Ken HENSLEY
&
John WETTON


More Than Conquerors

(2002)


1. Overture "La Tristeza Secreta De Un Corazon Gitano"
2. A Minor Life
3. Easy Livin'
4. One Way Or Another
5. Return To Fantasy
6. July Morning
7. Battle Lines
8. Confession
9. Emma
10. Hold Me Now
11. After All
12. The Wizard
13. I Don't Wanna Wait
14. Out Of My Control
15. Tell Me
16. Lady In Black
17. Heat Of The Moment

Bonus Songs

18. Tell Me

19. Don't Wanna Wait
20. Battle Lines
21. Praying For A Miracle

Running Time: 90 min. + 19 min.

  • Ken Hensley (keyboards)
  • John Wetton (guitars, bass)

  • Dave Kilminster (guitars)
  • Steve Christie (drums)
  • Andy Pyle (bass)
    All of whom worked on Hensley's latest "Running Blind" album.

  • John Young on keyboards.

    First up are the two opening tracks from "Running Blind": "La Tristeza Secreta De Un Corazon Gitano" forms the intro with the credits linking into pictures of Hensley at his keyboard.
    Kilminster, Young and Christie wander onto the stage for "A Minor Life", a piece with a splendid hook.

    The first of a series of URIAH HEEP songs comes with "Easy Livin'", taken from the "Demons & Wizards" album.
    This is a composition with a good time feel and the band are obviously enjoying themselves playing ...

    "One Way Or Another" is another UH track, this time from "High & Mighty", and John Wetton takes to the stage to share the vocals. I must admit that I find Wetton's singing performance sometimes a little lack lustre during this concert - although I expect that if you were actually there it was a completely different matter.

    "Return To Fantasy" comes from the UH album of the same name.
    Again, Wetton sings this in a much lower pitch than the original, giving it a flatter sound.
    Hensley's vocals are so much better; clearer and sweeter - and he's having a great time, pulling faces at the camera and singing his heart out! This track also gives Dave Kilminster a chance for a good guitar workout, which he performs admirably.

    The last of this selection of tracks recorded by UH is the classic "July Morning".
    When I received the DVD, the first thing I did was go straight to this track; the verdict ... pretty good ! *
    The band really get down and boogie with this one and produce a full and solid sound.

    John Wetton then takes centre stage for his own "Battle Lines" and the odd lighter can be seen in the audience during this standard.
    This is probably Mr Wetton's best performance of the night, and the band really do him justice with delicate keyboard work from both John Young and Ken Hensley, and solid guitar work from Dave Kilminster.

    They return to the UH "High & Mighty" album next with "Confession", an all too brief song which sounds like it should belong on one of the Ken Hensley solo albums.

    Next up is a short set of Wetton material, starting with "Emma" from "No Man's Land".
    This is a slow paced ballad; a pretty song that has the audience enraptured.

    This is followed by "Hold Me Now", from the album "Battle Lines", and JW puts down his guitar to concentrate on singing - a nice job he makes of it too.
    It's another gentle tune; backed partly by just JY's keyboard work, although the pace picks up towards the end of the piece when all of the band resume playing.

    Moving more up to date is the next track, "After All" from Wetton's solo offering "Sinister", a song co-written with John Young, who sings backing vocals.

    Another tune from "Demons & Wizards" follow: "The Wizard". Both KH and JW take up acoustic guitars for this, while Hensley provides the vocals; encouraging the audience to sing along mid way through.

    Three tracks from "Running Blind" complete the main set: "I Don't Wanna Wait" is an infectious sing along track with some rather nice classical guitar work, during which JW plays JY's keyboards, while JY moves over KH's organ ...

    The bouncy "Out Of My Control" is contrasted against "Tell Me" which opens with KH playing some mean bottleneck guitar and has a strong bluesy feel.
    After DK has taken a chance to stretch his busy fingers, they all leave the stage in high spirits.

    The band return to the stage for the encore to play the Uriah Heep song "Lady In Black" from "Salisbury" (during which there appears to be a momentary glitch on my copy of the DVD).
    JW straps on his bass for the encore although he appears to actually play very little during this spirited rendition.

    Finally ASIA's "Heat Of The Moment" closes the show courtesy of JW's vocals - and this song really gets the audience singing.
    During the instrumental break the camera closes up on DK's fingers and they simply blur !
    A fine, upbeat ending to the show.

    ..:::..

    Also to be found on this disc are four bonus videos.


    First up are a pair of Ken Hensley tracks from "Running Blind" featuring most of the above lineup, but with Dave Wagstaffe on drums.
    A straight forward version of "Tell Me" in which DK is seen playing two different guitars is followed by "I Don't Wanna Wait" which was recorded in a candle lit music room complete with many empty wine bottles.

    The video for Wetton's "Battle Lines" comes next.
    It features scenes from the film "Chasing the Deer" (starring Brian Blessed and Iain Cuthbertson) intercut with a rather younger looking JW.

    A live version of the track "Praying For A Miracle" by ASIA, completes this section and features an even younger Wetton ...

    Marisa 31st July, 2002

    * although the version on the Uriah Heep's 'Magicians Birthday' DVD is just mindblowing ...