In a 1989 interview, Mick Box recalled, 'The funny thing was we wrote it at the Hanwell Community Centre, and Deep Purple were rehearsing in the room next door to us. Hensley had little to contribute to the debut: Box and Byron wrote most of the material, including Gypsy, in many ways (according to Blows) '.a marriage of contrasts that, in time, became their trademark.

The album's title references the signature phrase of the Dickens character Uriah Heep('very 'umble'). Very 'Umble (released as Uriah Heep in the United States), introduced Hensley's heavy organ and guitar-driven sound, with David Byron's theatrical, dynamic vocals soaring above thunderous sonic backgrounds, although acoustic and jazz elements also featured in the mix. 'I saw a lot of potential in the group to do something very different,' remembered Hensley. Session player Colin Wood was brought in by Gerry Bron, followed by Ken Hensley, a former colleague of Newton in The Gods, who was currently playing guitar in Toe Fat, was lined up. I was a big Vanilla Fudge fan, with their Hammond organ and searing guitar on top, and we had David's high vibrato vocals anyway so that's how we decided to shape it,' Box recalled. 'We'd actually recorded half the first album when we decided that keyboards would be good for our sound. Then the name was changed to that of the well-known character from David Copperfield, Uriah Heep (for, according to biographer Kirk Blows, ' Dickens' name being everywhere around Christmas '69 due to it being the hundredth anniversary of his death'). The four-piece found themselves booked into the Lansdowne Studios in London, still under the name of Spice. He became the band's manager and signed them to Vertigo Records, the newly formed Philips label. 'I thought they were a band I could develop and I took them on that basis,' remembered Bron later. įrom the very beginning Spice avoided playing covers and, according to Box, always strove '.to do something original.' Managed initially by Newton's father, the band climbed their way up to The Marquee level, then got signed by Gerry Bron (the Hit Record Productions Ltd.'s boss) who saw the band at the Blues Loft club in High Wycombe. Drummer Alex Napier (born 1947 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland) joined, having answered a music paper ad and bassist Paul Newton of The Gods completed the line-up. They set up a new band called Spice it was then that David Garrick changed his second name to Byron. Box and Garrick instantly formed a songwriting partnership and, having higher musical aspirations than their colleagues, decided to give up their day JOBS and go professional. When the band's singer left, drummer Roger Penlington suggested his cousin David Garrick (who knew the band) as a replacement. The band's origins go back to 1967 when 19-year-old guitarist Mick Box formed a Brentwood band called The Stalkers, which began playing in local clubs and pubs. They have sold over 40 million albums worldwide with over 4 million sales in the U.S. The band maintains a significant following and performs at arena-sized venues in the Balkans, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia and Scandinavia. Uriah Heep's audience declined by the 1980s, to the point where they became essentially a cult band in the United Kingdom and United States. Along with Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, Uriah Heep had become one of the top bands in the early 1970s - one of 'The Big 4' of hard rock. In the late 1970s the band had massive success in Germany, where the ' Lady in Black' single was a big hit. 7 in 1975) while of the fifteen Billboard 200 Uriah Heep albums Demons and Wizardswas the most successful (#23, 1972).

Twelve of the band's albums have made it to the UK Albums Chart ( Return to Fantasy reached No. Uriah Heep's progressive/ art rock/ heavy metal fusion's distinctive features have always included a massive keyboard sound, strong vocal harmonies and (in the early years) David Byron's quasi-operatic vocals. Uriah Heep are an English rock band formed in London in 1969 and regarded as one of the seminal hard rock acts of the early 1970s who heralded the progressive rock movement of the decade.

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