Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Paul Newton, David Byron, and Alex Napier.
Uriah Heep thrives on drama! That was what one scribe said about Heep some time ago, reflecting on the history of a band that has not only survived twenty years of rock and roll history, but has also played a role in shaping it. Since the band’s inception back in 1970, through the blizzardous, hazy but not so lazy Seventies, and on throughout the adventurous, globe-trotting Eighties Uriah Heep have played their part, climbing new mountains, scaling new peaks and exploring unknown territories, not just literally (though they’ve done that as well) but metaphorically, as every successive year has opened up another chapter of events that makes the group’s biography more than just a story of a rock ‘n’ roll band; ultimately it’s a tale of triumph and tragedy, success and failure, challenge and achievement (not to mention a few laughs) over the course of twenty years.
It’s been a long journey, to be sure, but it’s one that will now take Heep into his third decade. Thrive on drama? They literally inhale the thing. The story of Heep begins in the mists of time with the not uncommon story of a nucleus gradually forming against a backdrop of musical experimentation, a trial and error approach to personnel, and the cementing of relationships.
In Heep’s case, the seed was sown in 1967, when most were still recovering from their post-World Cup victory celebrations and Jimi Hendrix was about to show the world exactly what the guitar was designed for. Mick Box, a young man of twenty who enjoyed football but preferred music, grabbed his guitar, as well as his ambitions and dreams, and formed The Stalkers, a semi-professional band that played on the local circuit. When the vocalist left, drummer Roger Penlington advised that his cousin David attend the auditions.”David had been coming down to our performances,” says Mick, “and he�d have a few pints and go up and sing a couple old rockers with us (songs that would eventually form the backbone of a rock ‘n’roll medley that would become a fixture of Heep’s early Seventies set). David came down and seemed hesitant, so I told him, ‘You get up after a few pints, have a go now.’ We wrote a couple tunes and that was it; he was in!” The Box/Byron relationship flourished from that point on, and with slightly higher musical aspirations than their fellow members, they decided to overcome the psychological barrier of quitting their day jobs and going professional, forming a new band called Spice (Byron changing his surname from the original Garrick). Drummer Alex Napier was recruited via the time honoured tradition of a music paper ad, skirting the required requirement that there were to be no girlfriend/marital links by saying that his wife was his sister!
Spice was complete after bassist Paul Newton joined via The Gods. Spice purposely avoided playing the covers of the moment (‘Knock On Wood’, ‘The Midnight Hour’ etc.), focussing on more obscure stuff while slipping in the odd original. “We were always striving to do something original,” recalls Box; “and though at first that made it difficult getting gigs, eventually we built a little cult following because of that.” Spice eventually clawed their way up to Marquee level, under the tutelage of Paul Newton’s father, but by late ’69 it was ready to take a major step upwards. The man to supply that step was Gerry Bron.
Gerry Bron was a management/production magnate, who upon being approached went down to see the band at the Blues Loft in High Wycombe and was sufficiently impressed to sign the four piece to his Hit Record Productions Ltd (who had a deal with Philips Records), for the purposes of recording. “I thought they were a band I could develop and I took them on that basis,” recalls Bron. It quickly became evident that Bron should take over their management too, and there began a connection that would define both partie�s futures far more than anyone could have then predicted. And so the band found itself booked into Lansdowne Studios in London, still under the name of Spice and still as a four piece, but with Bron’s Hit Records/Philips arrangement assuring the publication of their product on new Phillips label, Vertigo.
The next couple of months witnessed several significant changes; firstly a change of name to Uriah Heep (suggested by Bron and based on the ‘orrible little character from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield – Dicken’s name being everywhere around Christmas ’69 due to it being the hundredth anniversary of his death) and then the introduction of keyboards to the band. “We’d actually recorded half the first album when we decided that keyboards would be good for our sound.” says Box. “I was a big Vanilla Fudge fan, with their Hammond organ and searing guitar on top, and we had David’s high vibrato vocals anyhow so that’s how we decided to create it.
” Session player Colin Wood was brought in by Gerry but it was only when the search began for a permanent member that Ken Hensley, who had played keyboards with Paul Newton in The Gods and who was currently playing guitar in Toe Fat, was set up. “I saw a lot of potential in the group to do something very different,” remembers Hensley, and so he joined. Hensley’s talents were not limited to producing innovative keyboard and mellotron sounds; he could also write, as evidenced by his contribution to the first album, appropriately titled…
was limited to re-recording some of Wood’s keyboards and finishing the last few tracks. Box and Byron were responsible for the majority of the material, the first of which was a song called ‘Gipsy’, which perfectly captured Heep’s sound with its stomping, pounding guitar and multi-tracked vocal harmonies. In many ways, it was a contrasting marriage that would eventually become their trademark. “The strange thing was that we wrote it at the Hamwell Community Centre in Shepherds Bush when Deep Purple were rehearsing in the room next to us. “You can imagine the kind of racket we were both making between us!” Mick told RAW magazine in 1989.
