URIAH HEEP Will Continue Playing Shows, Even After Completion Of 'Farewell' Tour

This past September, British progressive rock legends URIAH HEEP announced the U.K. leg of their farewell tour, dubbed "The Magician's Farewell". The seven shows, which will launch on February 19, 2025 in Birmingham, will feature very special guests, Canadian legends APRIL WINE and U.S. melodic hard rockers TYKETTO.

Asked in a new interview with Planet Rock's Paul Anthony how he will cope with not being on tour anymore because he has lived his life on the road for so many years, URIAH HEEP guitarist Mick Box said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it'll take two to three years to go around [laughs], and then once we've done that, we'll still be doing festivals and weekend work and stuff like that, but the long arduous tours we're not gonna do anymore. And I don't think it's logistically possible now with the way things are with carnets for equipment to get through territories. Bus prices tripled. And we did 11 flights the other month and five of them were cancelled, so it's getting really hard to make those things work."

As for what he is planning on doing with his time once URIAH HEEP has completed its farewell tour, Mick said: "I guess we'll do [some] writing and go in the recording studio and do other aspects of the of the game, but as I say, we're still gonna be touring, still gonna be playing. It's just that we're not doing the really long stuff. We'll do it in sections rather than a whole long splurge."

As for the setlist for "The Magician's Farewell", Mick said: "I guess a setlist really writes itself to a degree, because there's so many songs that people expect to hear — you know, the 'Easy Livin'' to 'July Morning' and stuff like that and 'Stealin'' and whatever — so we kind of use that as the template. Then we'll add in some of the latest-album songs, and then build it from there. And maybe revisit something that we haven't revisited for a while, or even something we haven't played before. So we kind of just put it in the mixing pot, really. But it kind of works itself out because the popularity of the songs we've got, which is marvelous."

After Anthony noted that URIAH HEEP still records new music and is not known as "just a heritage act" which doesn't perform its more recent songs live, Mick concurred. "Well, yeah," he said. "I mean, when you look at it, we've got a lot of classic rock songs. And the new songs are soon to be classic, because it's only time that gives them that title. [Laughs] So, yeah, we look at it like that. And they merge very well, because it's the band doing what the band does, using the same template we had from day one, musically, and that's the Hammond organ, the wah-wah guitar, five[-part vocal harmonies], all that sort of stuff. We just apply that to each song and it's URIAH HEEP."

URIAH HEEP's farewell tour will run for approximately two or three years and will include performances in all parts of the globe.

In November 2023, Box was asked by Metallerium how he and his URIAH HEEP bandmates have managed to retain their trademark sound despite having gone through so many lineup changes over the years. He responded: "Well, I think, I think, basically, as long as I'm there, the band's gonna sound like URIAH HEEP. Because we created a template on how we sounded back in 1970 with our first album, '...Very 'Eavy ...Very 'Umble'. So, we've continued with that all the way along the line. And I think a lot of the credit must go to Jay Ruston, our producer, because he understood where we come from, what we're all about, but he managed to make the album sound really fresh and today, and I think that's a marvelous achievement. So really, as long as we keep playing and writing good songs and doing good performances, and we get someone like Jay Ruston recording it, I think it will always sound fresh and exciting."

Regarding what has kept URIAH HEEP going for so long, Mick said: "I think the only thing that drives us on, it's only one word — it's called passion. And if you've got passion for what you do, then eventually you'll achieve it."

URIAH HEEP's 25th studio album, "Chaos & Colour", was released in January 2023 via Silver Lining Music. The LP was recorded during the summer of 2021 at Chapel Studios in London with the aforementioned Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, COREY TAYLOR, BLACK STAR RIDERS) at the helm.

"Jay was completely on board with what we are trying to achieve in the studio," Box previously said. "We're a band that has a fantastic heritage and to carry on that tradition it was vitally important that the band recorded in the studio all playing at the same time. Jay understood that and he pulled out the best of us as a band, as well as individual players, while getting us some amazing sounds."

URIAH HEEP's current lineup includes Box, frontman Bernie Shaw, bassist Dave Rimmer, drummer Russell Gilbrook and keyboardist Phil Lanzon.

URIAH HEEP debuted in 1970 with the release of one of hard rock's milestones, "Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble", and has since sold in excess of 40 million albums worldwide. They have constantly toured the world, playing up to 125 shows a year to more than 500,000 fans. The band's live set features the classic tracks from the '70s and is a musical journey from the band's beginnings to the present day.