Ken Hensley
November 1972
From Time To Time
Robert Corich's Notes
KEN HENSLEY: The story so far...
Ken was born in London on the 24th August 1945. After his parents moved to Stevenage,
Hertfordshire in 1955, he spent his earlier years growing up with three brothers and one
sister. Ken developed his musical career away from the confines of the big city. He had
started learning guitar from a Bert Weedon manual at the age of twelve. He played his
first ever gig in 1960 with a skiffle band. Shortly after this The Blue Notes were formed
by Ken and company, this band soon became known as Ken And The Cousins. In 1962 Ken
joined a local band called Kit And The Saracens. The Saracens then evolved into The Jimmy
Brown Sound in 1963. It was The Jimmy Brown Sound that his first 'big time' professional
experience came about: they were to back Ben E. King on a British visit, but the venture
fell through and they continued as a seven-man soul band with brass. The Jimmy Brown
Sound even recorded several songs, but these have long since disappeared.
Ken eventually lost interest in soul music and left to form The Gods in 1965 with Mick Taylor (later of Rolling Stones fame). During these early days of The Gods, they made two albums and several singles, with Ken writing much of the material and playing keyboards. The band at various times also featured Lee Kerslake (later to join Uriah Heep), Paul Newton (the original Uriah Heep bass player), John Glascock (who later joined Jethro Tull), Greg Lake (of King Crimson and ELP) and Joe Konas. The band eventually broke up after Konas moved to Canada. Ken later reformed The Gods with Paul Newton on bass. Ken recalls: "We did quite well, but then Paul joined Spice (the predecessor of Uriah Heep), and The Gods disbanded once again.&qout; During his loose time after The Gods split, and during his first few months with Heep, Ken also recorded two albums of an amusingly dubious nature: Head Machine and Weed, both of which still demand rather silly amounts of money in the collectors' market.
When The Gods eventually split, Ken teamed up with Cliff Bennett - one of England's original rockers - to form Toe Fat. After participating in the recording of their first album, even writing much of the material (for contractual reasons he was never credited with this), Ken split to join Spice in December 1969. By January 1970 Spice had been renamed Uriah Heep. "Uriah Heep was a much better musical proposition than Toe Fat," he recalls. "I could play keyboards again, which I was not doing with Toe Fat, and I could still play a little guitar." Uriah Heep were an incredibly successful band during the 70s, largely due to the song writing and artistic capabilities of Ken Hensley. Thirteen Uriah Heep studio albums, one official live album, several compilation projects and three solo albums to his credit, Ken departed Uriah Heep in 1980.
Although he has participated in several projects as a guest during the 80s, with the exception of two albums with Blackfoot, Ken has by and large not recorded any new material for commercial use in recent years.
From Time To Time holds a collection of songs recorded between 1971 and 1982. This album is the first of two releases to feature previously unreleased material from Ken's past, the second volume will be released in the later part of 1994. Work has also started on a brand new album due for release late '94 early '95. I hope you have as much fun listening to this great collection of songs as I have had in putting this album together.
Robert M. Corich, April 1994
Is it really 1994?...
Why now?... What for?... Blah, Blah, Blah...
Questions... questions... questions... I just want you to know that I am very excited about
the new projects we are working on, of which this is only the first! You should also know
that I have spent a lot of time thinking about doing this and I was determined to wait
until the time felt right. But the single biggest influence that moved me to do this was
YOU! I have been sincerely affected by the letters and writing in The Uriah Heep
Appreciation Society, and by the attention that is still paid to Heep's work on radio and
within the general public. (Of course, these days I only sign the occasional autograph in
the supermarket!) After I left Heep in 1980, it took me many years to get over all the
puzzling questions that kept running around in my head. I wanted to be Ken Hensley, NOT
Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep. I wanted to be able to write and record without everything
being instantly compared to what I did as a member of the band. I just wanted to put the
past behind me and move on, and I couldn't understand how something that was once so
magical to me had become a series of financial and legal problems.
When Gerry Bron called to tell me that David Byron had died, I immediately quit Blackfoot,
the band I was with at the time, and turned my back on touring forever. I had wanted to
leave Heep after Gary Thain died because something had gone from the band that could
never be restored and that was the 'chemistry' that made Heep what it was. We managed to
make it 'sound' like Heep, but it never ever 'felt' like it, and that was very
disappointing to me. Anyway, I really wanted nothing to do with that side of the business
anymore and, since that day in 1985, I have concentrated on the business end of things.
Also, in recent years, I have had to deal with the death of both my parents and a whole lot
of other circumstances that have led me back to God and my daily quest for a Christian
life. This has made an enormous difference in my attitude to everything and I know that
God is guiding me as I move forward with these projects. Also, I never stopped writing,
and I knew in my heart there would come a time when I would be compelled to do something
with my unreleased material.
From Time To Time is the first record in a phase that will see at least two more.
Later this year I will finish recording 14 new songs with a view to releasing them in
late 1994 or early 1995. We thought hard about whether to release the 'retrospective' or
the new album first, but the decision was actually easy. We needed to get the older
material out and get 'up-to-date' before moving forward to new material. I hope you agree
this was the right thing to do.
Fifteen of these sixteen recordings will be totally new to you, and they were chosen
specifically for that reason. In the 'old days' it was impossible to put more than 18-20
minutes of music on each side of a vinyl record and, because of this, many songs were
left off the final product. We have chosen songs that cover the years between 1971 and
1982, representing material from sessions for all three of my solo albums and sessions
recorded after I moved to America in 1981.
The six 'bonus' tracks were added after the discovery of tapes from these sessions. I think
you'll find them very interesting. I certainly hope so!
Dodgy Demos was the name I gave to my studio at home in Sonning Common, Berkshire. It was a
16-track room that gave me hours of fun and a very productive environment. Many of the
demos for Uriah Heep projects were done there and I was kind of sad to see it go when I
finally moved back to London. At that time, I lived near a whole bunch of musicians and,
during the time these recordings took place, it was common for many of us to spend time
in each others' studios. That's how so many great players ended up on this record. It was
all very informal, and a lot of fun. That is perhaps the one thing I miss the most about
the business... the fun... And that is why this is the right time for From Time To
Time and the records that will follow it... I have found a way to do it and have some
fun at the same time!
Ken Hensley, March 1994
July 1999 To all of my dear friends... "Quite amazing......Here it is, 1999, and I am writing notes for a brand new record! ..... I don't actually remember the last time I did this!
Honestly, I have had more fun making this record than I have in a long time and I really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did recording it. It took a long time to make this record and some of that was due to my own uncertainty as to exactly how to do it and then what to do with it. As many of you know, I became a Christian in 1993 and, after a long dry spell, I began to write again. Writing has always been my favourite part of this whole musical journey so I was happy to be productive again. Not that creative writing had escaped me totally, I was (and still am) working onmy book and business has kept me busy writing presentations for seminars and so on, but writing musical poetry has always had a special kind of fulfillment for me. But, getting back to the fact that I am a Christian, I want to say two things. One is that I am thankful that you have accepted that as my decision and the second is that, having always said in interviews that I believed that God was the source of inspiration for writing music and lyrics, I am now certain of it! In fact, I believe He is the source of all good things! But I am not the bible-thumping type....I can only say that choosing to give my life to Christ was the most important and the most exciting thing I have ever done.....I highly recommend it! Now to the songs... I'd like to share a little more information about each one if that's okay...
Previous album Content Copyright © 1997 Jay Pearson
From Time To Time
Ken Hensley's Notes
From Time To Time
Ken Hensley's Song By Song Notes
A Glimpse Of Glory
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