This is a guest post by long time friend of the pod James Conrad
Check out the time he rekt cosplay chemtrails professor Patrick Roddie
And find more of James’ writing in Ugly Things #43
In the early 1970s, while Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple ruled the heavy metal roost, Uriah Heep respectably carved out their own space within the scene.
Originally formed in London, England 1969 as Spice by guitarist Mick Box, singer David Byron, bassist Paul Newton and drummer Alex Napier, the band soon linked with manager Gerry Bron, who signed them to his own label, Bronze Records. Around that Christmas, Bron suggested that Spice change their name to Uriah Heep after the villain from the Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. Two months later, following rehearsals next door to Deep Purple at the Hanwell Community Centre, the band decided to expand their sound and add a keyboard player, noting Jon Lord's skillful contributions to Purple's sound. Almost immediately, Paul Newton recommended Ken Hensley, as the two had previously played in a psychedelic band called the Gods. In addition to his skills on the Hammond organ, Ken was also an adept slide guitarist and soon established himself as the band's resident songwriter, penning many of the hit singles and fan favorites that feature in the bands set to this very day, such as "Easy Livin'" and "Stealin'."
The band soon developed an ambitious work ethic, going from strength to strength creatively. Though their first two albums, ...Very Eavy, ...Very 'Umble and Salisbury were noticed by few in their native Britain, a loyal fan base quickly established itself in Germany, Scandinavia and Australia. However, Melissa Mills, reviewing the first album in Rolling Stone declared, "If this band makes it, I will commit suicide."
While their third album, Look At Yourself saw the band poised for greatness, the arrival of powerful and precise drummer Lee Kerslake, formerly of the Gods; and virtuoso bass player Gary Thain, coming in from the Keef Hartley Band exponentially increased the quality of the music. The public noticed, and a pair of albums released in 1972, Demons And Wizards and The Magician's Birthday, saw worldwide success.
The following year, after a triumphant live album, the band traveled to France to record Sweet Freedom, a solid album with a somewhat scaled-down compositional approach as opposed to the four previous albums, which each contained one track in excess of ten minutes long. Nevertheless, the album made the Top 40 in the United States, the Top 20 in Great Britain and was even more successful elsewhere.
The album cover, designed by Fin Costello featured a composite photo showing the band superimposed atop a sunset. Given the Wild West lyrical themes in "Stealin'," perhaps this was to symbolize Bronze Records switching its North American distribution from Mercury Records to Warner Brothers, what with the album's title track supposedly being inspired thusly.
However, over the course of nearly half a century, a more macabre coincidence regarding Sweet Freedom's cover began to manifest itself.
Though Gary Thain, standing at the far left on the cover, had a supple, melodic approach to his bass playing that brought to mind the work of John Entwistle, Jack Bruce and Andy Fraser, he had come into Uriah Heep already nursing a heroin habit that would become more unmanageable by the time the band began to work on The Magician's Birthday. While the band was touring to promote the 1974 album Wonderworld, Thain was electrocuted at a concert in Dallas, Texas. In light of Bron's unsympathetic reaction, Gary complained to the press that "the music's been forgotten, it's now a financial thing."
Soon enough, something had to give, and by February 1975, Gary Thain was dismissed from the band, only to become a lesser-known member of the 27 club, dying of an overdose before year's end.
At the same time, David Byron, seen standing next to Gary, was not in much better shape, as his fondness for whisky increasingly began to affect his behavior and onstage performance. There was also animosity between himself and Ken Hensley over creative control and finances, as Ken, the group's principal songwriter, naturally earned far more in royalties than the rest of the band. Throughout 1975 and 1976, the situation became more untenable. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Return To Fantasy tour, Byron injured himself on the microphone stand. Believing that the audience of 25,000 was ridiculing him, he told them to fuck off.
In Sweden, he fell off the stage and sang the first six numbers from the orchestra pit. When the band arrived early for a show at a stadium in Spain and found that the door was locked, an inebriated and enraged Byron kicked his way through the plate glass door. By the end of the tour he was fired, with Ken Hensley's "him or me" ultimatum further catalyzing the decision.
Byron never recovered from this personal and professional blow. He attempted a solo career that yielded diminishing returns as his drinking problem grew more debilitating. Though he was invited to rejoin Heep in 1981, he took a pass on the offer. Finally, on 28 February 1985, he was found dead at his home at the age of 38. The autopsy indicated a fatty liver and an epileptic seizure as contributing factors.
In the center of Sweet Freedom's front-cover group photo is drummer Lee Kerslake, who would prove to be the Uriah Heep's longest serving drummer and second longest serving member overall behind guitarist Mick Box. Although he was fired from Uriah Heep in 1979 after quarrels with Ken Hensley and Gerry Bron, he reconnected with Box in 1981 to reorganize the band, reclaimed his position behind the kit and stayed until health problems forced his retirement from the band in 2007. In the ensuing years, his condition worsened, and in September 2020, he became the next of the classic lineup to die, succumbing to cancer. He was 73 years old. The sad news was posted to Facebook by Ken Hensley.
Though Ken Hensley, second from the right, stayed on with Uriah Heep after the departures of Thain and Byron, his enthusiasm waned as he became disenchanted with the personnel changes and chafed under the pressure to deliver songs as the band's popularity began to steadily decline over the latter half of the 1970s. For the rest of his life, he firmly believed that the only real incarnation of the band included himself, Box, Byron, Thain and Kerslake.
He also had fallen deep into cocaine addiction, having picked up the habit in 1971 on Heep's first U.S. tour. By 1980, he had had enough, and quit the band after the tour in support of Conquest, an album he hated and subsequently disowned. Thereafter, he spent a short, unhappy stint with the southern rock band Blackfoot. After departing that band,, he continued to sporadically release solo records, though in 1985 he withdrew from touring for many years after becoming despondent over the death of David Byron. During his time away from the spotlight, he kicked his drug habit, became a born-again Christian and made guest appearances on albums by Cinderella and WASP. On few special occasions, he would sit in at Uriah Heep concerts, despite having no desire whatsoever to permanently rejoin the band.
Finally, on 4 November 2020, Ken Hensley died of an undisclosed illness, aged 75, only six weeks after Lee Kerslake's passing. In March 2021, his final solo album, My Book of Answers, a collaboration with Russian poet Vladimir Emelin, was posthumously released.
That leaves Mick Box, pictured at the far right, who resurrected Uriah Heep in 1981 after the previous year's collapse and still performs with them to this very day, alongside singer Bernie Shaw, keyboardist Philip Lanzon, bass player Davey Rimmer and powerhouse drummer Russell Gilbrook. In 2019, the band undertook a successful worldwide tour with Judas Priest.
Though nobody could have planned it, indeed it is bizarre that the musicians who made the classic album Sweet Freedom are lined up on the cover in order of when they died.
Photo by James Conrad - 2019
