9:03)
12 Kiss of Freedom (6:27)
13 July Morning (12:22)
14 Lady in Black (6:13)
15 (Audience, Encore Break) (3:39)
16 Free 'n' easy (3:12) *
17 Bird of Prey (3:52)
18 Easy livin' (2:58)
19 Outro (1:20)
*recorded from the stage 




The Band

Mick Box
Trevor Bolder
Phil Lanzon
Bernie Shaw
Russel Gilbrook

Link

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Uriah Heep Aschaffenburg 26-04-2011


Set list

01 Intro
02 I'm Ready
03 I Can See You
04 Return To Fantasy 
05 Stealin'
06 Rainbow Demon
07 Money Talk
08 Drum Solo
09 Nail On The Head
10 The Wizard
11 Into The Wild
12 Gypsy
13 Look at Yourself
14 Kiss of Freedom
15 July Morning
16 Lady In Black
17 Encore Break
18 Free 'n' Easy
19 Bird of Prey
20 Easy Livin'
21 Outro 


The Band

Mick Box
Trevor Bolder
Phil Lanzon
Bernie Shaw
Russel Gilbrook 




Sunday, May 8, 2011

Uriah Heep - 1982 - Live at Monster of rock festival - Castle Donnington

Tracklist:

01 - Sell your soul
02 - Running all night with the lion
03 - Stealin
04 - Too scared to run
05 - The wizard/July morning
06 - That's the way it is
07 - Guitar solo
08 - Gipsy
09 - Easy livin'


Bootleg of the early Goalby era, Box-Kerslake-Goalby-Daisley-Sinclair line-up, registered at Monsters of rock festival in the 21 August 1982, sound not very good but listeanable


Sunday, May 1, 2011

Fuzzy Duck - Fuzzy Duck 1971


An excellent album that was released in 1971 and in many ways much better than a lot of the music that was released that year, yet this Album only had a limited release from their record company (500 copies apparently) and quickly fell into obscurity with the band closely following, which is a real shame as judging by the music on offer here this band could quite easily have gone on to much bigger and better things.
Featuring on Keyboards (predominantly the Hammond organ) one Roy Sharland who previous to his tenure in Fuzzy Duck played keyboards, (albeit briefly and probably as a hired session musician), with a Little known band called Spice

I found this review on Prog Archives 


The members of Fuzzy Duck were certainly not novices by the time they banded together and released their only studio album. Bassist Mick Hawksworth had spent the latter sixties with future Atomic Rooster alumnus John Du Cann in the hard-core psych band The Five Day Week Straw People, with both of them later moving on to the semi-legendary psych band Andromeda where they were joined by Fuzzy vocalist/guitarist the late Grahame White. Drummer Paul Francis had played with both The End and Tucky Buzzard. And Roy Sharland had been a member of the pre-Uriah Heep lineup known as Spice. So from that curriculum vitae you would expect a sound that included psych and blues guitar, heavy Hammond organ riffs, and above all very well-structured rhythms. Plus this was recorded in 1970 so throw in poor production, muddy bass notes and unremarkable male vocals straining outside their natural limits.

Well I’m happy to report that the band does not disappoint, as the previous paragraph describes Fuzzy Duck to a ‘T’. Presumably named after the old drinking game of the same name, Fuzzy Duck were a brief flash in the pan that apparently served as little more than a vehicle for the various professionals in it to move on to other things. The band doesn’t seem to have stayed together for more than a year or two, but they clearly had enough in the form of individual reputation and connections to land a record deal on the fledgling but up-and-coming MAM Records label.

But keep in mind that blues-based psych rock with heavy bass, lots of Hammond and strained male vocals were standard fare in 1970, so I’m not sure this really qualifies as progressive music unless we’re assuming just about everything from Canned Heat to Blind Faith qualifies as prog rock. Probably not.

That’s not to say this is a throwaway album though, because there’s some pretty good music on it. It’s just not substantively different from early Uriah Heep, Steppenwolf, Grand Funk, Jody Grind, Wishbone Ash or any of dozens of bands like them. As long as you are okay with that, this is a pretty decent album.

The album kicks off with a heavy bass, lively Hammond rocker titled “Time Will Be Your Doctor”. This is pure hard rock but well played (“Country Boy” later on the album falls into this category as well). And while “Mrs. Prout” is quite similar there is a move toward more psych-leaning guitar and drawn-out keyboards ala Ray Manzarek. After this comes “Just Look around You”, which borders on being a heavy folk tune but is backed with the heavy organ and bass emphasis again.

But then back comes the psych, this time quite heavy and extended thanks to White’s guitar and vocals on “Afternoon Out” and “More Than I Am”. These both sound a bit improvisational and hearken back to the late sixties, showing without a doubt the recent influences of several band members.

The CD reissue (unfortunately not remastered though) includes a handful of singles recorded after White left the band and was briefly replaced by Garth Watt-Roy (Living Daylights, Greatest Show on Earth, East of Eden). The production on these is a bit better, and a couple (“Double Time Woman” and “One More Hour”) were released as singles, presumably with the other two bonus tracks occupying their backsides. These are much lighter on organ, virtually devoid of bass and include horns. The sound is decidedly more AOR than the original album, and I suppose these were only included because the CD version had a lot more whitespace than the original forty minute vinyl version had.

No matter, this is a decent album that is representative of the early seventies heavy rock sound. It’s not too deep in the prog department though, but almost qualifies as proto-prog based on the various musicians’ backgrounds and it’s timing at the very end of the late sixties blues/psych musical era. Three stars and recommended as an interesting curio and as a nostalgic piece, but not as serious prog music

The band

Grahame White – vocals; electric & acoustic guitars
Mick Hawksworth - vocals; bass & classical guitars; electric cello
Roy Sharland - organ ("ducking voices" - on track 6)
Paul Francis – drums & percussion
Garth Watt Roy - Guitar, vocals (only on bonus tracks)

The Tracks

1. Time will be your doctor (5:11)
2. Mrs Prouts (6:48)
3. Just look around you (4:24)
4. Afternoon out (4:59)
5. More than I am (5:33)
6. Country boy (6:04)
7. In out time (6:41)
8. A word from bid D (1:41)

Bonus tracks which were released as singles after the album
9. Double time woman (3:00)
10. Big brass band (2:58)
11. One more hour (3:59)
12. No name face (3:03)

Total Time: 54:21