Early days (1967–1971) The band's origins go back to 1967 when 19-year-old guitarist
Mick Box formed a band in
Brentwood, Essex called Hogwash, which began playing in local clubs and pubs. When the band's singer left, drummer Roger Penlington suggested his cousin
David Garrick (who knew the band) as a replacement. Box and Garrick formed a songwriting partnership and having higher musical aspirations than their colleagues, decided to give up their day jobs and go professional. They set up a new band called
Spice. David Garrick changed his surname to Byron. Drummer Alex Napier joined, having answered a music paper ad; bassist
Paul Newton of
The Gods completed the line-up. 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. "I thought they were a band I could develop and I took them on that basis", remembered Bron later. He became the band's manager and signed them to
Vertigo Records, the newly formed
Philips label. The four-piece found themselves booked into the Lansdowne Studios in London, still under the name of Spice. 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"). According to Dave Ling's 2001 autobiography of the band,
Wizards and Demons, The Uriah Heep Story, though the "Uriah Heep" moniker was chosen in December 1969, the band continued to play gigs as "Spice" until
Ken Hensley joined in February 1970. Uriah Heep then decided to widen the sound. "We'd actually recorded half the first album when we decided that keyboards would be good for our sound. 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. Gerry Bron brought in session player
Colin Wood, followed by Hensley, a former colleague of Newton in the Gods, who was then playing guitar in
Toe Fat. "I saw a lot of potential in the group to do something very different", remembered Hensley. When Nigel Olsson returned to Elton John's group in the spring of 1970,
Keith Baker took his place. The band's second album,
Salisbury (February 1971), was more squarely in the
progressive rock genre, with its 16-minute title track featuring a 24-piece
orchestra. One of the album's tracks, "
Lady in Black", described by Donald A. Guarisco as "a stylishly arranged tune that builds from a folk-styled acoustic tune into a throbbing rocker full of ghostly harmonies and crunching guitar riffs", and was replaced by
Iain Clark (from another Vertigo band,
Cressida). With him the band toured Germany in late December 1970/January 1971 and made their first US tour in the spring of 1971, supporting
Three Dog Night and
Steppenwolf. By this time, Gerry Bron's deal with Philips/Vertigo was over, so he set up his own label,
Bronze Records. The third album was recorded in the summer months of 1971, during the band's three visits to Lansdowne. "It was the point in time when the band really found a solid musical direction", said Bron later. "I think that 'July Morning' is one of the best examples of the way the band was developing at that point in time. It introduced a lot of dynamics, a lot of light and shade into our sound", Ken Hensley said. New Zealander
Gary Thain, a then member of
Keef Hartley Band, joined Uriah Heep as a permanent member in February 1972 halfway through another American tour, replacing Mark Clarke who was exhausted and nearing a mental breakdown. "Gary just had a style about him, it was incredible because every bass player in the world that I've ever known has always loved his style, with those melodic bass lines", Box later said. Thus the "classic" Uriah Heep formed, and according to biographer K. Blows, "Everything just clicked into place." The result of this newly found chemistry was the album
Demons and Wizards, which reached No. 20 in the UK and No. 23 in the US in June 1972. While its title and
Roger Dean's sleeve both suggested that the band was romantically working medieval myth into their songs—and surely songs like "Rainbow Demon" and "The Wizard" (co-written by Mark Clarke, during his short stay) did have thematic links with fantasy world a more straightforward, Ken Hensley remembered: Ken Hensley meanwhile had been gradually recording his own, mellower material; his solo debut
Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf was released the same year.
Wonderworld (June 1974), recorded in
Munich's
Musicland Studios in January, disappointed fans and band members alike. "Recording abroad disrupted the band's normal method of operation and that had a big negative effect on the group. Our communication was falling apart, we were arguing over stuff like royalties and we were getting involved in matters beyond music", Hensley said. Box remembered weeks spent in the studio as "dramatic" for all the wrong reasons. "David was drunk for most of the time, Kenny was having an emotional time of it and I was constantly trying to help them so it was difficult for me too. There was also a little bit of friction because (artistic) Kenny didn't like all the attention that (flamboyant) David was getting." Gary Thain was in even more serious trouble. According to Blows, "A strenuous touring schedule, compounded by the bassist's heavy drug dependency (inherent even before joining Heep) was taking its toll, though matters came to a head while on tour during September", when the bassist received a serious electric shock on stage in
Dallas during a gig at
Southern Methodist University’s
Moody Coliseum on 15 September 1974. The rest of the US tour was then canceled and their UK dates rescheduled to October. Soon after going out of hospital, Thain, in
Sounds, openly accused manager Gerry Bron of having turned Uriah Heep into a mere "financial thing" and was fired two months after the group's final gig of 1974 at New Theatre in
Oxford on 14 December. A year later, on 8 December 1975, Gary Thain was found dead in his
Norwood Green home, having overdosed on
heroin. In November 1975
The Best of Uriah Heep compilation was released, preceded by two solo albums: Byron's debut
Take No Prisoners and Hensley's second,
Eager to Please.
High and Mighty followed in June 1976. It was considered lightweight; even Box stated: "less of the 'eavy and more of the 'umble" (making pointed reference to
Uriah Heep's self-description as "'umble" in Dickens'
David Copperfield). The band then toured the US supporting
Kiss.
Paul Stanley later recalled: "They were incredibly professional, and so consistent that their worst nights were excellent and their best were tremendous."
Innocent Victim, released in November 1977, "had a slight edge on
Firefly" according to Box, but still in retrospect this "blend of sharp, short rockers and pop-friendly ballads" looked like "an attempt to court the American AOR market". The single "Free Me" (whose "acoustic style and accent on harmonies brought the group dangerously close to
Eagles territory", according to AllMusic) it was well received at the time (
Sounds gave it 4 stars) but failed to chart. Meanwhile, the relative stability of the Lawton period belied the behind the scenes unrest having to do with Ken Hensley's earning much more than his colleagues. "Everything he wrote, he had to use… And if you insist in using everything you end up with substandard albums", disgruntled Box opined. The major rift, though, developed between Hensley and Lawton. As K. Blows writes, "the combination of constant friction between the two (resulting in the nearest thing to violence the group had seen) and the constant presence of Lawton's wife on the road finally led to the vocalist getting the chop, shortly after playing the Bilzen Festival in Belgium in August 1979". The band went on the 10th Anniversary Tour with
Girlschool as support and attracted respectable crowds. Hensley was very unhappy, primarily with Sloman, and he explained why: Sloman left, citing musical differences for a reason. He would later go on to work with
UFO,
Gary Moore and
Robert Palmer. Hensley's acrimonious departure left the group in a state of collapse. Box and Bolder visited David Byron with attractive propositions. "We couldn't believe it when he said he didn't want to know", the guitarist remembered. Bolder, who by that time "had had enough of Gerry Bron and the management", decided to join
Wishbone Ash. When Dechert and Slade left, Uriah Heep were down to just Mick Box with the name and contract.
Peter Goalby era (1981–1986) Box remembered: "I locked myself in my flat for two days and drank myself senseless in complete self-pity. But I somehow managed to pull myself together and consider my options." The album did relatively well in the American charts (No. 56) after its US release in September 1982, and the band successfully performed at the
Castle Donington Monsters of Rock event a few weeks prior to this, on 21 August.
Head First (May 1983), produced again by Ashley Howe (who, according to Goalby, became "like the sixth member of the band"), Not long before its release Daisley left the band to return to Ozzy Osbourne, and Trevor Bolder re-joined Uriah Heep. Both albums,
Abominog and
Head First, updated the band's sound and generated a brief, newfound interest in Uriah Heep among younger heavy metal fans. Uriah Heep toured the US supporting
Rush,
Judas Priest and
Def Leppard, whose vocalist
Joe Elliott remembered: "They were the best band that we've ever toured with either as a headline or support, because there was no ego, no pretentious kind of stuff. They were good in as much that we learnt a lot from them." By this time Gerry Bron was Uriah Heep manager no longer (they were looked after by Neil Warnock in Europe and Blue Öyster Cult's management team in the US) and then, finally, Bronze Records collapsed under the weight of debts, which, according to Box, "cost Heep a lot of money". Totally exhausted and having serious voice problems, Goalby left in November 1985 after an Australian tour. "I loved and believed in Uriah Heep but it kicked the shit out of me in the end", were his parting words. Then John Sinclair quit, deciding to join Ozzy Osbourne, and keyboardist Phil Lanzon (Grand Prix,
Sad Café) came in, fitting in immediately into the Box-envisaged scheme of things. Fontaine's position was offered then to ex-Grand Prix,
Praying Mantis and
Stratus vocalist
Bernie Shaw, and that in retrospect was a winning move. Shaw "felt honoured at being invited to join such a legendary band", while for Box "it was like everything falling into place".
New members, Raging Silence and Different World (1986–1993) has been the singer of Uriah Heep since 1986. The lineup remained unchanged from 1986 until 2007, with veteran Mick Box at the helm, Trevor Bolder on bass, Lee Kerslake on drums, vocalist Bernie Shaw and Phil Lanzon on keyboards. Their principal tour circuit has been in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Japan and Russia. In December 1987 they became the first ever Western rock band to play in the
Soviet Union, under
Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of
glasnost (Western pop acts
Boney M,
Cliff Richard,
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and
Elton John had already played shows there in the late 1970s during the pre-Gorbachev era). At Moscow's
Olympic Stadium the band played ten consecutive nights to a total of 180,000 people (following a reception that Bernie Shaw remembered as being "something like Beatlemania"), which was represented in the international press as not just an achievement for Uriah Heep but a major breakthrough for Western music in general. failed to chart and marked the end of the band's contract with Legacy Records. Touring incessantly, the band issued some compilations of which
Rarities from the Bronze Age and
The Lansdowne Tapes (featuring previously unreleased material from the early 1970s) are considered most noteworthy. Still, the first half of the 1990s is regarded even by the Heep fans as "the wilderness years". The album
Sea of Light (released in April 1995) produced by the band along with
Kalle Trapp was well received and in retrospect is seen as the band's return to form, Produced by Pip Williams,
Sonic Origami, originally issued in Europe and Japan in the fall of 1998, then, a year later, in the U.S., had "a grand, epic tone throughout" that, according to rock critic Steve Huey, "doesn't always match Uriah Heep's journeyman-sounding prog-tinged hard rock, still being a solid entry in its chosen genre". The release was followed by a successful European tour, which continued through 1999.
Wake the Sleeper and Into the Wild (2007–2013) In early 2007, drummer Lee Kerslake had to leave the group due to ill health. In March of that year the band recruited
Russell Gilbrook as their new drummer and immediately started recording a new studio album entitled
Wake the Sleeper, where they used double bass drums in the songs
Wake the Sleeper and
War Child. Originally slated for a summer 2007 release,
Universal Music finally released
Wake the Sleeper on 2 June 2008. In October 2009 Uriah Heep released their 40th-anniversary album
Celebration – Forty Years of Rock, containing new studio recordings of twelve of their best known tracks, plus two brand new songs. "This collection underlines again that Uriah Heep are deserving great respect for their past achievements but far more importantly it makes it crystal clear that this is a band with a bright future as well as a glorious history", wrote Chris Kee in his 9/10 review in
Powerplay magazine's February 2010 issue. Uriah Heep released their 22nd studio album
Into the Wild on 15 April 2011 in Europe (3 May in North America) via
Frontiers Records. Bassist Trevor Bolder died on 21 May 2013 after suffering from pancreatic cancer. He was 62 years old. British bassist John Jowitt (
Ark,
IQ,
Arena) came in temporarily, followed by Dave Rimmer.
Outsider and Living the Dream (2013–2019) In May 2013, when the band toured The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, they were again joined by their late 1970s era singer John Lawton, who was covering for Bernie Shaw taking time off for a routine medical procedure. Then both Bernie and John fronted the group for their show in
San Javier, Spain on 12 July. Uriah Heep entered the studio in January 2014 to begin recording their 23rd studio album
Outsider, which was released in June 2014. The album featured new bass player Dave Rimmer, who had been a substitute for Trevor Bolder the previous year. In March 2015 they went on the "Down Unda Tour" visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Auckland. On 25 September, they announced the release of their greatest hits album
Totally Driven, a collection of re-recordings of classic Heep songs made in 2001, which was released on 12 November. On 15 October that year, the group played alongside Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake at a special two-hour concert at Crocus City Hall in Moscow. Swedish singer Stefan Berggren, from Berggren Kerslake Band (BKB), subbed for Bernie Shaw on lead vocals at the
Rosenheim Festival in Germany on 14 July 2016 and again later that same year for a New Year's Eve festival in
Sibiu,
Romania, when Shaw had a family commitment. 2016 also saw the group play a few Japanese dates and the Legends Rock Cruise. Former bass player
John Wetton died on 31 January 2017 from colorectal cancer. On 16 November 2017, it was reported that Uriah Heep would begin recording their 24th studio album, titled
Living the Dream, with producer Jay Ruston. The album was released on 14 September 2018, and the band embarked on a world tour in support of it that would take them into 2019.
Chaos and Colour (2020–2024) In a July 2020 interview with Sea of Tranquility, guitarist
Mick Box and bassist Dave Rimmer confirmed that Uriah Heep were scheduled to begin recording their 25th studio album in early 2021. When asked about a possible release date, Box said: "I think release is all down to the record company, I've gotta be honest. We never get a shout on that. They always seem to have some reason to release it at this time, that time, whatever time." In November 2021, Box revealed that the recording sessions of the new album were finished and "over in
L.A. now being mixed". Two former Uriah Heep members died in 2020:
Lee Kerslake after a long cancer battle on 19 September, and
Ken Hensley after a short illness on 4 November. They had both each recorded a solo album earlier that year, posthumously released in early 2021. Another former member of Uriah Heep, vocalist
John Lawton, died on 29 June 2021, at the age of 74. On 27 January 2023, Uriah Heep released its 25th studio album,
Chaos & Colour, which was preceded by the two singles "Save Me Tonight" and "Hurricane". On a spring 2024 U.S. tour with
Saxon, keyboardist Lanzon was called away due to family commitments.
Adam Wakeman (son of
Rick Wakeman) came in to fill in for Lanzon.
Farewell tour (2024–present) On 19 September 2024, Uriah Heep announced that they would be embarking on a farewell tour, titled The Magician's Farewell, in celebration of their 55th anniversary. The tour started on 19 February 2025 in Birmingham Symphony Hall and is expected to last for two years. Guitarist
Mick Box stated that the band "intend[ed] to play as many places as possible." The tour has been widely marketed as a farewell tour. However, in his monologue in
Haapsalu,
Estonia, on 30 August 2025, the singer
Bernie Shaw said: "I would like to correct a possible misconception about this tour we are on. This is by no means our final tour. The name of this tour is 'The Magicians Farewell', but it is just the name of the tour. Make no mistake; we are not going anywhere. There are still records to be made and concerts to be played." During some European shows in early 2026, Box was sidelined from the group due to health issues, with guitarist
Sam Wood playing in his stead. These are the first Uriah Heep shows he has missed since the band's formation. ==Musical style and influence==