Bernie Shaw
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Bernie Shaw (born June 15, 1956) is a Canadian singer, and since 1986, the lead vocalist for the British rock group Uriah Heep. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At the beginning of 1970 Bernie dreamed of becoming a rock guitarist. He bought himself a Gibson SG Special and started practicing. When the local band "Cold Sweat" was looking for a second guitarist in 1974 Bernie auditioned but the bass player asked him if he knew what he was playing. He told him to do himself a favor by buying vocal gear set and come back the next week. Shaw followed up this advice, and when he auditioned as a singer the band was convinced: here was their new vocalist. The interest in rock music was changing and COLD SWEAT changed their name in Buckshot. With this name they toured for some months. In the summer of 1977 the band quit due to lack of success. Shaw: 'I had enough of doing all these small clubs. I wanted to go further then that.'
His next band was Legend. This formation came from Saskatoon. Shaw played 9 months with them before a flew back to Victoria.
Also in this year Shaw played with Phil Lanzon ( Ex Romance) in PARIS.
In December 1978 Paris signed a record deal with RCA and changed their name to "Grand Prix" . It’s here that Shaw sang on his first album: ‘Grand Prix’ which was released in 1980. When Shaw returned from his sister's wedding in October 1981 he learned he had been by Robin McAuley.
In December 1981 Shaw joined PRAYING MANTIS, a band formed in 1978. There he met Tino Troy – guitar, Chriss Troy – bass, Dave Potts - drums and John Bavin – Keyboards. The band was managed by Deep Purple manager John Coletta but they still had problems getting a record deal. For a long time they were the most over rehearsed band in London. With Praying Mantis Shaw did not record a album, just the EP "Tell Me The Nightmare's Wrong", recorded in 1982. Praying Mantis with Shaw was just live to be seen, like the READING FESTIVAL. In 1993 a bootleg was going around called "live + singles" which contains 6 songs performed at the Reading festival, followed by pieces of ‘THE SOUNDHOUSE TAPES" – MAXI , the PRAYING MANTIS record, AND THE SINGLES "CHEATED DOUBLE"and "TURN THE TABLES"
From December 1983 to the middle of 1984 Shaw played in the band started by ex-IRON MAIDEN drummer CLIVE BURR’S ESCAPE . Who went on as ESCAPE shortley after Shaws entree. In this band also played Praying Mantis members Chris and Tino Troy.
July 1984 again the band choose to go on with a new name. Thats how STRATUS started. The album ‘TROWING SHAPES’ was recorded at the FRANKFURTER DREAMBOAT studio with Tino troy –guitar, Alan Nelson –keyboards, Chris Troy –bass, and Clive Burr –drums. It was released in the summer of 1984.
Like PRAYING MANTIS, STRATUS played melodic hard rock. The 12 pieces of rock sound like a progression of the Praying Mantis music, and therefore interesting stuff for Heepfans.
In 1993 the cd version REBORN CLASSICS was released. As a bonus track on this bootleg the SOUNDHOUSE TAPES are added.
Stratus also had one song as a movie soundtrack. The song "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE’ is used in CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH (1986/USA)
When Stratus gigged at the London Marquee Club one of the visitors was Mick Box. He was looking for a singer who could reach the high notes. Uriah Heep singer Steff Fontain was just fired. Mick asked Bernie to do a audition for Heep. Bernie did and after a ‘heavy’ night Mick was concluding Uriah Heep got their new frontman.
Shaw’s first album with Heep was LIVE IN MOSCOW . In 1995 Shaw was facing serious throat problems. The medics had difficulties to discover the problem, and it looked for a while as Shaw had to quit his singing career. For concerts in Austria and South Africa former Heep vocalist John Lawton deputized. Bernie recovered after a minor surgery. Bernie is now the band's longest-serving vocalist.
At the end of 1995 Shaw started a hobby band in Vancouver Canada called IN TRANSIT. The band does cover versions of VAN HALEN, 38 SPECIAL, DAN REED NETWORK, STAGE DOLLS, FOREIGNER, RITCHIE SAMBORA and a few Heep songs.
Bernie loves to ride on of his Harley Davidson. That's my second love after Heep he says. In private Bernie listens to WHITESNAKE,VAN HALEN,DAVID LEE ROTH,LENNY KRAVITZ,CRASH TEST DUMMIES,RITCHIE SAMBORA and LED ZEPPELIN.
In August and September of 1997 Bernie was in the Canadian Rock Ridge studios to sing on the album of his friend Kevin Williams. They knew each other from IN TRANSIT. It was a tribute album to Williams' wife who sadly died of cancer Christmas 1996. The CD was released in private by Kevin Williams for the Canadian market only.
