The Byron Era
The Byron Era
IN THE BEGINNING
In the beginning, Gerry Bron took a London based band named Spice into the studio in July of 1969. Out of these sessions emerged the band Uriah Heep.
Bron came up with the idea to add a permanent keyboard player and bassist Paul Newton suggested Ken Hensley who had been in a previous
band (the Gods) with Paul. Upon hearing Ken Hensley rehearsing with Spice, Bron thought
the band should have a new name and he suggested
Uriah Heep. The character Uriah Heep was an evil
accountant from Charles Dickens' book David Copperfield. It just so happens there was quite a bit of publicity in London at the time concerning the one hundred year
anniversary
of Dickens' death. Bron hit upon the name and the band members agreed it sounded right.
THE GODS
Although Spice is obviously the band from which Uriah
Heep evolved, the Gods are also a major part of Heep's family tree. Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake and Paul Newton were all members on the Gods
at one
time or another. It's well known that
the Yardbirds spawned multiple Rock Superstars, however
the alumni of the Gods is no
less impressive. Members of the Gods went on to play with the Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull,
King Crimson, John Mayall's Blues
Breakers, Emerson Lake & Palmer, and last, but certainly not least, Uriah Heep. At one
particularly low point of the Gods, Ken Hensley
was living in a van (down by the river).
A MANAGEMENT CHANGE
In the early days of Spice, bassist Paul Newton's
father, Paul Sr., was the manager of the
band. However Gerry Bron had experience and connections as well
as being the owner of the record label, the producer
of
the band's albums and the band's agent. The situation created tension
between band members and Paul Sr, leading
to his eventual replacement as manager. Later Paul Sr. was hesitant
to relinquish his role with the band which
caused additional friction with Paul and band mates, leading to his dismissal from the band.
SIDE PROJECTS
David Byron and Mick Box made some side money in
the pre - Heep years by recording covers of the
Top 30 Hits for Avenue Records. These were discount packages sold
in Woolworth's. Elton John also participated
in some of Avenue's recordings. Some of
these recordings have been circulating through Heepster
trading circles. Likewise, Ken Hensley made some
side money recordings, the Head Machine and Weed albums, using the alias Ken 'Leslie'. There is some disagreement on when these
albums were recorded however.
THE LAST GIG AS SPICE
The last concert that the band played as Spice
was on February 21, 1970 at St. Mary's College, Twickenham so Ken Hensley was a member
of Spice at least for a few gigs!
THE FIRST HEEP KEYBOARDIST?
Colin Wood actually played keyboards on two songs of the debut
album.... Come Away Melinda and Wake Up (Set Your Sights).
Gerry Bron also asked Colin to join the band even though none of the band were aware of this
for years.
Luckily Colin Wood turned down the job
because his teaching schedule wouldn't allow him
to tour with a band. Later Ken Hensley was
recruited and the rest is history.
CROSSING
PATHS WITH THE PURPS
Coincidently, the embryonic Heep line-up
and Deep Purple, with
newly added members Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, both practiced at Hamwell Community
Centre. In Rock would emerge from DP's sessions while Heep was
working on Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble. Mick Box recalls "Gypsy" was written there. As Mick Box told
RAW magazine, "The funny thing was we wrote
it at Hamwell Community Centre, Shepherds
Bush, and Deep Purple were rehearsing in the
room next door to us. You can imagine the kind
of racket we were both making between us!" Some writers of the DP's remaster booklets have suggested Heep might have stolen
a few ideas from Purple during these practice sessions,
but Ken Hensley says DP didn't influence the writing on any particular
song and the main influence Deep Purple had
on Heep's writing was to inspire them to use an orchestra on "Salisbury".
Although a lot of the writing was done for
VEVU when Hensley joined Heep,
he actually did some writing on the album
but was unable to be credited due to contractual
restrictions. Although Ken has never said which songs he co - wrote, "Gypsy" seems to be a likely possibility.
A WEB OF MYSTERY
The face covered with cobwebs on the cover of the Very 'Eavy, Very
'Umble album is actually David Byron's. The effect was created
by Mick Box who used a glue based cobweb machine.
DEBUT LP IN NORTH AMERICA
In North America, the
debut album was released as simply "Uriah Heep"
by Mercury Records and it included
a different cover and
a different tracklisting. Instead of "Lucy Blues", "Bird of Prey" was included.