Dud Sea Scrawls The Writing, clearly, is not on the wall!

‘Cause I’m so tired
Of everybody staring at me
Yes, I’m so tired
And I’m so uninspired
Please help me…
- So tired, from ‘Wonderworld’ Uriah Heep

When Uriah Heep kicks off their tour calendar for 2006 with that song at Bangalore, you can be sure that Bangalore crowd would definitely inspire them. A kick-ass rock concert which only disappointed because it ended too soon… The band was brilliant as they usually are. Celebrating 35 years of Uriah Heep’s existence, the band members who’ve been together now for the last 20 years rocked Bangalore. And the fans in turn sang along, shouted, danced and truly inspired the band to give their best. There were hardly a couple of thousand people in the arena, but the sound they produced while singing along with the band surely matched the volume being pumped up by the amplifiers… For a very long time I’d been wanting to see this band perform live.

Eversince I heard ‘Lady in black’ during my college days, I’ve been a big fan of Uriah Heep’s music and it was a dream come true to be there right up front to enjoy their powerful music. From ‘very ‘eavy very ‘umble’ to ‘Sonic Origami’, Uriah Heep has produced some brilliant music for 35 years, endured some break ups initially but the present line up has been together for the last twenty years. Here’s wishing them lots more years of solid rocking time…

After ‘So tired’, ‘Sweet freedom’ followed next with a stunning drums solo by Lee Kerslake towards the end. ‘Rain’ was an beautiful mellow piece with just Phil Lanzon on Keyboards and Bernie Shaw’s vocals. Mick Box was brilliant and theatrical as always with his fingers dancing on the fretboard and the picking hand making mystical signs before playing the next note. Trevor Bolder’s bass solos on ‘If I had the time’ and ‘Free Me’ were awesome.

Starting with ‘So tired’, the band performed some of their best songs from the classic Uriah Heep albums of yesteryears… dug in to the archives or vaults, so to speak. The almost exact sequence of songs was:

So tired
Sweet freedom
Falling in love
Words in the distance
Stealin’
If I had the time
A year or A day
Between two worlds
Rain
July Morning
The Wizard
Free Me
Sunrise
Sweet Lorraine
Gypsy
Look at yourself
Encoré - Bird of prey, Easy livin’, Lady in Black

“So long, easy rider
I know I’ll miss you for awhile…”
- Free Me, from ‘Innocent Victim’ Uriah Heep