Last September, Uriah Heep announced a final series of world tour dates billed as The Magician’s Farewell. As the trek begins with seven UK dates, ever-present guitarist Mick Box and Bernie Shaw, the band’s singer since 1986, explain that even after 55 years we haven’t seen the last of the Heep just yet.
Mick, as Heep’s elder statesman can we assume that saying farewell was your decision? And how did you break it to the rest of the band?
Mick Box: Having been there from day one you can kind of say that it came from me, but actually it was a joint decision. None of us are getting any younger, and since Brexit and covid the touring side of the business is becoming tougher and tougher, making it almost impossible to do the really long tours that we like to do. Tour bus prices have tripled. The Government only allows us ninety days outside of the country. It’s more and more difficult, on every front.
It’s the end of the road, but it’s a long road.
Box: This is only the end of long, arduous touring, and that process will take two to three years.
Bernie Shaw: A normal year of touring for us was two hundred days away from home, but Brexit has really kicked all of that in the pants. The only countries that used to require a carnet [a full list of a group’s equipment and merchandise] were Russia and Switzerland. Now it’s everywhere.
Does the door remain open for playing live?
Shaw: Yeah. We’ll stick to the local stuff – things like festivals and weekend gigs. Those are still fair game.
If the Download Festival was to offer Heep a slot, you’d be there?
Box: [Enthusiastically] Oh, a hundred per cent.
What about the possibility of Heep releasing new music?
Box: We’re not ruling anything out.
Shaw: With Davey [Rimmer, bassist] and Russ [Gilbrook, drums] contributing a lot to the last album [2023’s Chaos & Colour] as well as Mick and Phil [Lanzon, keyboards], recording won’t be affected. But touring, no. That’s a young man’s game. I mean, look… we’ve been doing this for fifty-five years.
How does the finality of it all affect you on an emotional level?
Box: In a way it makes me sad. But we don’t travel the world in private jets. For bands like ours it’s become a really hard slog. Now we can get the best of both worlds.
Shaw: It’s like before, just with a smaller suitcase.
Box: I take two suitcases: one for stage clothes, the other for my sense of humour.
What should we expect of the set-list for The Magician’s Farewell Tour?
Box: We haven’t really sat down and discussed it yet. I’ll suggest some songs and we’ll talk, see how they work out in the rehearsal room.
Presumably it won’t be a massively long show, in the style of the fiftieth-anniversary tour.
Shaw: No! Definitely not!
Box: We’ve got Tyketto and April Wine out with us, so that’s impossible. Most venues have a restriction on how long you can play.
Those are two rather fine special-guest bands. Tyketto have a great current line-up, and April Wine haven’t played the UK since, I think, 1981.
Box: We’ve played with April Wine before, so in some ways it’ll feel like a bit of a reunion.
Shaw: As a proud Canadian I grew up listening to that band. I’m looking forward to seeing them again.
It could still be a long way off, but in an ideal world where would you like the very last scheduled Uriah Heep gig to take place?
Box: We don’t try to put those goals in front of us, they become a burden. As long as we’re healthy and happy, I don’t really mind where it happens.
How do you expect to feel once the final notes have faded away?
Box: [grinning] I won’t feel anything. They’ll be nailing the lid down on me. I’ve already requested that my coffin be a big wah-wah pedal… so it’ll be the final ‘wah’.
Heep are gradually closing the door on performing live. What is your view on the longterm future of rock music?
Box: The [perilous] state of the business is dictating things, unfortunately. Everything’s being done through Pro Tools [recording software] and bands no longer seem to make it into the studio to record as a band.
Shaw: It’s all become way too sterile. In my own experience, there are a lot of ‘okay’ bands around, but nothing too special.
Box: We can play in sixty-four countries, so [rock music] is still alive and well. But, for me, the business has changed so much, and not for the better. A lot of the individuality has gone. Too many bands look and sound the same. Guitarists go to college and spend two years learning how to play, but you can’t tell them apart. Back in the seventies, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore and myself all had strong individual sounds. It was the sum of each musician that gave the bands their different flavours. Unfortunately, I don’t really see and hear that any more.
Uriah Heep’s final tour begins at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham on February 19. Tickets are on sale now.
