Uriah Heep - Mick Box

Mick Box has been the lead guitarist of Uriah Heep since the band’s founding in 1969. If my math is correct, that’s 39 years ago. The group, rightfully referred to as both classic rock and heavy metal pioneers, was one of the first to use overdriven Hammond organ as part of their big sound. Box’s guitar was the heaviness on the other side of the stage, however, and mixed with singer David Byron’s distinctive lyrics celebrating all things wizards and unicorns, the group attracted a large audience quickly.

Despite Uriah Heep’s progressive rock experiments, the group is perhaps best known today for the song “Easy Livin,” a straight-up hard rock song that became a biker anthem in the United States. The band (whose name, by the way, was taken from a Charles Dickens character in the book David Copperfield) has never ceased being in existence despite the death of David Byron and many lineup changes along the way. Now, almost 40 years later, the group has released its twenty-first studio album entitled Wake The Sleeper. It is true to its musical roots with chunky Hammond organ riffs, loud guitars, and fanciful lyrics. Maximum Ink recently spoke to Mick Box about the album and all things Uriah Heep:

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Don Airey

Don Airey isn’t a name that many people know well, but his keyboards have been heard by most anyone listening to American radio in the last twenty-some years. The pipe organ intro to Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley?” That’s him. The slick strings in Whitesnake’s “Still of the Night” or the glassy electric piano on “Here I Go Again?” That’s him, too. How about the freaky synthesizers on Black Sabbaths’ Never Say Die album? Yeah, that’s Don Airey again.

The list if bands that Airey has either recorded with or been a member of is long, but includes (besides those already mentioned) Jethro Tull, Judas Priest, Gary Moore, The Michael Schenker Group, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, and UFO.  He has come to be the most prolific keyboardist in hard rock. He is also the current organist in Deep Purple, perhaps one of the most keyboard-intensive bands in the history of rock.

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Jethro Tull

Jethro Tull has tiptoed behind the scenes of mainstream rock music for almost 50 years. They brought an element of class and sophistication to popular music and won over their audiences with witty lyrics and an original sound that blended elements of nearly every style of music. Throughout the years they dared to be different and became something great. The following is an interview with charismatic frontman, Ian Anderson.

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Jon Anderson

During a phone conversation, Jon Anderson sounds just the way one would expect: exuberant, gracious, eschewing the mundane…in short, he is consistent with the description given by former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, “The only man we know of, who is trying to save this planet while living on an entirely different one.”

This makes asking even simple questions an adventure.

“What kind of tree would I be, and why? I would be a weeping willow because the branches look so beautiful as they caress the water of the river going by. And my favorite color? Turquoise. The blue is peaceful, serene…and fuschia because of the pink. That’s a nice color.”

Anderson is also an avid painter of flowers, when relaxing, as his color choices betray. “I just finished one yesterday, and I’ve kept it up all along.”

The last two years have been uncharted territory for him, following a life-threatening pulmonary illness which necessitated a hiatus from lead singing duties with the band he co-founded, Yes. The other members filled his position with Benoit David, from a Yes tribute band, and went out on tour, leaving Anderson to recoup and question their actions and loyalties.

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Anderson And Wakeman Start Tour In Milwaukee

    It finally happened. Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman are bringing their duo show to the United States for an abbreviated tour this fall, which kicks off at 8:00 p.m. Oct. 19, in all of all places…Milwaukee. The northern Lights Theater At Potawatomi Casino is playing host to a program that stateside fans of the former Yes frontman and keyboardist have presented to U.K. audiences in 2006, and last year, coinciding with the release fo their CD, “The Living Tree.”

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Eric Burdon

Eric Burdon was a founding member of The Animals in Newcastle, England in 1962. The band quickly became one of the most popular bands of the British Invasion. With hits like House of the Rising Sun, the anti Vietnam anthem Sky Pilot, and Boom Boom, The Animals are certainly legends in the music industry. Eric also was a member of the band War while living in San Francisco in 1969 and reunited with War for the first time in 37 years to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London on April 21, 2008.

Eric Burdon has also had a rather successful solo career with the Eric Burdon Band (later changed to Eric Burdon’s Fire Department) which lasted up until 1980. He was inducted into the Walk of Fame in L.A on his 60th birthday and has appeared in several films, including a small role in the movie The Doors.

Eric also worked in television appearing on shows like China Beach, has two autobiographies and recently formed a new group of Animals featuring Billy Watts on guitars, Terry Wilson on bass, Red Young on keyboards and Brannen Temple on drums.

Maximum Ink: Can you tell us a little about where you came from and how it influenced to become who you are now?
Eric Burdon: I came from a working-class family in Walker, Newcastle Upon Tyne.  I was born on May 11, 1941, supposedly during an air raid. I found out just recently that the situation at the time of my birth was worse than I realized and that a lot of people were displaced at the time. Our house was within walking distance from the Tyne river and I could often be found taking long walks along the river and daydreaming about it being the Mississippi River in New Orleans. From an early age, I was planning my escape to the birthplace of the Blues.

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Def Leppard

Of all the places you imagine rock stars go, the dog groomer is probably not one of them. Not so for Def Leppard’s thunder man Rick Allen, who woke up at seven o’clock to take his little cairn terrier, Ricky, to get his hair coiffed and paws manicured.

Then again, Rick Allen is no ordinary rock star. Joining the Leppards as a nineteen-year-old pup himself, Allen rode the effervescent wave of Britain’s heavy-metal renaissance on the brink of the eighties. With their trademark trickling vocals and opulent guitar riffs, the multiplatinum, Union-jack clad lads from Sheffield are one of the biggest-selling bands in the world. But their success did not come at a low price. On New Year’s Eve, 1984, Rick Allen walked away from a lethal auto accident with only one arm—a death knell for the career of a drummer. Two years later, Allen miraculously took the stage again, this time playing on a specially customized electronic drum kit which compensates for his handicap.

The resilient Rick Allen spoke to Maximum Ink, in his ever-cheery English accent, before Def Leppard churns the wheels of their unusually long three-year tour towards Summerfest 2007.

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