Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Feldkirchen / Stadtsaal / Austria
Concert date: May 12, 2012
Attendance: 650
Ticket price: €44.00 / €47.00
Another year has rolled around, and Nazareth and Uriah Heep are once again roaming Europe’s concert stages. Two legendary bands from Great Britain both put out new studio albums last year! Real life energy still flows through the veins of these legends with unshakable power, keeping both outfits on the road all the time. The two bands are also great friends, so it’s no surprise that for years now they’ve been sharing stages at the same venue on the same day.
Much like last year, when RockLine caught both bands on stage four times in our northern neighbor’s territory (three of those were joint shows, and once each separately), this year too the new European tours of both bands lined up in time and space so well that they decided to play new dates together. One of them was the show in Feldkirchen, an Austrian town just a stone’s throw from Klagenfurt, so practically around the corner for anyone living in Slovenia. If you’re a true rocker in heart and soul, you’d never miss an event like that, and this time you didn’t.
That day it was pouring like the end of the world. But that didn’t stop the Austrian crowd from storming into the gig in huge numbers. A little after eight in the evening the Stadtsaal hall was seething, and some 700 heads were already eagerly waiting for the tireless blacksmiths of Scottish highland rock n’ roll, Nazareth, to step on stage. Now set up as a quartet, with original members Pete Agnew (bass, backing vocals) and Dan McCafferty (vocals, bagpipes), plus the much younger guitarist Jimmy Murrison and Pete’s son Lee on drums, they opened the show with the classic Silver Dollar Forger, taken from the classic album »Rampant« (1974). After a classic, Scottish-sounding intro, they shuffled onto the stage through the fog, and a beam of white light first found Jimmy, who kicked off the classic with its opening guitar phrase.
Nazareth had obviously grown tired of playing songs from the new album »Big Dogz« (Edel Records, 2011), so this time their setlist sounded thoroughly classic rock. Right in the second slot they put a performance of the phenomenal Telegram! The band drives that famous hot-blooded guitar phrase through a proper dramatic storm, in which the oldest living rocker, the man who swallowed a circular saw ages ago and had it lodged in his throat forever – singer Dan McCafferty – knocks you flat with his vocal peculiarity, as his famous delivery crawls under your skin like a trillion-strong invasion of ants. Dan McCafferty, a man I’ve often called the living embodiment of the male version of Janis Joplin, impaling the devil with his frenzied screaming, is still the focal point of all the band’s finest qualities and musical idiosyncrasies. In the quiet numbers, like Dream On and the closing Love Hurts, his voice did show some wear, but that’s easy to forgive. It comes with the years. McCafferty is no longer a dewy twenty, even though he acts on stage like a frisky young colt. His ever-reliable comrade Pete Agnew once again offered superb support with his backing vocals, joined by his strapping son, Nazareth drummer Lee, while Murrison (who has crept up a few extra kilos over the past year) blew the hall away with a deeply felt stage performance in which his guitar chirped the most authentic confession of rock n’ roll. Then came the mandatory classic Hair Of the Dog, the evergreen and the peak of every Nazareth show, in 2012 too. This flirtatiously rhythmic odyssey, backed by a »cowbell« and featuring McCafferty on the obligatory bagpipes, announced that the show was approaching not only its peak but also the end of the regular set.
As expected, in the encore the boys fired up the crowd for good with Night Woman and the speedy rock n’ roll classic Razamanaz, then hypnotized all the lovebirds with the biggest favorite of their career, Love Hurts. What more is there to say? Nothing, really, because with the Feldkirchen show Nazareth proved once again that they’re still in full vital strength! So we can look forward with the greatest pleasure to the big day, September 20, 2012, when, alongside yet another set of legends – the majestic Wishbone Ash – they’ll visit Slovenia again, almost two decades after they last played at Zeleni Gaj in the village of Dornberk in the middle of the Vipava Valley, this time at Križanke in Ljubljana.
After a good twenty minutes, shortly before ten in the evening, Uriah Heep are standing on stage. The headliners of the night. For them the stage grew into a vast Formula One racetrack, with the back row on risers filled by Russell Gilbrook’s magnificent, clustered drum kit (without the gong this time) and Phil Lanzon’s Hammond organ. To the right of the drums stood the wall of Box’s Marshall guitar amps, and between the organ and drums on the left, an equally fitting wall of Trevor Bolder’s bass amps. The lights dim, but this time the intro trick wasn’t the usual one. Where is this going? Into the first track of the album »Sea Of Light« (SPV Records, 1995), called Against The Odds. Uriah Heep had never played that song live before this tour. Considering that »Sea of Light« is among the band’s highly rated albums and easily holds its own in quality against the finest work from the Byron era, we got a one-of-a-kind opening experience, and many in the audience saw a long-held quiet wish come true: that Uriah Heep would one day grant it and put this song in their live repertoire. A fantastic experience. The penetrating riff and the song’s development into a high-octane finish breathe the drama of theater, led by melancholic melodies that all five members of Uriah Heep join in on, vividly demonstrating what perfect command of multi-part harmony singing looks like.
Uriah Heep, who as headliners had an extra half hour of playing time compared to Nazareth, treated themselves to a truly outstanding setlist this time. Besides three tracks from the current album »Into the Wild« (2011), they brought back the energetic Overload from the album »Wake The Sleeper« (2008), and the rest of the set was an adventure through a mix of cult classics that can’t be left off the setlist (I’m aiming at the era with David Byron) and surprises you really didn’t expect to see on it. After the sweetness of Against the Odds, the band fully surprised us by including the »Demons And Wizards« (1972) gem Traveller In Time (metalheads will recognize it because Blind Guardian also perform it in their own adapted version), added the utterly unexpected, rather less interesting number, again from »Demons And Wizards«, called All My Life, tickled the emotional types with the fragile lament Come Away Melinda (from the debut »…Very ‘Eavy… Very ‘Umble«, 1970) and touched on the eighties with the »Abominog« (1982) cult number Too Scared To Run. Box introduced this song from »Abominog« by saying that the album’s cover was voted the second ugliest of all albums released in 1982, with the top prize in that category reportedly going to Ozzy Osbourne (who released »Speak Of The Devil« back then, ed. note).
The band once again enchanted us with their exceptional tightness, confirming a great level of cohesion and power, especially in the multi-part vocal harmonies, where every single member joins in behind Bernie’s lead vocal as needed. Bernie once again stunned with how well his vocal power has been preserved, still shining in every register, and the imaginary fire on the guitar neck of guitar yogi Mick Box after his solo in July Morning was blown out this time by none other than Bernie. Box played that solo this time without his usual step in the kazachok. The performance of the cult Gypsy announced that the show was tipping into its closing stretch. From there on the band raised the atmosphere to boiling point in the always magical and majestic July Morning and poked the crowd to their feet with one of the biggest hits of their career, Lady In Black.
Next came the obligatory encore, where Mick Box and company called the ladies up on stage to help »head-bang« the »Lawton era« pulse-raiser Free N’ Easy. The red-hot finish and a bagful of cheeky fun were rounded off, as expected, by Easy Livin’, which simply can’t be missing from any Uriah Heep repertoire.
Flawless! As always, at full tilt, confident and bathed in the glow of unique rock n’ roll magic. Heep magic, which blasts you off into a completely different world. There’s really no reason to complain. The combination with Nazareth is one of a kind! Just one small remark. And even that only from those of us who are spoiled, having seen Uriah Heep several times before that day. Despite the welcome refresh, the repertoire was missing at least Look At Yourself, if not Bird Of Prey. Time limits aside, Uriah Heep could have painlessly swapped the »Into The Wild« track Nail On The Head for one of those two classics, and the picture would have been complete.
As always, one thing has stayed beyond dispute over the last few years: both Uriah Heep and Nazareth are one-of-a-kind live attractions. These surviving pioneers of rock deserve all our respect for their defiance, for the new music they still bring us, and for the old classics with which they keep the cult of both bands alive. They can still cast a spell on a listener with ease when you meet them face to face at a live show. May the years stay kind to both bands for a long time yet, and all of you reading this concert confession, hurry up and grab tickets for Nazareth in Ljubljana on September 20, 2012, while the godfathers of Scottish rock n’ roll are still kicking up a storm on stages so joyfully and convincingly!
Setlist
NAZARETH:
1. Silver Dollar Forger
2. Telegram
3. This Month’s Messiah
4. Dream On
5. Turn On Your Receiver
6. This Flight Tonight
7. Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman
8. Changin’ Times
9. Hair of the Dog
—encore—
10. Night Woman
11. Razamanaz
12. Love Hurts
URIAH HEEP:
1. Against the Odds
2. Overload
3. Traveller in Time
4. Sunrise
5. All My Life
6. I’m Ready
7. Between Two Worlds
8. Come Away Melinda
9. Too Scared to Run
10. Nail on the Head
11. Into the Wild
12. Gypsy
13. July Morning
14. Lady in Black
—encore–
15. Free ‘n’ Easy
16. Easy Livin’
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