Uriah Heep in Dubai: Still on top

Sustaining a career for more than 40 years is a major accomplishment, but to do it in the ever-changing music business is pretty staggering.

For guitarist Mick Box and his legendary progressive rock band Uriah Heep, who were formed in London in 1969, the same year iconic music festival Woodstock was held, the journey has been “amazing”.

Ahead of their live performance on November 10 at The Secret Garden, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, Gulf News tabloid! spoke to Box for a peek back on the ride, plans for the future and a reflective look at what the band has achieved over the past four decades.

Excerpts…

Even after all these years you guys don’t seem to be slowing down seeing as you have a new album coming out next year and also have a busy tour schedule where you will be playing at major concert like Giants of Rock and the Rock Legends Cruise. What keeps you going?

We still have the passion we have always had for our music. This is always our driving force and that feeds us energy.

I saw Heep perform at my hometown in Bangalore, India in 1983, which may seem a long time ago. But the experience is still fresh in my mind. What are your thoughts about the past, present and perhaps future of your music?

The past has been a rollercoaster ride and continues to be so. It has always been ‘hang on to your seat, we are off again’ and this keeps it exciting and interesting. We are in the middle of pre-production for a new album to be recorded in January 2018, so things are very exciting and our calendar for shows in 2018 is already filling up, which is great.

Classics like Gypsy, Look at Yourself, Magician’s Birthday, July Morning, Easy Living have stood the test of time and still form the backbone of your live concerts. Is there a conscious attempt to make an old song sound fresh and not overly nostalgic?

Sometimes we might add a few bars to jam over to keep it fresh, but it is the audience that does it for us. Once we strike up the first note of a classic Heep song the fists go in the air and the energy level always goes up a notch.

How has Heep been able to weather the line-up changes and handle the different personalities of the members over the decades?

I guess when anyone joins Heep there is already a firm template musically in place so they just respect that and take that on board and fit in. Personality is very important and we all need to get on as we tour in over 60 countries, so we see a lot of each other. Right now we have a great blend of personalities and a very strong creative force so we are all happy.

How important is it to strike a balance between commercial success and your catalogue depth?

We never really look at the commercial side of the business but just try to write good melodic songs with an interesting lyric. It has worked for us this long so no need to change.

Bernie’s voice still manages to sound ageless and pristine while staying true to the original multi-octave operatic range of David Byron, a sound that became a Heep trademark… That’s pretty amazing.

Yes, he can cover all of it and he does it very well. He has grown into the role and is the perfect fit.

I’m sure it has been an incredible journey since your first album Very ‘Eavy ...Very ‘Umble (1970). Do you look back at that time with fond memories. Tell us a bit about it.

In a sentence, it has been an amazing journey and there is no sign of it letting up. I have been blessed to be still doing what I love and the other boys all agree. We have fans all over the world who have been extremely loyal and as each decade that passes we gain more and more young fans which is wonderful. When a young fan shouts out please play Gypsy and the song is older than him or her then you know you have done something right. There is no better place than to be on that stage.

What are your thoughts about your first concert in Dubai?

We are to a man all very excited about playing Dubai. Whenever it is a first it always has that edge of excitement, so we are delighted to be coming over to play our music and we hope that it is a big success so that we can have Dubai in our yearly touring schedule. Now that would be fantastic.

Don’t miss it!

Uriah Heep perform at The Secret Garden, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel in Dubai on November 10. Tickets starting at Dh250 are available on platinumlist.net.

What’s in a name…

Uriah Heep is a fictional, evil character from Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield (1850).

Heep in numbers

60 is the number of countries that the British band have taken their act to since they first started touring in the early ‘70s. This is their first visit to Dubai.

30 million records have been sold by the band since their 1970 debut, Very ‘Eavy, Unble ‘Umble. In 1971, Uriah Heep released Salisbury, considered by critics as a classic album of this genre.

175 are the number of songs that the band have recorded. Easy Living, from the album Deamons and Wizards, is their most popular live song which the band have played at more than 850 concerts

30 different musicians have passed through the ranks over the years as the band went through an astonishing number of changes in line-ups.