RIP Ken Hensley

midiman1962

Died aged 75 in Spain yesterday - i am of the era when Uriah Heep was a common sight on the back of a denim jacket. Ken Hensley i felt was unusual in writing songs and playing hammond and guitars - UH seem to have slipped into the background in the last few years compared to other acts of the early 70's.

Philly_Q

Now that's a sad one.  I've always liked Uriah Heep, although I only have a handful of their albums - a friend of mine in school used to lend me all his.  They were the second "proper" band I ever saw live (in 1980, just before Hensley left the band).

Hensley was very much the main writer in those early days and I remember he had that solo album Proud Words on a Dusty Shelf which I thought was a great title.

He also had that brief spell in Blackfoot, where he seemed to fit in very well with the Native American image!

Uriah Heep are still going and still releasing new material pretty frequently, unlike many of their contemporaries.  They're one of those bands where the current members have been in the band much, much longer than their predecessors, but they're nowhere near as well known.

prowla

That's a shame - their albums with the Roger Dean covers were brilliant.

Davey Rimmer did a talk at one of the Bass Chat meets a couple of years ago.

Devil#20

Only just read about this elsewhere. UH were at their best when Ken was with them. RIP

Nitefly

Oh, sad news.  Back in the day, I had two of their early albums, Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble and Salisbury - some tasty riffs between them!

RIP, and thoughts with his loved ones.

gordiji

Don't know why i didn't see this before. RIP. Great band with the very late David Byron being up there with the best vocalists of all time. The harmonies in Easy Livin' are epic with that grinding keyboard underneath. I'm going to listen to it again.

 

Dominic

There was a time when 'July Morning ' was my favourite track ever