LIVE IN EUROPE 1979

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.