EASY LIVIN' - A HISTORY OF URIAH HEEP

This video has a very abridged history of the band from their beginnings until 1985, showing interviews done with Ken Hensley, who was the main composer of the band between 1970 and 1980, the year that Hensley left the band. The history of the band in this video is divided more by the periods determined by their lead singers until 1985 (David Byron, John Lawton, John Sloman, Peter Goalby) and most of the other members and former members of the band are mentioned very briefly or are not mentioned at all, with the exception of some early members (Alex Napier, Paul Newton, Nigel Olsson) and the members of their "classic" line-up (David Byron, Mick Box, Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake, Gary Thain). Hensley talks briefly about some facts about each lead singer`s era, but the main portions of this video are dedicated to showing some songs played live and also some promotional videos:

- Lve at Shepperton Film Studios, London UK 1974: showing the "classic" line-up of the band playing live for a previously unreleased TV special. These performances are good but not as good as their performances from their very good "Live January 1973" album. Anyway, the camera angles are good.

- Studio promos 1978: they show the band doing playbacks to some songs from their "Fallen Angel" album, with John Lawton as lead singer and Trevor Bolder as bassist. They show that despite still being a good band their musical style was tending more to commercial music. Lawton has a very good voice and Bolder was a very good bassist.

- Studio promo 1980 for their "Feelings" song from their "Conquest" album from 1980, with John Sloman as lead singer and Chris Slade on drums. Sloman is also a very good singer and Slade a very good drummer, but by 1980 their music became even more commercial, and Sloman`s style of singing was more far than Lawton`s from Byron`s style of singing. Sloman`s singing even made the band sound very different.

- Live in Auckland, NZ 1984: Mick Box reformed the band in 1981 with lead singer Peter Goalby, which also is a very good singer but whose voice is more close to Byron`s , So, in my opinion, he was one of the best singers the band has had. The band in 1984 sounded really very well, with Box being by then (and until the present) the only remaining original member of the band. Box was also joined in the line-up by Lee Kerslake, Trevor Bolder and John Sinclair. A very energetic and good live performance by this line-up.

As a whole, this is an interesting video which is more focused in live performances and promo videos of full songs than in a more detailed history of the band with interviews with other members and former members of the band. Anyway, it is a good video.

By the way: David Byron died in 28-February-1985...thirty years ago.