<P> From 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 . `` 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 Ken 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 . </P>
<P> From 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 . `` 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 Ken 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 . </P>
where did the name uriah heep come from
where did the name uriah heep come from
well - known character from David Copperfield
well - known character from David Copperfield