It’s not every day that you manage to score yourself a shirt from a legendary prog rock touring act that sports the words ‘‘Rooty Hill RSL’’ on the back.
Last night I grabbed mine from the said venue for the first night of the 2015 Australian tour of British icons Uriah Heep.
Now before you scoff and offer up the ‘‘has-been’’ swipes and end of career Sinatra comparisons, I will state clearly, that 45-odd years in, and even with just one founding member in the line-up [guitarist Mick Box], the Heep still put most live acts to shame.
Let me rephrase in simple terms: the Heep rock hard!
A somewhat reserved and rather polite crowd [probably due to the fact they were seated at tables] were treated to a blistering set of classics, interweaved with a clutch of tracks from the band’s latest longplayer, Outsider.
For this rotund, ageing, sans hair headbanger, it was difficult to refrain from losing complete control.
I had gone into the night hoping to finally hear my favourite Heep track, Circle Of Hands [the one that provided the wording for my wrist tattoo, ‘‘today is only yesterday’s tomorrow’’], played out on stage.
As a back-up, I also built up excitement for the mandatory run-through of Easy Livin’ to avoid any disappointment, should the first track not be included in the set.
There was to be no Circle Of Hands ... and no, I didn’t leave disappointed.
A splendid, instrumentally delicious rendition of 1972’s The Magician’s Birthday [from the album of the same name] made sure of that.
Serving as a centrepiece to the set, frontman Bernie Shaw, who has been ably manning the Heep mic for the past 28 years, introduced the 10 minute-plus excursion as rock from another time; when churning out restrictive radio-friendly three-minute songs weren’t the primary importance to the proggers.
It was a moment to behold, specially when Box cut loose with a sequence of truly exquisite fretwork.
Other gig highlights included stunning takes on ‘71 Salisbury track, Lady In Black, Sunrise [also from The Magician’s Birthday album], What Kind Of God from 2008’s Wake The Sleeper, and a stellar version of the band’s unofficial theme song, Gypsy, from its ‘71 debut album, Very ‘Eavy ... Very ‘Umble.
Easy Livin’ from ‘72’s Demons And Wizards, was of course a blast.
Of the latest material, which certainly holds its own when pitted against the classics, The Outsider, One Minute and Can’t Take That Away rocked the hardest.
It was certainly a rare opportunity to see a band of such calibre on a local stage ... one that won’t be lost on this music enthusiast.
Long live the Heep and long may they return.
* The band will play The Metro in Sydney tonight [March 20], before rounding out the tour with dates in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane.