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The Heep-bassist Mark Clarke, who only was in the group for four months or so, didn't want to join Heep any longer because it was too much work for him. He suggested that his friend Gary Thain should play there. Gary replaced him in the middle of an American tour. Mark said that Gary only could play there full time, when he had learned all the Heep-live-stuff. So Heep continued to tour with Mark, while Gary was learning his stuff. He learned it the whole day long when Heep toured in another town and when the gig was over they returned to him. It took not that long time till he learned all the stuff exactly, so he quickly replaced Mark Clarke in Uriah Heep and that was the beginning of the best time of the group. The first album he recorded with Heep was "Demons & Wizards" which became the most succesful album in the band history (Which was only two years old!). Gary's bass overdubed the two Mark-Clarke-Line-up songs "Why" and "The Wizard" and this album became the topselling album of the years 1972, which also released "Machine Head" from Deep Purple. D&W made #5 in the charts and MH "only" #7. As a present for his playing in Heep, Heep-manager Gerry Bron gave him an "Acoustic"-amp, later on he would have many conflicts with this manager, but let's return to 1972: On Demons & Wizards Gary wrote nothing (only "Home Again To You" on the remastered edition with the others). The guitarist Mick Box said that all bass players in the world at the time had loved Gary's bass and I think his bass really had something special! In the same year Heep released another album, called "Magician's Birthday", which is my favourite Heep album. Ken Hensley wanted it to be a concept album, but the others weren't that lucky about this idea, so they released it as a "normal" album. I could describe the songs here, but it would take sites and sites and I think you know the songs, so I haven't any reason to decribe them (they're wonderfully described in Uwe Reuters books and at those days in many magazines). Even in 1972 you could see Gary's drug problems at few gigs. Then he was very, very tired, ill and not able to play on stage at night. But the majority of the year 1972 saw him at his best, playing so wonderfully! The remastered edition of Magician's Birthday also included the song "Crystal Ball (Gary's Song)", which he had written alone during the first year of his Heep time. 1972 was a very succesful year in the Heep-history and it went on like it began: The beginning of 1973 saw Heep in concert to release a live-LP. They played several gigs in Britain in January and the one on the 26th of January was used for "Uriah Heep Live 1973", which became the second best live album ever. On this album you can hear Gary Thain at his peak, how he played his bass on this live record was wonderful! And on the R'n'R-Medley, the last song, you even can hear him playng the traditional R'n'R-bass lines that were used in the 50s. In the booklet of this LP he was described as a very, very thin man (his nick-name was The Thin Man, named after a film), as very quiet, serious and very important for the band. His way of talking was also described, as a very slow speaking, along with his way to see someone directly in the eyes. 1973 was a very good year for Gary; it was the first time he had earned enough money to visit his parents and his brother in New Zealand. He also went with his wife Carol to her homeland and in the German "Pop"-magazine a Gary Thain-Homestory was released. He showed his house (people say it was the only beautiful Heep-musician-house), his cat and his wife. He talked about his live and said that he was a very lazy man. "I don't stay at home the whole time, I often go with my wife Carol to clubs, discos or in restaurants. But the thing I like best is staying at home lazily and hear some Jazz or Blues stuff", he said in the magazine. In the summer of the year 1973 Heep went for three weeks to France to record "Sweet Freedom". They went to the Chateau d'Herouville because of tax reasons. Everyone came with his wife there and people say, that the band recorded the whole day and at night went with their wives to have fun. There is a special story to talk about, about the song "Circus". The guitarist Mick Box: "I wrote this with Gary in LA at the Continental Hyatt House. In France we finished it; the whole studio was in dark and you could only see a few lights. Gary was at the one end of the room and I was at the other. We didn't speak a word to each other and finished the song this way. It was very spiritual." People also said that the food in the Chateau was very bad and there were often some cigarettes in it so you can imagine it was a very funny time for them. The album was released in the atumn of 1973 and quickly went gold. But 1973 was also the time of Gary's last two years. At the end of the year he became more and more ill, you could see his drug proplem in his eyes and at the show he often wasn't the same. In 1974 Heep went to Denmark to have some photo shootings with the photographer Jorgen Angel. Jorgen decided to take a lot of photos, but then Gary was called back to England because his pregnant wife Carol had fallen down some stairs. He was frightened that she might loose her baby and flew back to England so Jorgen took only some pics of him. After he had come back from England, Jorgen wasn't there any longer and he also was thrown out of a hotel because he put a light on the sprinkler system and the hotel got wet. Later Heep went to Munich to record "Wonderworld" and that time was the worst time they ever had. Gary was very ill and on drugs those days. His proplem became bad and worse. He couldn't concentrate any longer and the drugs attacked his thin body, made him a very sick man. The album wasn't very good or like the previous, but his bass on "Wonderworld" was still excellent. On the 15th September in 1974 he got an electro shock during a gig in Dallas. He flew one or two metres through the air and when he was on the earth again he did not move or breathe. They finished the concert and his roadies took him to the backstage room. He was in a completely different world, he even hit his roadie into the face. He stayed for three weeks at the hospital and that was the time when his wife Carol left him with their baby Nathalie. It also was the time when he first had something to do with Heroin. "I don't know exactly how it began", he said some months before he died, "but there suddenly was someone with the Heroin and I didn't tink, I just took it." When he was out of the hospital and at home in England with his second wife Mika, the manager phoned him to continue with touring. He had a very bad arguement with Bron, because he was still very ill and coulnd't tour. "I was so ill and then he phoned me to go on touring. I said 'Fuck the tour!', we had a bad arguement but now I only can laugh with my wife about it", he said some weeks after Bron's call. Some weeks later he continued with touring, but it wasn't the same. His illness never went away until he died but let's return to the end of 1974: Then Gerry Bron and the band decided to fire him. He was ill, had depressions and lost the only thing he ever wanted to do: music. And the beginning of 1975 was also the beginning of his end ... |
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