Uriah Heep have been pioneers of heavy, progressive rock for over 50 years. They are about to release their 25th studio record Chaos & Colour and I had the opportunity to sit with their long-time keyboard player Phil Lanzon to talk all about the new record and the band’s history.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Phil Lanzon –
On how Uriah Heep has stayed relevant and fresh after 50 years – I think it’s quite simple, really. It’s a love of music number one, the love of creating music, number two, and the passion for the music, number three, and those sort of elements are the concrete base, if you like, the hard core of why we’re here, why the hell we do this, why do we make such a noise. So that starts the crux of it really right there. I think nothing could stop you from rolling on and continuing to do it, I think, please God, we will stay in good health for as long as possible, and no one day we won’t be here, but so what? We’ll have done what we needed to do and done a good job of it, and I think that’s something to be quite proud of. 1:12

On the band’s creative process – On this occasion because, well, literally, because of Covid, we were all in our little rabbit hutches working away in the back room…(having to) write without being able to see each other apart on screen, and this of course, was also encouraged Russ (Gillbrook, drums) Dave (Rimmer, bass) to create their own little Uriah Heep ideas into songs, which worked out really well, I have to say. So that’s what brought us, I suppose, a broader spectrum to this album, a lot of people say it’s classic Heep, but that’s in the eye of the beholder, really isn’t it? Or should I say in the ear of the beholder? We’re pleased with it, so I’m very happy with the way it turned out 2:26
On allowing newer members to be part of the creative process – They are part of the band, therefore it’s already right, that they should have an input. If they are able to do that, which of course they are, who’s to say otherwise? It’s fortunate that we are in that position. 4:00
On working with producer Jay Ruston – He has those ears which can pick out what’s important, what needs to be balanced this way, what needs to be balanced that way, and it’s a fine-tuning thing. You can imagine putting all that music and vocals together, there’s no easy thing. But because we worked with him on Living the Dream, it made sense to use him again because he’s got the ears for it, and that’s the beauty of it, really right there. 5:06
On finding the right producer to work with – It’s very difficult. I say it’s not easy when you want to change a producer or go down a different road, try something new, you’re gonna find somebody else for maybe another genre of music, it depends. It’s not easy to find the right person right off the bat, you can be lucky, of course, and you go on recommendations naturally from various other bands and artists who have used those producers. But you’ve gotta remember that with a producer, if you hear a producer’s product and you go, “Well, I want to sound like that”, and you get that producer in the studio, it won’t sound like that because we’re all different animals, we’re down different roads. It’s like medicine, what works for one may not work for another. So I guess we got lucky with Jay and so good news. 6:02
On if the band would stop should Mick Box decide to retire – No, if for any reason we decide to retire or just don’t wanna do it anymore. I can’t see that in the near future, but if that should happen, someone will take over. There will be someone and they will. Eventually, when we’re not around anything, well, there’ll be another Uriah Heep. It’s like any band is like when the Stones finally kick it, when Paul McCartney goes, when all these people do disappear, which will happen one day, there will be someone to fill that space. It’s inevitable, like anything. 7:38
On how he reconciled being true to Ken Hensley’s part while adding his own style – We’re going back to 1986 now. For me, it was a question of joining another band of an ilk that I was interested in, and for me, it was just an enjoyment thing, and it was like a crazy, “Oh well, this will be fun”. We went to America on a three-month tour, “Well this is marvelous”. It was just great fun. Then I couldn’t see any other way. I have, or never had at the time, thought about looking about who I had taken over from, (that was) last on my mind, I never even considered it and I still don’t today. It’s of no importance to me. All I can say regarding Mr. Hensley is that he wrote some wonderful songs, you can never knock that, and we play them every night, so now I have great for him, and his songs, but I never, never found that I was thinking, “Am I doing the right thing here?” None of that. 8:43
On how he first met vocalist Bernie Shaw – September 1978, we were auditioning, the little band that I was involved with, which of course, involved the two main members on bass and guitar, Mick (O’Donoghue) and Ralph (Hood), we were auditioning for singers because the singer we had let us down, so we put feelers out for singers and Bernie came along and I auditioned him. It was just me and a piano and him, and he had the right range for the music we were doing, and that was it from there on and off we went. 10:04
On playing in both Sweet and Uriah Heep – Well, don’t forget that essentially, Sweet was a metal band, a rock band. They got financially lucky with a few pop hits. For me, it was not so far removed, if you take out the pop songs, the “Co-co”s, and all those novelty songs, there wasn’t a lot of difference. They had the harmonies, Heep had the harmonies, there was a lot of similarities, a lot of similarities. On the outside, they look totally two totally different things, but there are a lot of similarities, they both came from the same era, the same stable. 11:12
On if it was a coincidence that he and Bernie ended up in Uriah Heep at the same time – It was, I got a call to join the band from somebody else, a third party person called me and to go meet up and Mick (Box). Bernie had already Mick previously. But I then got recommended to go in for an audition and at the same time as I auditioned, we had other people auditioning for the singer position, so that was all going off at the same time. Both me and Bernie had met Mick on previous occasions. So we then got together in the rehearsal room, Bernie was there, various other singers were there, and it was a choice that was made that we would take this American singer (Steff Fontaine) with us just for this one-off tour in America and see how things went. Then as it happened, it transpired that he screwed up on a few occasions, which caused a lot of problems, and we decided to let him go and got Bernie back into the fold from then. So that was like August, July, August 1886 we did the American tour, and then the new year came along, and Bernie was in January of 1987. 12:14
On the possibility of US dates – Well, there’s nothing written in concrete yet about this year. We’ll be starting festivals in May, working through the festival season, and no doubt by September will be a fair size tour set up for the latter half of the year, for the autumn. 13:54
On if the band thinks about how their success never really translated in America – Sure, it does. The few occasions we’ve toured America have been…because of the size of the country and getting around to it all, we’ve never really had a good promotion there, or has never been quite what we need to be able to secure a tour where we can actually come home with some result. It’s been a little difficult to work that, and that’s the reason. We have been back there many times, off and on the years. We’ve been in America quite a few times, actually. But yeah, I guess we just like wait and see what comes up this year. 15:10