Uriah Heep

The English band that critics spent a decade dismissing while it sold forty million records. Uriah Heep came together in London in 1969 out of a group called Spice, built around guitarist Mick Box and a singer born David Garrick who renamed himself David Byron. Producer Gerry Bron gave them the name, borrowed from the scheming clerk in Dickens' David Copperfield, and brought in Ken Hensley on keyboards in February 1970 with half the debut album already on tape. Hensley's Hammond organ, Byron's near-operatic delivery and the band's stacked vocal harmonies became the sound — and Demons and Wizards in 1972, with a Roger Dean sleeve and Easy Livin' on it, made them a genuine international act.

Rolling Stone's verdict on the debut has followed them for fifty years: if this group makes it I'm going to have to commit suicide. They made it. Thirteen studio albums have charted in Britain, they have been enormous in Germany and across Eastern Europe for decades, and twenty-five studio records have appeared since 1970. The cost has been high — nearly forty musicians have passed through, and Byron, Gary Thain, John Wetton, Lee Kerslake, John Lawton and Hensley have all died. Mick Box is the only original member left and has held the name together since 1969. He announced a farewell tour in September 2024.