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Date: May 26, 2002 Location: De Boerderij Place: Zoetermeer, Holland Interview by: Clemens Steenweg I meet Mick just a couple of hours before the Zoetermeer gig kicks off. The atmosphere is very relaxed, and Mick's in very good mood. Also present in the room are Bernie Shaw and Louis Rentrop (the Dutch webmaster of www.uriah-heep.com) and a stage-technician. It became an animated conversation...... |
| CS: On May 19th, 2002 it was 30 years ago that Demons And Wizards was released. This year Uriah Heep celebrates its 32nd anniversary. Are you surprised to be still on the road with Uriah Heep after 32 years? MB: Absolutely, yeah, haha! No, I became a musician for life, you know, with all the ups and downs that days entails, but I never thought from really at being in Uriah Heep for 30 odd years. Well, it’s a great place to be, you know, and I’m a very lucky man, and I love what I do, so... I’ve got no complaints at all! |
| CS: What gives you the energy to be on the road after all these years? MB: I think loving what you do is mostly it, because making music, really starts as a hobby, hobby is something you love, and then it pretty become your career and then last for 30 years and travelling around the world many times, you know, you can’t have a better job then this, mate, you know, this is it! |
| CS: After all those years with Uriah Heep, what has become your best memory? MB: Best memory....... I wouldn’t say there’s any one particularly. There’s been some milestones, when you get your first gold-disc, or you play to your first 20.000 people, or I think a lot of being the first band in Russia and stuff like that, that’s what you were tought at school, you’d never think you’d be going to Russia. So there are many milestones along the way, and a lot of them so that’s how lucky we are, there had been a lot of them, but there’s not just one. The memories are too great, we had so much fun around the world. |
| CS: And your worst memory? MB: Worst memory...... I suppose you’d have to count David (Byron) dying and Gary (Thain) dying as the worst memories, over that period of time, because it’s just a shame that they're not here. They were two very, very talented people, talented musicians, and great, great friends, and it’s just sad that they’re not here, so that’s probably the worst. As bad as bad as you can get, I reckon, haha. |
| CS: After all those gigs, is their one which is, or are there more who are special remembered to you? MB: Not this is for me, but my mother, she's passed away now, her greatest joy was seeing me play at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, so that was a special one, yeah! Because all the time when she gonna get a proper job when she gonna do this, you know, she had to put up with all those stick for so many years, and then when we got to the Albert Hall, you know they’d realise that it was serious, and that was a milestone for my mother, she adored that one.
CS: In what year was that? |
| CS: In 1987 you did a serie of 10 concerts in Moscow, Russia. Before that, did you formed a picture of the country or the people, or was it a total surprise for you? MB: We just went in there totally without any preconceived ideas, you know, we had no idea what we’re walking into, other than our promotor said: you’re very huge over there, everybody loves your music, everybody knows your music, and you’re part of their folklore. We really didn’t know what to expect, and when we got there we realised that is was as big as he said, you know, it’s just huge, 180.000 mad fans, it’s fantastic.... |
| CS: You always play with visible great pleasure. Were there moments in your career that you thought: “What the hell am I doing here?” MB: Never! Never, I’ve got a very clear focus, and I know what I’m doing, I know where I’m going, I’m just enjoing it, but never once of a being like that, no. Even when I did a three month-tour with 4 broken wrists in my arm, and did 21 shows with a broken finger, my left finger and stuff like that, it never occured to me to do think anything other then going on stage and play, you know! |
| CS: Did you ever considered to stop permanently? MB: Stop performing? No, no, no! This is my life, it’s what I live for, this is what I’m happiest! You know, everyday that you’re out on the road, you woken this time, you’re eating food like this very quickly (pointing at Bernie Shaw!) to get to the next thing, jump at the shower, to travel...... you can do a day’s work getting to work. You can do eight hours of travelling just to get to go and perform, and then when you’re on stage, it’s when you’re at peace with everything, all force in place thing, that’s great! |
| CS: Did you ever considered to play in another band than Uriah Heep? MB: No. I never had time. I’ve always formed bands, I’ve never actually join a band. I’ve always formed the bands. I’ve formed Uriah Heep, or Spice, it was in the early days, so, no it has never accured to me to join anyone else then. |
| CS: This is the line-up that stands for the longest time, about 16 years! What is the strength of this line-up? MB: I think we just got a good chemistry. The chemistry works through our songwriting, through our performance, through everything we do. We’re all good friends, we get on great, it’s like one big family and we just enjoy working together, we enjoy making music, we enjoy playing music, we enjoy being in each other’s company, so we can be in no better place in that regards. |
| CS: Uriah Heep has have quite a few line-ups. Is there a special one for you among them? MB: I wouldn’t say special, I’d say that we were very successfull with the “Box/Byron/Kerslake/Hensley/Thain”-line-up, we had a lot of success in that line-up, but then this one is as just as special in it’s own way. So, I mean all the other line-ups we had, you know, we had “the-Goalby-singing” and people like that, all been good times, all been good positive things happening, it’s never been a down at all. So yeah, I mean basicly, that was the famous line-up. This is the famous line-up now, that’s carrying on the Heep-legacy, but all the other line-ups were great, great fun you know, we had a really good time! The spirit of Uriah Heep sees in there everywhere, regardless you know, and once you come onboard and see it, and feel it, then you’re quite happy to be here! That’s what happened to most of the line-ups. |
| CS: All these line-ups made different albums. Do you have a favourite Uriah Heep-album and -song? MB: No. I don’t have favourites, I’ll let the fans choose the favourites. I’d never be seen go just to actually say: this is my favourite, well that’s my favourite, I mean, we treat them as our babys, you know, they’re part of our life and we let other people make those decisions. I don’t really have a favourite, because if you think you’ve got a favourite and you think that’s your pinnacle, then you got nowhere else to go. So your next one’s gonna be the favourite, and the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Because otherwise you can’t surpass anything you’ve done, and the strive is to do that. |
| CS: We know the “kettle”-stringsound in “The Wizard” on “Demons And Wizards”, and the kazoo-play by Lee Kerslake in “The Magician’s Birthday”. Are there more such “special effects” on Heep-albums? MB: There’s quite a few, yeah, we would do a lot of harmonies singing into an open grand piano so that the strings resonate, and stuff like that, there’s millions of them here, but that’s going into a whole recordingtechnique-line of questioning which keep us here for years, hahaha. It’s what happens when you’re in the studio, these things arise, and when they sound good you use them, as simple as that. It’s just we don’t see them how playing unless we put a kettle on here, that happened by complete accident, so if anything comes along there sure we use it. |
| CS: A new studio-album, the 21st, is on the way. Could you tell a bit more about it? MB: Oh, it’s early days yet, we just righted it. Like we do with every album we never sit down to write anything particular, we just write and then choose what we gonna use for the band. So that’s the process we’re in at the moment, Phil and I had doing an awful lot of writing, and Trevor’s done some, so we got some songs happening, we got about 6 or 7 that we’re getting together now. We haven’t formulate all the lyrics or anything yet, but we got the basic musical idea’s and where they go. It’s early days, yeah. |
| CS: Your technique on the guitar is fantastic, all musicians can confirm that. However, did it bother you that so called “experts” never put you up high in the polls for best guitarist? MB: No, it didn’t bother me, no. If they want to they can, and if they don’t, they don’t, you know. It’s the people that count. I want to live for the people and not for the guitar. A lot of what I do apart from playing is doing a lot of entertain as well, there’s a two-sides to it, you know, we’re all in the entertainmentbusiness here after all, and I think a lot of is part and parcel of that. I could never be a guitarist and stood up there and just serious and “lidilidilidili” and “what’s that all about”, that’s not having fun, it’s not enjoying your craft, you know. I don’t find I need to go there in those areas so that’s probably why, why I'm not chosed to, haha! The other thing is I got a very simplistic approache to everything. Even my equipment: they ask me about my equipment, I could tell ‘m in 30 seconds. I never expect them to write an article about my equipment, and it’s in that processes, “nahnahnah, soundnumber this, soundnumber that”, that’s a lot of crap, mate, plug it in and play it, you know, haha! |
| CS: That’s the next question: can you name (a) part(s) of your stage-equipment that you have never replaced? MB: Cry Baby Wah Wah, well I replaced them because they were worn-out, but I’ve still kept them as my majorsound all the way through my career, yeah. CS: And the same for your amps? MB: Yeah, same Marshall amps. |
| CS: It’s a fact that famous guitarists have big guitar-collections. Do you have a no.1 favourite guitar, and are there any rare among them? MB: Yeah, I got some lovely guitars, about 30, I’ve lost count, The Gibson Les Paul is my favourite of all times. CS: The black one? MB: The black one, The Black Beauty, yeah. That’s the favourite! I’ve got some rare Strats, some rare Martin acoustics, Gibson acoustics, couple of them, but generally, the Gibson Les Paul is the one. CS: And over the years there were 17 stolen, you never got them back? MB: 17 stolen, yeah, that’s ‘cause I’m popular, or just unlucky, hahaha. CS: Probable unlucky? MB: I think a bit of each, hey. |
| CS: After all these years, there has been a lot of inventions in stage-equipment and musical instruments. Is there a special thing invented for you? MB: No, no, no, I keep it all simple. There’s a luthier in Finland called Juha Ruokangas, he’s got Ruokangas guitars, and he has made a guitar, a Mick Box special guitar, just quite a nice guitar. That’s about it, really, and nobody’s made anything for me, no ........(Bernie calls "Amelia"!) ....all right all right, an acoustic guitar, we call it Amelia, is made by a luthier in Canada called Randy Catteral, that was pretty lovely. I mean, first guitars, acoustic guitars, they simply something like me to play and all that sort of stuff, happens all the time, yeah, but nobody’s actually specifically made something called “The Mick Box-something”, no. Guitarpicks, of course, yeahyeah, haha. |
| CS: What are the further plans for Uriah Heep in 2002-2003, besides a new studio-album and lots of gigs? MB: Well, we’re all taking dancinglessons, because we feel that we should become almost Backstreet Boys or Westlife. We feel that’s the way the business is going, so we should join in and start, so Bernie here he’s fallen at the first lesson (point at his left-calf), so we couldn’t carry on, hahaha! Lee’s on a diet, but, pfff, I don’t know, I don’t think he’ll be ready in five years, hahaha! But no, no, we just carry on doing what we do best, mate, you know, play music, we enjoy playing at, we travel the world, meet lots of great people, lots of friends around the world, and we continue to do that with hopefully some new music, because we really visited that back-catalogue quite a few times over the last few years. We think it’s time now to move on and get more musical output from the band, and hopefully create a situation where we’re bringing out an album a year, as supposed to every two or three years, or at least every eighteen months. We want to up the recordingprocess a little more. |
| CS: If you could choose to do it all over again, what would you do? MB: Do it all over again, simple as that, I’ll do it all again, haha. It’s been a very charmed, lucky life so far, and I wouldn’t say that it’s always been great, there’s been lots of ups and downs and all that sort of stuff, but I’m not a person who regrets things because I think everything happens for a reason and you have to learn from that, whether it’s good or bad, and that’s what life’s all about, it’s a learning process. So whatever I’ve done or being through, I like to learn from, and hopefully you move on and you pass that to your children, and then your children become better people for your experiences and stuff like that, so no regrets, mate, I would have done it all the same! |