Uriah Heep @ La Cigale, Paris - January 22nd, 2019

Uriah Heep is out promoting their latest record "Living the Dream", an album that is much stronger than it has the right to be coming from such a veteran act, and their first gig of the new year also happens to be my first gig of the new year and 2019 is shaping up to look quite good on the concert front.

I last saw them ten years ago on their last visit to the capital, when they were co-headlining with Blue Oÿster Cült, back when classic bass player Trevor Boulder was still alive. But somehow they've managed to keep a stable line-up since 2013, with frontman Bernie Shaw and keyboardist Phil Lanzon clocking in at thirty-three years. Mick Box is of course the last man standing, and what an underrated guitarist. He is never mentioned in the Pantheon of seventies hard rock guitar gods alongside Blackmore, Iommi or even Frank Marino but the guy has some tasty leads, great phrasing and a unique sound.

They played a lot of their new album and it went down great. It's pretty rare that a band fifty years into their career can play so much of their new songs without an apathetic or sometimes downright hostile reaction from the crowd, but this just shows what a great record this is. Of course it's not going to become a classic, it came out too late for that, but songs like Take Away My Soul and the title track aren't out of place alongside Easy Livin' or Gypsy.

Everyone played and sang their ass off and seemed to genuinely be having fun. There was no ego, no posturing, just five musicians happy to be playing a brand of music that may not be in favour anymore, but you couldn't tell from the audience who ate it up. Granted, the median age was probably close to a hundred but then the people on stage are no spring chicken either, which just proves that ageing gracefully is possible in this line of work... Hopefully some of their contemporaries are taking notes.