Notes from my house !



Louis and gang.....
It's started here now...Dale and Helen Fredericks came in from California yesterday. Received a LONG ! call from Alex yesterday...finalizing tune plans...
Paul sent in some notes for Dale and Helen..
Scott and I did an emergency fix on the grill...it WORKS ! For a minute there I thought we were gonna be Fireflys !
I'll start updating the regular HV page with what's up, as well as I can for the next few days... When Rich and Rod show on Thursday, we'll fire off Rod's stories since his last communique to you, Louis...
Friday will be the days we all meet up, so Friday's update will probably not happen....
Saturday, from the HV, we have a phone line into the room, should be able to fire up Pics as they are happening, maybe some RA of the band files, if we don't drink too much !
Date: 22 May 1998 06:21
Subject: HV '98 trip
Hi everyone !
Here is Rod, we're all at Dave's house, drinking some beers and having fun, waiting for the Heepvention on Saturday, of course.
Rich is here, and also Dale, Paul, Scott, and Dave, no mention.  Tomorrow I'll write more about what has happened the last two weeks in Europe, including the Stay On Top meeting.
See you !
Cheers,
Rod.
Date: 23 May 1998 00:41
Subject: HV HAS STARTED !!!
Hello fellow Heepsters, Bob Winward here.  We finally got to meet the madman, and he is for real, it is not an act.  The bad news is that he has wandered off and we sent Mac out to retrieve him.  We would appreciate if you look at your milk cartons for his picture.  I also got to meet Dave's Dog Murph and made him howl in person.  We are having a blast!!!!!!
Hello from Cleveland.  We miss you, whoever you are.  regards Lannis
Madman here, Mom, Dad, I'm Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha,hahahahahahHaHahA,HA,hA...URiAh HEeP  FoREveR!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahahahhaa...  HV  Rulz!!!!
Dale here!! Well this is certainly turning out to be one radical day!!! Paul
and i tried to guess what Madman would look like and we were both wrong! We guessed dark hair and tall, but what we got was short and a blond "surfer' looking dude that looks like he escaped from Guns & Roses!!! have a good one everyone and we are all thinking of you!

Go check out Rod, Muzzy, Bob Winward, Dale, Rich, Lannis, Mac, Paul, Scott, and good ol' Davarooni White. They're all there in living color...almost live!  Bob
Whoa Boy !!! I just pulled into home from spending the day in Heepville with the Heepsters. What a gas !!
I met Dale Fredericks, Paul Kubler and MAdmaN around 1pm at their hotel today and sipped a few beers with them. Near 3pm Bob W. and Muzzy came in and sometime after that Mac, Lannis And Bobbie showed up, followed closely by Hodrigo, Rich Wagner, Dave W,Helen Fredericks and Kim and "THE BIG DOG" Griffin.
I was really enjoying myself since I missed meeting everyone in ST. Louis last year. I didn't realize how bad until I met all these great people today. Heep does have the BEST fans in the world!!
After a while we all went over to Dave White's house and jammed, video taped , took some pics, listened in as Dale and then Big Dog taped some vocals for Dave, and just spent a wonderful time together before returning to the hotel around 8pm. Around 7pm or so Joe Doran and his wife Bev showed up.
There at the Holiday Inn I finally met Alex, Kevin and Aly. Alex is still standing!! :o)
Great talk, Heep memories and by the end of the night mADmAn'S eyes were tiny little slits. Mac, BigDog and I took about an hour and a half to do some vocal tracks on an original composition by Mac and myself. I know you never heard the Stemster sing before and this will be your big chance. Get ready !!!
I am pumped for this jam Saturday night and promise to write you all a report as soon as I recover.
The festivities begin again tommorrow (today) and promise to be even more eventful. Stay tuned.
Stem

I'm tuned AND hyped! Stem, keep up the good work. Also tell Dave to put a picture of Madman up on his site...we're ALL dying to see him. Hahaha hahHAh HA aha hA aha HA Ah aha hA a AHa AHA HHHa a ahH Ah a ah aha aHHH a hahaH a haha ahhhah a aHA aha ah Aha ha P.s. UrIaH hEeP FoReVeR!  bOb DrEhEr
Date: 23 May 1998 07:44 Subject: From Alex and Rod
It's  1:40 in the morning (am to you over in Europe) and I and Rod are standing here at Dave's computer (NO CHAIRS!!!) with our eyes half-closed.
We've had a helluva meeting - enjoyed meeting all, especially MERRICK who really IS NUTS (NO JOKE!!!!) - one  crazy motherf***** dude!!!!!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
No Heep chants today, at Pizza Uno, but plenty "URIAH HEEP FOREVER" cheering as we went through our beers, catching up, etc.
Tomorrow promises to be quite a day for all of us here - not just the jammers...  Rod and Rich are still hot on the trail from the Eurovention, which seem to have been quite an event, from what I hear!
I have completely lost my voice from all the YELLING!!! :-)  Thank God I don't have to sing at the jam tomorrow (do I???)
Rod, you wanna say something???  I guess not, too sleepy!!! :-)
UrIaH HeEp FoReVeR,
aLeX!!!!  hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
P.S. Some pretty good discussions of 70s Deutschrock und Schlagermusik - usually go down much better in person with a couple of Weizen (well, OK, no Weizen here - only Bud and Miller light) - quite a few people here are native (or almost native) German   speakers: Rich, Rod, Paul Kubler, Aly, and I'm practising!!! :-)
Date: 24 May 1998 10:00
Subject: HEEPVENTION 98 verdict: SUCCESS
Yes, folks, it's the night AFTER the Heepvention, which has just ended, so I have a buzz in my ears still.  Since everyone's asleep (at least here in Cleveland), let me be the one to provide you with the "overview" of what happened...  The ringing has not yet left my ears, so hot on the trail... here I am  giving you the latest scoop!!!
We had fun, and lots of it!  Landerhaven is a huge function hall with valet parking, a typical place for a wedding and such.  The staff there put up with the sheer ear-splitting volume of it all patiently, although it's quite an event for them - it's not every day that they get a loud rock (cover) band in the house!
The catering was alright, at least they didn't take the food away after everybody sat down from the first "round" so people had a chance to go for seconds.  I decided to play it safely, though, and did not eat a lot cause else I wouldn't be able to perform too well.  Ha! :)
Dave was terrific - great solo, great improv, and I got a kick out of air- guitarring you again!  The surprise was on me though as Merrick "everything you've heard about him is true "  The Madman spray-canned me while I was at it - with some gooey edible stuff (it was kinda pink - yuck - whatever it was!)
Merrick is a heck of a nice guy and also a heck of a professional - GREAT drummer, great work!
Hey, we got a kick out of doing the two piano acoustic number - Big Dog was on top form, and I've finally learned how to play them properly, so this time, I'm not ashamed of my performance (well, let's not jump the gun here people - I haven't watched or listened to it yet) - Rain and What Should Be Done.  The most moving piece of the evening, however, iMHO was Dale's BRILLIANT, soulful and heartfelt rendition of Come Away Melinda.  You know, I've always known he's a very capable and talented vocalist, but I just hadn't realised the extent and the magnitude of his talent.  Job well done, Dale!!!
Although Hensley I am not, Rod says I do sound like Jon Lord a bit - thanks for the compliment, I guess I can't help this one>.... :-) 
The Roland VK7 we've rented is easily as good as the Hammond XB2 I've got - in fact, I think better.  It emulates the swirling dual-Leslie rotor effect and the overdrive (distortion)  action much better than Hammond XB2, so I'm now seriously tempted to buy this instrument.  Playing it, I was instantly thrown back to January 1973 - something I can't unfortunately say about my XB2. RICHARD was doing a GREAT job operating my Leslie controls - he knew exactly when to switch them on and off - THANKS Rich!  Problem was, unfortunately, there was something wrong with the circuits inside the instrument, cause it kept turning itself off throughout the gig.  But you won't notice it from the audio or video!  :-)
And once again, I did get a kick out of playing the immortal vintage Heep standards - never tire of playing this stuff.  The new songs introduced into the setlist this year was  "Blind Eye" and "Tales" - alas, no keyboards on either one.
I couldn't play the intro or the outro on "RTF" cause the sound people messed up and my upper keyboard (kindly provided by Stem's better half) was NOT heard.  A pity. But a great piano sound on it nevertheless - helped us with the more acoustic numbers.
Out of the two pleasures - seeing you all again and playing the good ol' Heepster classics (especially Easy Livin, July Morning, Gypsy, and a few more!) well, it's a tie!!  Enjoyed meeting some people for the first time - hi Aly!!!
I hope we'll all come together at the next vention or the one after that (2000???) - this one has definitely proved to be MORE than worthwhile  - GREAT fun.
There were also all sorts of door prozes, provided by Kevin, Vladimir and a few others, Robert Warren delivered a surprise speech, and after he left the building, myself and Bob W. were browsing the FUNART on Boris's page....  Not to mention  POW-WOW'ing (ICQ'ing, whatever) with Vlad, Boris and Jessica - even for a few minutes - live simulcast via the net (instant pictures placed on the web) - we truly ARE HEEPSTERS ON THE WEB!!!
All the best for now, this Heepster needs a shut eye at 4 in the morning!!! :-)
Alex.
Hello Louis,
Here's Rod, from Dave's house.  I'm here, sitting in front of the legendary "Dave's PC", where the also legendary website "England's Own Uriah Heep" was created.  Surrounding me, lots of guitars, keyboards, tapes, and vintage equipment.  Dave's upstairs while I'm writing this.  Actually, I am downstairs, since I am in the basement... :)
My trip has been real fun so far.  After visiting Holland and Belgium, I went to Germany, as you know.  Meeting Richard, Graham and Tapio was a very gratifying and interesting, multinational event.  I'll have some pics soon, and actually who doesn't know Rich and Tapio personally will probably think that Rich is the guy from Finland, since he looks like a Viking, and Tapio looks like a genuine German (actually he speaks German too ! :)  Our meeting was very good, as everyone can read on Tapio's and Graham's reports (great report, Graham ! :)
After it, Tapio and I went to look for Werneck, a kind of "back to the roots" trip, for me.  After going from Nuremberg to Wurzburg, we looked for some info about how to arrive in Werneck, since there's no train station there, being a small town.  We got a train to Schweinfurst, and we were supposed to left it in Waigolshausen, but the doors of train were broken, and we couldn't !  So we went to Schweinfurst, and we had one train back to Waigolshausen.  Arriving there, there were no more buses available to Werneck, since it was a Sunday, so we opted to walk (2 Km until Werneck). I can say that Werneck is a beautiful small town, very typical of the country side of Germany.  The castle is also very nice, and there's a huge and very beautiful garden in front of it.  We also visited the "Wernecker Bier Brauerei", where the beer is made, and we drank a couple of them, of course.
After that, we split: Tapio went to Munich and Cologne (and other small cities), and I went to Prague (Czech Republic) and Berlin, back to Germany. Very nice cities, of course, good beers, beautiful girls, but not too much stuff related to Heep.  I saw one poster announcing the presence of Black Sabbath in Prague, with the original lineup, for June, though.
I met Tapio again in Kassel, and then we got a train to Brilon, like Rich said, "in the middle of nowhere". :)  Very nice city, similar to Werneck, I can say.  When we arrived at the Brilon-Wald train station, we called Erich Padberg, who organized with his wife Tina the Stay On Top meeting in Brilon, and he and Thomas (also of SOT) picked us up by car, and took us to the nice Hohmanhof (sp?) hotel, where the meeting happened.  Some of the "Stay On Toppers" where already there, and some arrived after us.  At the first night, we talk about Heep, listened to unusual recordings, drank some beers, sit around a camp fire created by Erich, the Magician, etc.  On the second day, a Saturday, was again time of music, videos, sale of CD's, exchanging of stuff, a barbacue, and at night, the highlight of the event: a concert at the "Lokomotive" !  The first band to play was the Stay On Top Band, and they only played Uriah Heep songs, of course.  The interesting point was that they played songs from all the lineups, including songs by the current lineup, and that was great.  After them, the band Century played lots of great covers of big bands of the 70's, like Deep Purple and AC/DC.  Erich played drums on both shows.  The main guest of the night was the German cover band of Heep: Easy Livin'.  With the incredible Michael Keuter on vocals, and some members of Gamma Ray, famous German speed metal band, they played an amazing set of songs, for about 2 hours !  "July Morning", "Sunrise", "Circle Of Hands", "Return To Fantasy", "Something Or Nothing", "Bird Of Prey", and lots of other songs songs were superbly played.  The crowd was completely amazed and excited after the show, including me !  I took lots of pics, and I'll sent you some as soon as I have them scanned.
The next day, we left the hotel, and I can say that it was really a great meeting.  I got a ride to Cologne with Lars Peper, one of the Stay On Toppers, who was nice enough to look for my hotel in the centre of the city.  We met again on the next day for some beers and typical German food. Lars and his girlfriend Julika told me lots of tips, stories and showed me some very nice places in Cologne.
After leaving Cologne, I got a train to Munich, and it was really a very nice trip, beside the Rhein River.  Munich is so far my favourite German city.  Very beautiful, lots of places to visit, and again I met another Stay On Topper, Chris Mallet, who showed me some very nice places, like the Unions Brau, where we drank their own beer, stored in wooden barrels, and ate traditional German food: Leberkas.  We also went to a biergarten, inside the beautiful Englischer Garten, and close to a beautiful lake.
Munich was the last city I visited in Germany.  There, I got an airplane to Cleveland, for the Heepvention 98.
I'll write about this very special event very soon.  All I will say now is that it was really a great meeting.  I was expecting a lot, and it was much better !  :)
See you, Louis !
Rod

The Clevelandgang tell's us:

Hi Gang...we're sittin here watchin videos of Heep... Nice mellow aftermath of a screaming night last night.... Bob Winward, Rod, Muzzy, Paul, Me and Dale are the last survivors of a WONDERFUL weekend... I trust that all got home safetly...
I know I'm home (and beat). I dropped "Madman" Merrick off at the airport with a good 20 minutes to spare (Dave W.'s wife fed us too well to leave on time.). I hope he made his flight! The Madman, though often living up to his nickname, is about the nicest guy you could ever meet (for those of you fortunate enough to have been there) ... and I can say that after rooming with him for the weekend.
Dave
madman safe at home dave c thanks again for the ride to the airport.........I will post later,,,evryone  i had  a great time,love you all,madman
MAdmAn!!! I'm aShAMeD oF yOu. nO P.s. uriAh heEp foRevEr??? i tHinK wE gOt yOUr nUmBer.... sTEm
Hi Gang...we're sittin here watchin videos of Heep... Nice mellow aftermath of a screaming night last night.... Bob Winward, Rod, Muzzy, Paul, Me and Dale are the last survivors of a WONDERFUL weekend... I trust that all got home safetly... It was another magic nite for us, and I hope that the guys AND GALS will write to the list...I'll put a page up tonight... Weary, but still grinnin' like Mick, we are all hangin out....
Here's Paul:
Hey Gang!
It has been a wonderful few days of HEEP and more HEEP, I believe we all had a most wonderful time here.  The Jam went out last night and it went out loud! Dale, Dave G. and Joe did an incredible job on the vocals.  Joe and Merrick (Madamn) were a sensation on drums, Richard, Mac, Muzzy, played bass like it is meant to me played, Stem and Dave W played lead with unbelieveble perfection. Alex actually showed how good he is on keys!  :)
The video will be a must have for all of you.
We hope you all enjoyed the clips!!!   See you next year!!!!!!!!
Truly a great time (again)  :)
Paul
Ok here's Dale!
Not much else I can add...but, I had the time of my life and this time I got to share it with my better half, Helen! I wish everyone that wasn't there, was, and if you were there or saw some of the clips, you know what Paul is talking about. I say this from the bottom of my heart, but the Heepsters are the most sincere and gracious bunch of people that I have ever had the pleasure to be associated with. I loved being able to sing the songs of Heep and share all the music with the Heepsters during "The Jam".... Take care everyone and I will see you when I get back on the list next week!!
Dale  :-)>
Here's Muzzy!
Greatings everyone!!! Having the time of my life with all these crazy heep-o-maniacs.I wanted to say this before Mr. Winward gets to the keyboard 'cause it would be morning by the time he gets done...........WARNING!!! Make sure when you are ever with this man for a weekend you have two things ready.......a Hoss Steakhouse, and a GASMASK (an open window will do as well).What can I say , except that I'm glad I made it here and got to jam with these people and meet some new friends.I'm gonna end for 'cause Bob's ready with his message to everyone and I can't breath!! Talk again to you all soon. Take it away Mr. Winward (Mr. Warren I have seen this weekend also very,very much and HE IS REAL!!) Bye.......
Bob Winward here,  I am still too estatic to comprehend the events of this weekend.  My review will be forthcoming and it will be comprehensive, possibly a 3 part memo!!!  Right now, I am hovering over the chair on a cushion of gas, suspended animation!!  A few hours ago, I ate several sausage and pepper sandwhiches that Mrs.Dave White barbecued, and they are starting to ferment.  Muzzy has been complaining about gastro-atmospheric disturbances for the last few hours, as we sat on the couch watching legboot videos of Heep live.
We all have developed another bad habit, this crazy blood curling ha ha laugh, that the madman taught us. He was the highlight of the weekend.  I promised him I would not say anymore, just in case his wife checks his email before he gets home tonight. He needs to be able to get back into the house. It was love at first site between us, as you know, any UH, "All Heep is Good Heep" guy is all right in my book.  This weekend has been incredible, and I hope I too can be allowed back into the house, hee, hee!  or should I say, Ha, ha!  By the way, if they leave Robert Warren on the video, you will be impressed, I know I was!  The jam, was Loud and Proud!!!!!!!!! Awesome!!!!!!!!!!  and Alex practiced!!!!!!  Big Dog, was phenominal!!!! The rest of the jam will be in my review.  Bye for now, we must get some sleep, so far 6 hours in 3 days does not cut it.  Muzzy says I have been cutting it, but that has nothing to do with sleep. Bye for now!!!!
Bob Winward with his real friend Robert Warren
OK...that's it for now...Rod is outside with Muzzy, and The Fredericks, and Murph...so I will go join them, and see what's what. Cheers to all,
Dave
Boris!
  I take it that you were better then the previous time?;-)))
You bet!!! Just ask Richard!! :-)
Let me put it this way, I won't be ashamed if a copy of the video from the event lands on Mick's or Ken's doorstep this time around - no editing necessary!  Surely, we all screwed up on bits and pieces, still, but if you ask me, it was 100% better than last year - performance and sound-wise!!! 
The only flaw that I can think of right now is when I was playing the OUTRO at the end of RTF on the synthesizer, no one could hear it, thanks Soundman!
    Just great!!! Esspecially "Tales", one of my fave's. I wish I would've been   there to hear it!!!
The VIDEO of the event will be available from Lannis as usual.  But that's NTSC.  I will do PAL copies for you, Pete Wharton, Alan Keatley, Graham Hulme, and all other Heepsters in Europe (Holland, Finnland, etc.) who request it!
     Do you care provide us with an idea on what was those prizes?;-)))
Lucifer's First album on CDR, Baby Faced Killer on CDR, From Time To Time (pirated issue - made in California by some odd company called Palladium - no idea who the hell they are, to be honest).  Something else, probably...
    Yeah, it was great to chat with you guys!!!
Likewise!  Sorry, I couldn't stay on the computer longer - I was being pulled in all directions simultaneously. :-)
    Those pictures are great. Finally we got to see the Madman, and behind the   drum kit as well!!!  I envy you all.
I saw Merrick, and I assure you, you have nothing to be envious about, he's not a pretty sight!!!  Hahahahahahaha, JUST KIDDING!!!!!  MERRICK - you were GREAT, man!!!!!  My second most favourite drummer after Joe Doran.
P.S. HahahaHAHhahahaha uRiAh HeEp ForEvEr!!!!
ALeX

From Mac !

Well guys and gals...Heepvention '98 has come and gone but the memories remain. In fact I'm sure that once I see the video I'll remember even more! :-P These guys are really becoming friends now...not just names we see everyday on a list! My only regret is that I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked...well that and the fact that I barely got to practice with the other jammers because of my limited time!

I'll walk you through my HV week...

Wednesday, 7pm Debbie calls me at at my bowling league to tell me she has to work Friday. She can't ride with Lannis, Bobbie and me. Then she says her boss will pay to fly her to Cleveland on Saturday morning! I say "Go for it!"

Friday morning, 6am I've arrived at Lannis' house and we're ready to roll! I've heard tales about Lannis' driving exploits. Driving unbelieveable distances in incredibly short time frames! I'm wondering how many pit stops we will get on this 600 mile trek. Hmmm....I bring an empty bottle just in case! LOL!Bobbie and Lannis do a lot of traveling & are very organized. Bobbie is the navigator and maps out the trip. We're on our way.

Early the afternoon: I think we see Carlee standing on the West Virginia hillside! Man, that is one mountainous state! Three states down and one to go!

Friday 3:45pm We arrive at Beachwood Holiday Inn! Less than 10 hours with a couple of stops! Lannis, you're are good as your press, dude!! Bobbie & I go in check in. While we are waiting a little guy with long blond hair comes through the lobby and shouts "Hey honey, I'm home!" Then the guy comes through the lobby again and shouts to no one in particular "Mama, I'm home!" Bobbie and I look at each other and say what we are thinking out loud...."Could that be...?" The Holiday Inn people have our rooms on different floors...1st floor, and 4th floor! Oh well! After going by the room, I haul it to the bar...Heepsters! Heepsters everywhere!Let's see...Paul, Bob W, Dave C,Big Dog & Kim, Stem( he looked just like his picture! Calm down...that's a compliment, bud!),Muzzy, Dale & Helen, Aly... and some guy with long blond hair!

The guys try to pass him off as Kevin Julie but I immediately guess the obvious....Madman! Merrick is in rare form...and I can tell immediately he's the most excited Heepster here! Lannis and Bobbie come and join us the bar after a while....I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. After hanging with the homies for a while we plan to invade Dave White's castle. By accident my bass in still in Lannis' van when we arrive. This turns out to be fortunate for me. Dave's place is only a few miles away...a very nice place indeed! When our caravan arrives, more Heepsters pop out of the woodworks! Rich, Rod, Dave and Carol are there! I immediately want to see the famous White basement studios and Dave gives us a tour!

Man, the place is loaded with equipment! Dave has the big stack of cassettes for stuff in progress also. While a group of us are checking out the place, Dave asks Dale and Big Dog if they'd like to add some vocals to some stuff in progress. We're in for a treat! First Dale sings "Come Away Melinda". Great...and with such emotion! Just a wonderful job! Then it's Big Dog's turn with "Sunrise". A fantasic job by the Large Canine as always!

At some point some of the guys decide to jam a little and I go and get my bass. Muzzy and I take turns playing. Although there's not a drum kit, Merrick improvises! :-) Somehow he ends up on the floor spinning in a circle and kicking his feet in the air. The guy's hilarious!

At some point, Carol was kind enough to fix us some sloppy joes and speaking of joes....Joe and Bev arrive! Eventually we go back to the Holiday Inn and congregate at the bar. At about 10; Stem, Big Dog and I go to my room to finish recording the vocals on a song Stem and I wrote named "Winds of Change". Dave does an emotional rendition and suggests that Stem and I do the background vocals.U h oh....another adventure!

After forgetting my own lyrics several times,we finally get the take finished. Only later would I discover that we had erased my bass track....Arrgggh! Well... that's easily fixed. Back to the bar!

At midnight the bar closes. say what? Midnight??! Kevin Julie has arrived by now...some of us adjourn to his and Aly's room. Aly's hardly talks more than Simon! And as Paul keeps saying Simon is outside in the car....in the trunk he was born in! I bum numerous brewski's off of Kevin. Kev did me right! He gave me his new newsletter _and_ that cool Zep book! Sure, he hates LZ but he could sold it or traded it to someone! Thanks again, Kev!! Eventually I stagger to my room! :-) End of day one and the best is yet to come!!!

HH! Mac