Ken Hensley
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Ken Hensley |
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Kenneth William David ('Ken') Hensley (born
on
He wrote, or co-wrote, the majority of the Uriah Heep's songs during this period, including such hits as "Look at Yourself", "Lady in Black" (on both of which he also sang lead vocals), "Easy Livin'", "Stealin'" and "Free Me".
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Born in London, 24th August 1945, Kenneth (Ken) Hensley moved with his parents, 3 brothers and sister to Stevenage, Hertfordshire in 1955. He started to learn how to play guitar at the age of 12, from a Bert Weedon manual. His first ever gig was at The Mentmore Pen Factory, in Stevenage (September 1960). After that, he played with The Blue Notes, Ken And The Cousins and Kit And The Saracens (1962). In 1963, this band evolved into The Jimmy Brown Sound, and they even recorded some now lost songs. At this time, Ken's first "professional" opportunity almost came about: they were going to back Ben E. King on a British visit, but it never happened...
In 1965, Hensley lost his interest in soul music and formed a
band called The Gods, with the young
guitarist Mick Taylor, well known later
for his work with The Rolling Stones. Ken
wrote most of the material, sang and played the Hammond
B3 organ
(mainly because the band already had the talented Mick Taylor on
guitar). What he didn't know then, was that he would be such an
influential musician playing exactly the organ. The Gods' line-up
included, at one time or another, vocalist and guitar/bass player Greg
Lake (later of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer),
bass player Paul Newton (who would be later the
first Uriah Heep bassist),
drummer Lee
Kerslake (later also of Heep), bassist John
Glascock (later of Jethro Tull), and
guitarist
The band eventually split but
Paul Newton asked Hensley (Christmas 1969) to join forces in Spice, since they were looking after a keyboards player to make their sound less bluesy and more progressive at the time. In January 1970, Spice changed its name into Uriah Heep. Also on the line-up were guitarist Mick Box and vocalist David Byron. With Uriah Heep, Ken Hensley found a place to develop and show to the world his songwriting and lyrics abilities, keyboards and guitar playing. The major success came, and Heep is now acclaimed as one of UK's most legendary rock bands. The chemistry of the most classic line-up including Hensley, Byron, Box, Kerslake and bassist Gary Thain, plus the management provided by Gerry Bron (Bronze Records), were the launching points of their tremendous capability of making great music. During his time with Heep (1970 - 1980), they recorded 13 studio albums, and one of the most acclaimed live albums of all times: "Uriah Heep Live - January 1973" (not to mention lots of compilations and singles). Hensley also recorded his first 2 solo albums, "Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf" (1973) and "Eager To Please" (1975) during this time.
With the departure of Thain (died in 1975) and Byron, other
excellent musicians also got into the Heep family: John
Wetton (Family, King
Crimson, Roxy Music, later of UK and Asia),
Trevor
Bolder (from Spiders From Mars, later of Wishbone
Ash) and
In 1980, Hensley left the band, not happy with the musical directions they were choosing at the time. After trying to put a new band together firstly in the UK (Shotgun), he later moved to the USA and played a few gigs in North America with the suggestive name of Ken Hensley Band.
In 1982 Ken joined Blackfoot, a hard rock Florida-based band. With them, he recorded 2 albums and achieved again some success, but he left after Bron told him about Byron's sad death in 1985. He had also released by this time his 3rd solo LP, "Free Spirit" (1980).
Hensley has been since them almost in retirement, in St. Louis
(USA), making only a few appearances in some musical projects, with
"Ken Hensley wrote the rule book for heavy metal keyboards as far as I'm concerned."
Surprisingly though, things began to change in the mid 90's after years of silence. In 1994, "From Time To Time", a collection of lost recordings, was released featuring rare songs recorded by Ken between 1971 and 1982, as well as some very good early versions of Heep's classic songs, played by Ken and his room-mates at that time, namely guitarist Paul Kossoff and drummer Simon Kirke (both of Free). Other musicians on the songs were bassist Boz Burrell (King Crimson and Bad Company), guitarist Mick Ralphs (Bad Company), drummers Ian Paice (Deep Purple, Whitesnake) and Kenny Jones (The Who), amongst others. In 1995 Ken heard a guitar player in his Upper Room Studios in St. Louis and was impressed. The guitarist was Edmund Darris. They became friends and Darris wrote a song entitled "Everything You Are" for the Pittsburgh trio BMW consisting of Michelle Ward, Kevin Morgan, and Joe Belotti. Darris and Hensly along with Hunter Springer produced the song. Later Darris recorded a version of Sam Cooke's "Change Is Gonna Come" with Michael Spurling.
In 1999, Ken's musical activities began to increase, besides his work with St. Louis Music. He recorded an album, "A Glimpse Of Glory", together with his band Visible Faith. An eclectical collection of ballads and hard rock tunes, this album was hugely acclaimed by fans who were hungry for new material from Ken.
During the 4th Uriah Heep Annual Convention in London, May
2000, plans were made for a one-off concert by the so-called
"Hensley/Lawton Band". Ken was joined by former Heep singer
This is definitely not the end of the story, since Ken has
been quite busy working on his solo career. "Running Blind", his first
effort in 21 years, was released worldwide and followed by a world tour
with his band called "Free Spirit", that included some incredible
musicians: Dave Kilminster (guitar),
After moving to Spain, Hensley kept his schedule busy and released "The Last Dance" (with new songs), "The Wizard's Diary" (Uriah Heep classics re-recorded in 2004) and "Cold Autumn Sunday" (Ken's solo songs re-recorded in 2005).
Featuring a number of special guests, the rock opera "Blood On
The Highway" was recorded at the end of 2006 and released in May 2007.
The story protraits the rise and fall of a rock'n'roll star and the
eventual re-start. The lead vocals role was split between Ken himself,
plus Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep
Purple, Trapeze, Black
Sabbath), Jorn
Lande (ex-
Block quote Ken Hensley - lead (*) and harmony vocals, Hammond B3 organ, synthesizers, electric, slide & acoustic guitars, dobro Jřrn Lande - lead vocals ** Glenn Hughes - lead vocals *** John Lawton - lead vocals **** Eve Gallagher - lead vocals ***** Juan Carlos Garcia, Tommy Lopez - drums Antonio Fidel, John Smithson - bass guitar Ovidio Lopez - principle guitars Rafa Raposo, Dani Saiz - guitars Vicente Ruiz - piano Antonio Molto - alto sax The Alicante Symphony Orchestra • (This Is) Just The Beginning ** • We're On Our Way */** • Blood On The Highway ** • You've Got It (The American Dream) ** • Doom (Scene 1) • It Won't Last **** • Think Twice ***** • Doom (Scene 2) • There Comes A Time * • Okay (This House Is Down) ** • What You Gonna Do *** • We're On Our Way... Postscript (Solo) Verse • I Did It All * • The Last Dance (El Gitano Viejo) ***
| Uriah Heep |
|---|
| Bernie
Shaw • Mick Box • Trevor Bolder • Phil
Lanzon • Russell
Gilbrook
Ken Hensley • David
Byron • Gary Thain
• Lee
Kerslake • Studio
albums: Live
albums: Uriah
Heep Live (1973) • Songs:
" Related articles: The Gods • Spice • Colin Wood |
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