LIVE IN EUROPE 1979

This is the best live album of the band, i like it , and one of the good lives in the '70. I think Lawton is a good singer, in studio and live, and you must listen to this if you are a fan of Uriah Heep. Is not a giant live like BURSTING OUT- Jethro Tull, but very enjoyble. Try it, for the good times in music.

Help us out here. . .!

This collection of live tracks only saw the light of day some years after its recording. It is not by any means the best live album by the band, and when compared to the Live '73 album, does not stand up at all well. The over-riding priority here seems to be audience participation. There are simply far too many tracks which require an audience response to a simple chorus or chant.

By 1979, David Byron and Gary Thain had left the classic line up, being replaced by John Lawton and Trevor Boulder respectively. Audiences however still demanded to hear a good proportion of material from the band's Byron era albums, hence we have Lawton singing songs such as "Easy livin'", "Look at yourself", and "July Morning". Unfortunately, all this does is serves to emphasise the reason why the band's style had to change when Lawton replaced Byron. Lawton certainly sounds comfortable when singing the songs he recorded with Uriah Heep, such as "Who needs me" and "Falling in love", but his vocal style is simply too far removed from that of his predecessor to allow him to do justice to the old favourites. This probably explains why he resorts to the aforementioned audience participation so often (Unlike Byron on the "Live '73"! album, he doesn't actually say "Help us out here", but the message is clear!).

The album opens with a run through a few Uriah Heep standards, but it's only when Ken Hensley takes over lead vocal for "Lady in black" that the more familiar Heep sound appears. Even he can't resist the urge to maintain the Karaoke party night atmosphere.

Lawton sounds better on "The wizard" which has the usual live segue into "July Morning". I'm not too keen on the staccato backing to Hensley's Hammond organ solo on the live versions of "July morning" something which remained a feature until Hensley rejoined the band for the first "Magician's Birthday party" concert. Things get out of hand completely by the time of "Sweet Lorraine" which is dragged out though a tedious cry and response section for almost 13 minutes. The legendary "Gypsy" on the other hand is run through with indecent haste.

John Lawton is a fine vocalist, and the studio albums he made with Uriah Heep were designed to suit his vocals well. He style and delivery are far too rough and bluesy though for the Byron era songs which the Uriah Heep audiences expect, indeed demand, to hear. That coupled with the "you had to be there" nature of the audience participation thought the album, makes "Live in Europe" a disappointing and entirely dispensable collection.

This album has been recorded in 1979. It features some emblematic Heep songs that any fan knows by heart : "Look At Yourself", "Easy Livin" and "July Morning". The band is as great as in its glory days. The major problem being the vocals. Almost a nightmare (especially in the old tracks).

A very poor track with an attempt of audience participation : "Lady In Black". I usually do not like this "technique" even for great songs. You can imagine how I "appreciate" it with such a track. Boring to death, repetitive. In one word : awful. Several average numbers won't gain in quality with these vocals. And the audience participation throughout this exercise is rather annoying (to say the least).

I have been quite a Heep fan, but their last studio albums were absolutely not on par any longer with earlier releases (their last one being frankly extremely weak). This live album is their weakest of the genre so far. The band is still there to bring some relief to the fan during the instrumental passages. Apart from those, there will be little to retain from this record. Vocals are somewhat poor IMO.

Not at all the live album to buy if you want to know how this once great band sounded on stage in their glorious days. Back to 1973.

"July Morning" saves partially this record. Fortunately, it is one of the longest number (over twelve minutes). The last four instrumental minutes being really great. Another long song is an extennnnnnnnnnnnded version of "Sweet Lorraine". I'm not quite sure that it was really necessary to do so.

Avoid this live album by all means. Too few good moments (but still, there are some) to make this one memorable. I can only recommend to stick to Uriah Heep Live (1973). Two stars for this one.

It's John Lawton that makes the Uriah Heep fans need to have this live record which took in various places around 1979. I have been a big fan of Lawton since I knew him for the first time with Germany's Lucifer's Friend. In fact, I'd rather have Lawton than Bernie Shaw as replacement of David Byron. Yes, Lawton's voice is unique and there is no similarity with Byron. The joining of Lawton to Heep had made the overall sound of Uriah Heep was different from the previous early years. As it's quite different you might find some tracks who originally were sung by Byron do not sound quite smooth in this live performance. In this case, Bernie's voice quality sounds similar in some ranges with Byron. That's why I basically have no major issue having Bernie Shaw sings Byron's tracks. You might find how struggling Lawton to match with the first three tracks : Easy Livin' (3:14), Look At Yourself (5:18), and Lady In Black (7:26) (originally sung by Hensley. Thanks, Eugene, for the correction). Not really bad but I find the soul's lost. Fortunately there are Ken Hensley and Mick Box who can make the overall music still sound Heep. When Free Me (4:53) is performed, yes .. this is really unique Lawton! The other disappointing one is during "Sweet Lorraine" (12:44) which does not sound quite right.

This is not bad at all, but I'd only recommend this for the die hard fans only.

In my opinion it is the most underrated URIAH HEEP live record. I guess the only real reason why it was released only in 1986 is that the band fired Jown Lawton in the end of 1979 (probably the worst move UH ever made) and it would be at least strange to promote ''echoes of the past''. I always tried to understand why they decided to get rid of one of the best rock singers and still have not found the one and only answer. There were internal tensions in the band: disagreements over songs chosen for albums, Ken was upset by constant presence of Lawton's wife, who accompanied John on tours, Mick Box was unhappy with new poppier songs etc. With some bad day came a resolution, dictated by anything but common sense: John has to leave. Soon Lee Kerslake left too, the band went downhill and ''Live in Europe 1979'' remains the only official live record of 1977-79 line-up.

I used to read - here, there and almost everywhere - how bad and useless this album is. But I don't think so. Despite conflicts the band was still strong musically, John Lawton had (and still has) one of the best voices in rock, want it or not, it was the second best Heep incarnation. Songs for ''Live in Europe 1979'' were recorded at different locations, but sound like a single concert, there is a good proportion between classics and new material. John does not try to copy David Byron and sings Heep evergreens in his own way, with power and emotion, Ken's aggressive organ and Mick's guitar are still there, Trevor Bolder plays both rhythm and melodic bass lines, Lee's drumming is strong as ever, the whole band rocks.

It's not a flawless record - sometimes backing vocals sound out of tune, there are some mistakes and the audience sings more often than it is necessary. But, according to Mick Box, it is a honest live record, ''there are no extensive studio overdubs. This is Uriah Heep as we were in 1979''. Not perfect, but powerful and emotional album, fully deserving your attention.