STILL 'EAVY, STILL PROUD

While this compilation contains some of Uriah Heep's best known songs, such as "Easy livin", "Lady in black" and "July morning", these are not the original recordings. "Still 'eavy, still proud" is in fact a rather unfocused hotchpotch of original songs by the then current line up, live recordings by that line up, and three original tracks by previous line ups.

Bizarrely, there is one original recording featuring Davis Byron on vocals, that being the soft ballad "The easy road" from "Wonderworld". While it is a wonderful song, it is hardly representative of the band's music from that era. We also have one original recording from the John Lawton era, "Free me", a singles orientated song from "Innocent victim". The third old recording is "The other side of midnight" from "Head first", when the band were going through a troubled and turbulent period.

"Mr. Majestic" is probably the most interesting song here. It first appeared on the album "Live in Moscow", and was at the time not available in studio form. The final two studio recordings are taken from the then current album "The raging silence".

In 1998, the CD version was completely revamped, with the older tracks and the two songs from "The raging silence" being dropped altogether. In their place came 7 rare studio recordings and demos, transforming the album into something much more worthwhile.

The message here is thus avoid the original version, but the rare tracks on the 1998 repackaging will be of interest to fans of the band.