One of my mates has gone to work in Holland and, when a planned visit coincided with a gig by Uriah Heep in his area, it was of course included in the weekend’s festivities. After a Sunday afternoon spent at a beer festival in nearby Gauda we headed over to the Borderij (Borderline) club in Zoetermeer. It was my first time there and the venue turned out to be an impressive large club with a gig capacity of around 750 apparently. Split into two levels, according to the posters the place featured both dance nights and retro rock. Indeed After Heep's appearance other bands lined up to play include Blue Oyster Cult, Johnny Winter, Glenn Hughes, Wishbone Ash (the Martin Turner one) with Gotthard the only nod to things after the 70s! It's also the only venue I’ve ever been to with a decibel meter on the wall! For those interested the support band peaked at 113db but Heep managed only a paltry 110db in comparison.... 

The support act for the night were a local outfit by the name of No Rush, a two guitar five piece band with a female singer. Unfortunately on this evidence they came across as not very tight, lacking in any good songs and with a singer who possesses something of an unremarkable voice and no stage presence. They also seemed to think that Lee Aaron’s “Metal Queen” era was the blueprint for success! As all they got was a lukewarm response from those in attendance it obviously wasn’t just your truly that remained unimpressed.  Sometimes you just have to be obvious and hence I can say I’m in "No Rush" to see them again! 

I’ll be upfront now and admit I’m a huge Heep fan having seen the band dozens of times and with a shelf full of albums to my name.  I like the fact that they’re unfashionable and I guess that If you’re reading this review then it must mean that you’re a) a fan who wants to know what songs they played, boa fan from years ago who didn’t know they were still going or c) someone under 30(or even 40!) wondering who the heck this is!

The easy answer for readers a) and b) is they played an hour and a half of material including three songs from their forthcoming new album. An album of new material is an event for Heep fans and the songs they showcased all sounded pretty good, especially “Shadow” which is classic heavy riffing Heep. The rest of the set was the usual mixture of both older material and tracks from the Bernie Shaw era. Shaw has been with the band for over 15 years now and his vocals are still flawless whilst his onstage persona seems to have become a reflection of guitarist Mick Box’s, all of which means two cheeky chappies on stage and a lot of smiles!   Despite having seen the band countless times in the past this was the first occasion that I'd caught the band since Russell Gilbrook replaced long time drummer Lee Kerslake but he seemed to fit right in with the band and bass player Trevor Bolder in particular and you have to say that Heap were as tight and professional as always. 

If anything what let things down a little was the choice of set list. It was all pretty much a mish mash of Heep eras for the first hour and then the ’69 to ’73 greatest hits. “Gypsy”, “Sunrise” and of course the epic “July Morning” were all great and the sell out crowd were definitely lapping it up but they've played better balanced sets in the past. Still it was definitely a fine evening of music from one of the UK’s most underrated classic rock bands and it sounds like there’s much more classic rock to come. And the previous line will have to be as much of an explanation as readers falling into category c) are going to get!

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