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RUSS BALLARD – Songs From The Warehouse / the Hits Rewired: Interview

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Photo – Jan Heesch, Frankfurt 04/24

For many classic rock fans the name RUSS BALLARD is more associated to a number of hits that his name appeared on as a songwriter, but really Russ Ballard has been writing and performing since the mid-60s. From Hertfordshire, England, Russ joined ARGENT (lead by former ZOMBIE Rod Argent), as a singer, guitarist and writer. He wrote a number of Argent classics, notably “Liar” and “God Gave Rock and Roll To You”. Ballard left Argent in 1974 after 5 studio and albums and 1 double live release, and released his first (self-titled) solo album later that year. Over the next decade he would release 6 more. His solo career didn’t take off as much in North America (even though all his records were released here and solo respectably), but a number of his songs would become big hits (and in many cases breakout hits) for a wide range of pop and rock acts. Chances are if you bought a lot of LPs in the late 70s and 80s, you likely have Russ Ballard’s name in your collection, somewhere!

On April 25 Frontiers will release Russ Ballard’s latest recordings, a double feature – Songs From The Warehouse and the Hits Rewired. The first disc is all new songs from Ballard and the second disc is his new recordings of those songs made famous by other artists. The new and the old material sounds outstanding, with new favorites like “Resurrection”, “The Wild”, and “Make Believe World” all showing Ballard (at 79) still writes catchy and timely rock tunes (as well as singing and playing everything himself!), as well as nicely updated takes of his classics like “New York Groove”, “You Can Do Magic” and “Voices”.

Below is from my conversation with Russ Ballard on his new recordings, as well as a bit of his past, including Argent, and some of the songs he wrote back then. After finishing this interview I immediately thought of 101 other things I could’ve or should’ve brought up, but hey – this guy is legendary! Check it out below, as well as the song links I’ve included, and links to Russ Ballard’s new album and websites at the end.

The new album, you’ve done it in two parts.

Well, the Songs From The Warehouse are all new songs. And obviously, the Rewired songs, I’ve had some of them for many, many years because they’ve been recorded by other people or whatever. But Rewired are songs that have been hits by other people, basically. And a couple that I’ve done now.

So, first of all, the new recordings – Can you tell me a bit about how long you’ve come up with these songs? Because I think your last album has probably been a while, correct?

Yeah, the last one was four, five years ago. The songs are usually story songs; there’s quite a few. I’ve been telling people that as you get older, it’s difficult to write so many love songs. I know love songs are very popular and kind of universal, basically, aren’t they(!?) – Love songs, everyone loves a love song. Everybody falls in love, everybody falls out of love, usually. But it’s harder to write love songs as you get older – ‘I love you… Don’t love you. I want you back…. I don’t want you back. Don’t leave me…’  It’s very difficult when you get older. So, I mean, I’m trying to find vehicles to write, stories. Find words, find things that I could turn into a song, basically. There’s one on it called “Courageous”. Courageous came from a news item on the BBC. When I was watching this item, it was a good feeling news item at the end of the usual sort of sad news. They left it with a good feel, a good feeling. They ended up with this girl; It’s all about the family. This girl was about 12 years old. She had a sister who was 8 years old, and a brother who was about 5 years old. The mother had multiple sclerosis, so she was in a wheelchair. This girl had to look after the whole of the family. And she was just amazing; she sort of got up, gave the kids breakfast, bathed the kids, bathed the mother, dressed the mother, dressed the kids. Then you see her walk into school holding the hands of the two kids. So I had to write a song about her, but I saw that news item about 7 years ago. It was an amazing story.  

I don’t know if it’s just from the song titles and some of the lyrics, that there’s a bit more of a spiritual basis in this album!?

I find the spiritual area, it’s an area that I’ve used before and I love it because I think it’s where I’m coming from, basically. I like it. There’s so much out here, to write in spirit, you know – ‘feeling good, feeling bad’ and ‘there’s always another day’ and ‘that’s how it is’, you know.’ If you’re feeling down now – tomorrow you’re going to feel good.’

“Resurrection” – that was an obvious single, that one jumps out at you after, it’s kind of an interesting intro you got there, with the vocal…

Yeah. (Russ sings a bit of the intro) You have to get the hook in really early, if that’s possible.

I think even some of the other songs, there’s good cross-section of influences, with songs like “Fearless” and “Soul Music”.

Yeah.

It’s not just pop stuff…

Yeah it’s nice to go places you haven’t been before. I play the piano, I play the guitar, I can play the instruments and it’s nice to find a vehicle. I mean, soul music, it was such an obvious, such an obvious thing to write about – ‘You are soul music, we are soul music, you are soul music.’  And I thought that…it’s nice to find something that was, ‘new’, as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know of another song called “Soul Music”;  there probably is, I’m sure.

Do you find yourself writing more for yourself now, as opposed to writing with hopes that other people might record your songs, or…?

Yeah… You know how it is, I think that younger people, when I was growing up, I was the same age as everybody I was writing with. But as you get older, I don’t think younger kids, maybe they don’t want to write with you, because you’re older. So, they write with people their own age, which makes sense. You want to write for somebody older, you want to write for somebody that’s listening to the same music as you, so you want to, and that makes sense to me. But I could do it, I know I could do that, I’m pretty sure, but people don’t come to you as much as you get older.

So, did you separate the new stuff and the old stuff when it came to recording – did you do all of one album first, then the other?

Yeah, I basically did the new songs first, and then decided to do some, ‘rewired’.  The idea was to just do songs that had been done by other people, but I’d recorded most of those songs before. I’d done them as demos, or I’d done them as masters, and it goes back to “Winning”, “Since You Been Gone”,  I recorded those songs myself, and I had them out in the 70s, a lot of those songs were done. “So You Win Again” was number one for Hot Chocolate in the UK, and that was 1977. So, I did a really good demo for that in 1976. I just kept them basically the same as I made the demos.

Do you find you’re kind of reclaiming these songs in a way, that they’ve all been hits for other people, and not so much for yourself?

I wrote them for myself, to be honest. I only ever wrote two songs, two of those hit songs, when people came to me and asked me to write a song, and one was “New York Groove”, and the other one was “You Can Do Magic” by America. I didn’t write them for me, I wrote “You Can Do Magic” for America, and I wrote “New York Groove” for an English band (Hello), and Ace Frehley recorded that.

When you re-recorded some of these, did you, knowing some of the other versions (like the Rainbow version) did you ever go back and think you liked their arrangement, and did that have any kind of influence on your new versions?

Yeah, because when I did it, I wrote it on the piano. When I went to the studio, it was natural just to play the piano, and I’d go ‘let’s take it’, and I’m playing the piano, which is softer, the piano is always softer than the guitar. When I heard the Rainbow version, I thought they’d actually seen that song better than me. So that’s how I do it when I’m on the stage as well, I do it the same as them.

I think Head East had done it first, and I think that’s where Rainbow got the idea from, from what I read.

Yeah, that’s where they got it from.

So, “Liar” was kind of your first big hit, written for somebody else; that somebody covered!?

Well I wrote an instrumental when I was 14, and that was recorded by The Shadows in the UK, and that was on an album that was a top ten album. But that was an instrumental band, so my first tune I ever wrote was an instrumental. But that did well, and once that had been out, and I thought ‘well if they want me to do it, I must be able to do it’. After that I was writing all the time, trying to write different things, different ideas.

Was it ever kind of frustrating (if that’s the word), I mean over here, people know your name from the songs they see your name attached to, as opposed to you as a solo artist. Did you ever kind of think ‘well why wasn’t this a hit for me, but everything’s kind of been a hit for somebody else?’

Yeah, it did enter my head, but I think, on some of those songs that you listen to a certain one ‘well I could do that, I could improve that song, that demo’… whatever. So I think that’s what people have done. And there’s some really good versions of my tunes out there.

Do you think you’ve heard all of them?

I don’t know. That’s an interesting one (laughs), There’s been a hell of a lot of versions of my songs out there.

But, between all those ones, “Voices” – there’s a band called Wonderworld that did that a couple years ago. Obviously, Uriah Heep, I’m a big fan of their’s, they did “On The Rebound”. Yeah, so there’s lots of stuff out there.

Ronnie Romero did “Voices” as well, he did Voices on his last album, he did that. I saw Ronnie two weeks ago, less than two weeks ago, Sunday before last, and he did “Since You Been Gone”, I was on the stage and he came up with me and he did Since You Been Gone and we sang it together, which was really nice. He’s going to do it; he’s going to do it.  I’ve sent him another song, he wants to do another song of mine. I’m still doing it Kevin, I’m still loving it, same as ever.

Aside from the obvious, like the Rainbow version of “Since You Been Gone”, what have been kind of your favorites of covers of your own songs? Aside from the Ace Frehley and the Rainbow, the ones that were the biggest, I guess.

I think a really good version, talking about Kiss, Ace Frehley, I think that “God Gave Rock and Roll To You” was very good. They saw it so well. They had the right tempo, they saw it really, really well. So that’s Bob Ezrin, I think, produced them. That was really good, that was a good one. There’s been others, Colin Blunstone did a couple of my songs and he saw those really well, from the Zombies. Hot Chocolate did a song of mine, it wasn’t a big hit in America, it was called “So You Win Again”. I did a demo which I thought was really good, they made their version slower, but they got to number one in the UK and that was a really good version.

Did you ever hear the Heep version of “On The Rebound”?

Yeah. I mean he sang it so much better than I sang it because he did it full voice. I was trying to do kind of a silly voice (sings) ‘On The Rebound, On The Rebound’, but they did it really well.

I know Peter Goalby who sang that had actually auditioned for your spot in Argent when you had gone.

Did he really!? Why didn’t they get him?

From what I understand, he was signed to a management company that advised him not to. And then John Verity got it, and obviously you know John.

I know John well. I was with John, he did “I Surrender” for me. He sang ‘I Surrender’, which I didn’t plan, I just wanted to produce it so I was in the studio and John sang it and I basically arranged him.

Did you know John before he took your spot (Argent)?

Yeah, I knew him in ’72, I think it was. John was singing, he supported Argent on a tour and I thought he was really great. When I left the band, I said you ought to get John Verity because John is perfect I think, perfect.

Now I know it’s kind of back peddling, but did you leave basically for the solo career or for other things?

No, I didn’t to be honest. I wanted to start a family to be honest. I knew, because I’d had a  couple of hit songs that were doing well, I thought I could do it. I was afraid, I couldn’t stand the thought of actually going on tour for three weeks, four weeks and leaving my kid. I could stay at home and write tunes and I could still go in the studio, I could write the tunes which I could go in the studio every day and write a song. I could go to my music room and write. The publishing company, Island, had my publishing and they gave me the resources to go into a studio and they used to rent me everything I needed. I said I haven’t got a good acoustic guitar, I need a Martin, hire a Martin, hire a Marshall 100, a Les Paul, a set of drums or I’d get a drummer and they’d pay for everything. I’d go up with three songs and at that time and every time I seemed to go in the studio I always had one song that was successful, so it was a good time. Someone up there likes me because I was able to survive with a wife and a kid and have a good living and do exactly what I wanted to do, which was pursue this gift of song in music.

Do you own all your songs? Publishing and that?

I’ve owned them up to last year and I’ve sold 50% of my publishing, which I’ve given away 50% of it. I still have a good life, even though you don’t get so much money from streaming, I still do pretty well.

You still regularly play in the UK and Europe and that I see, but you’ve not been over here I assume for a long time?

I’ve been there, I came over there in ’85 with Roger Daltrey, I played guitar and Roger said ‘sing a couple of your own songs, give me a break’. I’ve played the East Coast, New York, Boston, I finished up in Madison Square Garden with Roger. He was doing a couple of my songs and I did a couple of my songs and that’s good, but I haven’t played there myself under my own steam since 1976.

Has it just been a thing where there’s just not offers or at this stage it’s too expensive or no point to it?

Yeah, I mean I’d always go out there, but it was basically because I left Argent and that whole thing, and I didn’t have that big name that Rod had out there as a band. When I was in the band we were doing really well, but the fact is I just couldn’t leave the family, I didn’t want to leave the family while my kids were growing up.

At this stage there’s a lot of bands that have never come over here since the 80s, so I imagine Argent hasn’t been here since you were with them.

No, you get the Zombies, the Zombies still go there don’t they!?

Yeah, actually I saw their last album in the shop, their latest album in the local shop.

I’m seeing Rod, I’ve got to see him next week or the week after, he’s not too well at the moment.

As far as those Argent albums go, do you still have any input as far as reissues or repackaging and stuff?

No, I’ve nothing to do with it, but the only thing I’ve done, I’ve used an Argent song, a song that I wrote for Argent which is “God Gave Rock and Roll To You”, on now on Rewired. I could have done a few Argent songs, but I wanted to just include the songs that I’ve written.

As far as the Argent stuff goes, aside from the hits, do you have any favorites that you wrote that kind of weren’t hits?

Yeah, I liked “It’s Only Money, (Part one and two)”, and I’m still doing that one actually, I still do that song. ‘God Gave…”, “Losing Hold” was a good song, I didn’t write that, Chris White wrote that, that’s a good song. But you had some good things there actually, “Pleasure”, “Liar”, of course that was an Argent song.  We did some good. When we were together I didn’t know whether we were losing continuity as a band, you know, one moment we’re doing this, which is my writing, next moment we’re doing that. Maybe if we’d written it together we may have had more continuity, but I listen to things now, I do a great song, it’s a Chris White song, which was “Dance In The Smoke”. You’re too young to remember these, you probably might not.

Well, I’ve got the vinyl in front of me, but I picked up this last year. Have you seen that? (I show Russ the 2 CD Argent Hold Your Head Up, Best Of)

Yeah.

A pretty thorough collection.  I know “Hold Your Head Up” wasn’t yours, but that was one that got covered immensely, like a lot of people.

By Uriah Heep (lol)

Yeah, Heep did it. There’s quite a few versions of that out there.

Yeah, I know there’s a few out there. Yeah, good song, but that came from “Time Of The Season”. We used to do Time of the Season, when we played in Germany we used to do Time of the Season, years ago, just as the Zombies split, probably in 1971, something like that, we used to play the (sings a bit of the beat).. You know, used to do that. Rod used to just start playing a solo on the song. We started going (sings the melody)… We started to do that, and it became another song. And Chris White said ‘when we get back from Germany we ought to write a song around that’, and he wrote with Rod, he wrote “Hold Your Head Up”.

What else do you got planned for the new album? I guess you got some shows coming up, do you have any more singles coming out?

Yeah, we’ve got some shows, going to Europe, going to Germany in a month’s time, out there three weeks in Germany. Bavaria is really good for me, I love that area, it’s a nice time to go. But you know, everyone knows my songs there, even my albums, they know my songs and they sing the choruses and everything, it’s beautiful.

I’ve got a great band, we’re very close and I’ve got a guitar player, Roly Jones, who I wrote “Resurrection” with, we wrote together. Marc Rapson on keyboards – he’s good, he’s another Rod Argent;  PJ Phillips on bass and John Miller on drums.

Do you still do any producing outside of your own stuff?

Yeah, well I’m producing a band at the moment, I’ve got lots of young friends, 20, 30 years younger than me, so I’m involved with them They’re very, very good and they want to ask me if I could get involved with them. So, I’m doing that, I’ve got a band, Space Elevator, really, really good, I’ve got a girl singer, this is the girl that sang “Since You’ve Been Gone” with me. I was with the guitar player this morning, and I’ve done 14 songs with them, so we’re trying to put an album together. And I hope to get them a record deal, if possible.

Miami Vice was the other thing I wanted to ask about. You had 3 songs in that show!?

Yeah, “Voices” was in one, “In The Night’ was another one in there. People always remember that Miami Vice series.

I used to watch it a lot. There was always a musician as a guest actor or there was good new songs in there.

Jan Hammer did the music, wrote the (theme) music, didn’t he!?  They had the 40th anniversary in September, in Florida.

LINKS:

Russ Ballard

http://www.russballardmusic.com

https://www.facebook.com/RussBallardMusicOfficial

https://www.instagram.com/russballardmusicofficial/

Dream On: Classic Songs that share the same title

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It’s been a while, but here’s another installment of rock songs / classics that share a well known title. If there’s any other tracks titled “Dream On”, please drop them in the comments.

AEROSMITH – 1973

Aerosmith’s first single, from their first album, penned by Steven Tyler. Perhaps the band’s best loved classic.

SWEET – 1978

A ballad from the Level Headed album. Written and sang by Andy Scott. A strange choice as the lead off track on this album in some countries.

BLACKFOOT – 1980

A cool rock track from Blackfoot’s 4th album. Wasn’t the single, and not sure if this was ever played live, but solid tune on one of BF’s best albums..

NAZARETH – 1982

An excellent ballad, from 1982s 2xS album. I bought this album back then, my only Naz album for years (liked this track and “Love Leads To Madness”) Canadian band Helix did a fine cover of this in 1987.

RUSS BALLARD – 1985

A single, from The Fire Still Burns album. A good pop-rock cut, slightly reminiscent of Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose”. Covered by American band King Kobra in ’86.

URIAH HEEP – 1995

The single and the last track from Uriah Heep’s 1995 comeback album Sea of Light. Penned by Trevor Bolder, another ballad, built around acoustic guitars and harmonies.

JOHN SLOMAN – latest album ‘Vaudeville’ out on CD

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John Sloman’s latest album Vaudeville, is now available on CD through John. Simply drop him a request through messenger (Facebook) or email at – johnsloman@yahoo.co.uk

John is handling the CDs himself, and already hard at work on his next project.

URIAH HEEP – The Best of Uriah Heep (1974)

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URIAH HEEP switched record labels in North America in 1973. Following the release of Live… January 1973, the band left Mercury Records and were signed to the bigger Warner Brothers label, who had Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, and various other hard rock acts.
In 1974, Mercury Canada issued a ‘Best of Uriah Heep‘ in time for the spring, followed by a ‘Best of Volume 2′ in December. Both featuring kinda cheap black covers, but with liner notes on the back. All tracks from both albums (obviously) come from the first 5 Heep records. The first ‘Best of’ is very easily found here, as it’s been reissued a number of times, but ‘Volume 2’ is a bit more rare (especially in good condition) as it was only issued once (on LP & 8-track).

In 1976 Mercury US released the ‘Best of Uriah Heep‘ there. It featured a totally different cover And tracklisting. It also featured a timeline of band members, and lengthy liner notes on the back cover.

The Story Behind The Album Cover: The BYRON BAND ‘On The Rocks’, with LON GODDARD

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American artist LON GODDARD drew a number of album covers in the 70s and 80s,, one of which was the lone LP by the BYRON BAND ‘On The Rocks’, from 1981. this was the band lead by original URIAH HEEP singer David Byron (RIP) and featured a young guitarist and co-writer – Robin George (RIP), as well as former BADFINGER keyboard player Bob Jackson, bassist Roger Flavell (ex CHRISTIE), drummer John Shearer (Steve Hackett), and (sax player) Mel Collins . The album’s cover features a drawing of David, and came with a posted that featured a drawing of the band. On The Rocks didn’t fare so well, nor was it given a North American release. It is much loved by many fans of David Byron and robin George, however. The album has most recently been reissued as ‘On The Rocks…Again‘ via Cherry Red Records, as part of a 3 CD package, and featuring Goddard’s artwork again. Below Lon Goddard details his early days relocating to England, creating album covers, working at the record Mirror, and designing the Byron Band album cover.

How did you get in to a career as an illustrator and wind up in the UK for a good part of your career (Influences, jobs that took you there….)

• Left States at 17 in 1966, with a guitar on a whim, to accompany high school pal who had arranged a Drama course at Manchester University as a visiting student, intended to remain only for that summer and search for Donovan records. His music primarily inspired me to learn folk finger-picking Met him several times much later). Also enrolled in Manchester University studying English & American Literature. We hopped over to Paris for a month before school opening, as pal had been an exchange student and maintained friends in France.

Returning, became bored with University and hitched to London, went to address of Roy Harper, given to me by busker in Paris who said Harper put people up. He was right. Stayed, became friends with Roy, who first took me to Cousins, drew SOPHISTICATED BEGGAR art (always fair at cartoon caricature, via posters, helped many high school candidates achieve student offices) and played 2nd guitar on OCTOBER 12th and GOLDFISH. Picked up by Judith Piepe (who had helped Paul Simon kick-start) at Cousins, dossed at her Shadwell flat, but though she was very helpful, disagreed with her suggested plans for me to run a new folk club being started by a gay priest in St Martin’s In the Crypt. Instead, saw Melody Maker had cartoonist (the great Scots artist Jimmy Thompson, whom I later met) and took caricatures round to NME, RM, FAB 208, etc.. Record Mirror’s Peter Jones hired me as weekly cartoonist, followed by staff position as layout man (mentored by Norman Jopling), then became staff writer. With art examples, Peter and Norman accompanied me to the Home Office, where I was granted permanent Residency in UK. Denied dual citizenship by USA.

After 7-years, left RM in ’72 after being recommended for CBS Press Office by departing PR Mike O’Mahoney. From ’66 through to ’77, was RM staffer, Head of Press for CBS Records, editor of DISC, Head of Press
for Phonogram Records.

When heady days of pop music began to wane, took previous cartoons round to art agents and was accepted by Andrew Archer Associates, becoming a commercial illustrator. Left Archer’s for Folio Artists & Illustrators Agents, remained there till stupidly emigrating to Aussie in ’83. After a year Down Under and failed attempts at residency, wondered where the Hell I was, returned to USA. Had been gone 25-years.

You worked at Record Mirror for some years. What all did that entail?

• Interviewing music artists, drawing artists, laying out pages, babying weekly paper through printers in Banbury, attending endless stream of concerts domestic and abroad, receptions, gatherings, etc.. An endless
party.

How to you come to the task of creating the cover art for The Byron Band LP in 1981? (Connections at Creole, David Byron, etc…).

• Interviewed Byron for RM. He asked me to do the ROCKS cover art.

I still have the LP. Frankly, I thought it was a pretty good concept done very crudely by me.

Were you familiar with and/or have any past assignments involving David Byron (with Uriah Heep)?

• Only through RM interviews.

How did you approach the cover for On The Rocks? Was there any/much input from David, the band or management? Any inspirations?

• Figured ON THE ROCKS suggested ice, so submitted the idea of ‘freezing’ the band. Byron liked it. Sketched ideas, he watched and had input as ideas became visible. We set up a studio photo shoot (probablywith either John McKenzie or Alan Messer (from official RM photographer Dezo Hoffmann’s office), posed band in required positions, created airbrush illustrations at home art studio in St. Margarets.

Were you privy to hear the music ahead of time or hang with the band members while creating the cover-art or was it more so done with the help of photos to go from?

• Yes. In many cases, including this one, audio previews provided valuable mental pictures & ideas. However, as a music journalist, I had also accumulated extensive knowledge of most bands and singers, plus a giant record collection.

What exactly is happening on the front cover (with David appearing to punch through glass)?

• Busting through a freezer chamber window with his fist.

What was your art technique in creating the covers + poster (how was this all put on to canvas or paper?)

• Referenced metallic textures, sketched metal sections to LP size enlarged for later reduction to achieve finer detail; best to always work larger), posed band and Byron in photog’s studio, at home utilized projector to size photos of Byron & band into sketches on illustrator art board, rendered with inks by hand brush and airbrush.

Recall the poster that was included?

Yes indeed, the centerfold. The idea was to put them on ice. I was not good enough at airbrushing to achieve that effect.

You’ve done a number of other covers. What would be your favorite or most recognizable covers? (Roy Harper, Hoyt Axton, Hard Meat, Musical Youth)

• Roy’s was the most memorable, becoming surprisingly iconic. I’m very proud of its place in history and it was his first. Getting a deal with a small company (Strike Records), he had asked me to draw him for the cover, having seen other sketches. Rendered on paper on his floor, where I slept with four or five other dossers, I was lucky he was pleased with it. Also did art for releases by The Dubliners, Cat Stevens, The Coasters, Killing Joke (second favorite)… maybe more.

Aside from the album covers, what else has your career entailed, and what are you up to these days?

• As a professional illustrator, I worked mostly for advertising agencies, through my agents FOLIO. Usually given a brief, the pay amount and a schedule, I turned out a great deal of work over those years. I was represented at Folio (still in business) by Richard (Dick) Jordan, with whom I am still in touch and saw only last year in Wales. Dick and I both moved from Andrew Archer to Folio and remained there for many years. He was also the manager and booker for Klook’s Kleek, so Dick had a strong musical background

These days, at age 77, I am a musician. Turned full circle from listening to folk records back in my hometown of Elk Grove, Californi(just south of Sacramento) and trying to figure out how they did finger-picking, to finally putting that ability to use. I have about a dozen gigs per month as a guitarist/vocalist.

https://youtube.com/@longoddard7422?si=R6IY5jizIu9VYms3

RUSSELL GILBROOK – Fans Interview URIAH HEEP Drummer

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Below is a new interview with URIAH HEEP drummer Russell Gilbrook, which was done through the Friends Who Like URIAH HEEP Facebook group, who’s members submitted the questions.. With permission of the group’s administrators I’ve reposted the interview here.

Last year, we were privileged to do a Q&A with former Heep vocalist John Sloman. This year, we’ve been equally privileged to run one with current powerhouse Heep drummer Russell Gilbrook. Russell had the unenviable task of filling the drum stool vacated by Lee Kerslake. To say he’s achieved this would be a massive understatement. Along with Davey Rimmer, he forms the most lethal rhythm section in rock. He’s also contributed 4 superb songs to the latest acclaimed Chaos & Colour album. The questions were great. The answers equally great. So, with huge kudos to Russell for agreeing and taking time out to do this, please read on…… And enjoy!

Rikki Fox – Hi Russell, Thanks for agreeing and taking the time out to do this Could you give us an insight as to what you were doing prior to joining Heep and how you landed the Heep gig?

Hi Rikki, mate! And hello to everyone else! I was doing a lot of drum clinics for the drum and cymbal companies I was with at the time. I was also doing a lot of sessions and teaching at a music college. I did one of my clinics at a drum shop in Hull where the late Trev Bolder lived… Trevor was invited to that particular one, and after the show, he came up to me and complimented my drumming and said it was one of the best performances he’d heard in a long time and invited me to his house for lunch the next day! We had a good old chat and remained friends. It wasn’t until 7/8 years later that I got a phone call from Trev telling me that Heep were looking for a drummer and he recommended me. Management had already scheduled auditions, of which I was one of 250 drummers that got whittled down to 40. It was held at terminal studios in London. I had a decision to make whether to imitate the late, great Lee Kerslake, or be myself. I chose to be ‘Russell’ because I’d worked so hard all my life refining my own technique and approach. Luckily for me, the band were looking for something a little different and I got the gig!

Julie Shannon – What are the Heep songs you find most challenging to play live?

Hi Julie Thanks for the question! Haha! actually none of them are THAT challenging for me. However, a lot of drummers at the audition couldn’t get to grips with the Easy Livin’ double handed shuffle. The shuffle is renowned to be tricky though!

Tony Marlow / Graeme Ogle – Will there be a live DVD / CD for the farewell tour Many of our members are demanding it!!!

Unfortunately, I can’t answer that at the moment! It’s not been spoken about; however, we may just do that if it’s important to all our fans. I’ll personally bring it up at our next meeting

Staf Pypen – Question that pops up is about tuning drums (I know tuning questions are common for drummers). But do you tune your drums to the pitch of the shell or to a certain note ?)

Hi Staf! I’ve always used my ears to tune and found it to work great for me. However, my drum tech Rich bought a gadget called a tunebot which I was dubious about, but it works great You clamp it on the side of a drum rim and lightly tap the drum and frequency numbers come up. Once they hit the number that matches the sound you like you just save the numbers and dial them in every show

Susan Rowledge – Ok Weird question How many calories do you think you burn in a Heep gig?

Funny you should say that! I’ve actually worked this out once… It’s 7lbs! But then I put it back on with a nice bottle of Red after the show

Mike Shannon – Who are your drumming influences? And on that note, what are thoughts on your predecessors in Heep? Lee Kerslake, Chris Slade, Iain Clarke, Keith Baker, Alex Napier and Nigel Olsson

Hi Mike! When I was young, my dad and drum teacher was into Jazz, I love Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Louis Bellson and then moved into more of the funk music as I got older and loved Harvey Mason and Dennis Davis. As the rock aspect kicked in, I liked Billy Cobham, John Bonham. There are many more that I admire and love to listen to, but these were my main ones. As for all previous Heep drummers, if you listen to the back catalogue, it’s obvious that they’ve all brought something to the table rhythmically to make Heep music sound great. They’re all quite different but personally, I’m a big Keith Baker and Lee Kerslake fan. The drumming on ‘Look at Yourself’ is really clever and Lee’s double handed shuffle (which is fast on Return to Fantasy) is exceptional. He was a very powerful drummer; amazing singer and he came up with so many great parts that I enjoy playing similarly today.

Aidi Singleton – Has being a top drummer always been your ambition? Or did you ever play other instruments?

Hi Aidi! I’ve been playing since the age of 4 and in bands since the age of six earning money so it’s all I know. I didn’t have ambition of being a pro drummer, it sort of just happened as a natural progression but the desire to be the best I can be is still there now. I started playing piano accordion at the same time I started drums, which lasted 5 years. I actually became a champion accordion player in a competition in Italy I also played trumpet for 7 years, which I unfortunately don’t play anymore

Dorothy Pegley-Worley – Who thinks up the titles for the albums and the cover designs? It always mesmerizes me Thank you and keep on Heeping

Hi Dorothy! Well, we all have a discussion about the album titles and eventually agree on one! As an example, Mick suggested ‘Chaos & Colour’ and we liked it, so rolled with it. As for album art, it gets given to a graphic designer, who comes up with an idea based on the album title. We don’t always agree as we all have slightly different vision for the initial idea! But with a few changes and tweaks, we get there in the end!

Kevin J Julie – Might we see a Russell Gilbrook solo or side project including other songs you’ve written?

Hi Kevin! YES! I’m in the middle of working on a solo project but time hasn’t been easy to allocate time to it and I’m still trying to figure out who I want to play on it!

Dimas Anindito – On new songs do you develop the drum parts yourself or do the other band members chip in? Do you come up with the drum patterns that the band then work around? E.g. Your 4 tracks on Chaos and Colour.

Hi Dimas 9/10 I come up with the drum parts. The only tracks I haven’t done it for recently are Davey’s two tracks. I’ve just tweaked slightly to suit my playing. Having said that, while we do preproduction in the studio, the other guys do come up with ideas as we all want the best performance for every song. Sorry I didn’t reply to my 4 tracks… So, I had a complete finished demo and let all the guys do what they felt worked… So, it was probably 75% my Sony and the rest their input… Again, we agree the songs sound their best before we finally record them.

Mark Evans / Todd Stone / Steve Cave / Stuart Green / Mick Gardner – Will the band be doing another studio album? After the last great album, it would be a shame not to Are you going to be doing anymore writing? (Your 4 tracks on Chaos and Colour were brilliant) Are there solo or side projects planned by any members of the band? Will we be blessed with a final live album?

Hi guys It really comes down to the record company. The contract determines when the albums happen. I’m sure what will happen, is our management will have a discussion with the record company to see if another album will go ahead. As a band, we are continuously writing so I’m sure there’s no shortage of material and I’m sure we’d happily do another album. As far as solo projects, as mentioned, I’m in the middle of my own project but I can’t speak for any of the other guys but as you know, both Phil and Bernie have released albums, so they may well work on more. We’re always looking at like material to release but the quality needs to be great… Let’s see.

Rikki Fox And finally…. Pretty sure you can’t answer this!!!! Will there be any surprises in the set list for the farewell tour?

To be honest, we haven’t even discussed it yet! Let’s all of us wait and see

BLIND GOLEM to release new album

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Italian prog-rockers BLIND GOLEM have a new album coming out. Wunderkammer will be released November 22, on Andromeda Relix Records. This is the follow up to 2021’s debut A Dream Of Fantasy. Wunderkammer includes an interesting cover version choice. For more details check out the press info below. Artwork is (again) done by Rodney Matthews. And the first single/video is the song “Born Liars”!

Description: organ, wah-wah heavy Les Paul guitar, massive choruses: all the classic ingredients that made Blind Golem debut album such an intriguing cult classic in 2021 for lovers of bands like Uriah Heep, Magnum, Rainbow, are back in full force for second album “Wunderkammer”, 11 songs showing a more developed personality and also featuring a great cover version of one of Heep’s more obscure songs, the “Demons and Wizards” outtake “Green Eye”. Cover art is once again an impressive painting by the great Rodney Matthews! Influences for the Album: Uriah Heep, Magnum, Lucifer’s Friend, Rainbow, Black Bonzo

Blind Golem is a project born out of a lifelong passion for classic hard rock, with a big Hammond organ, screaming wah-wah guitars, massive choruses. The original seed comes from members of the seasoned hard blues band Bullfrog (5 albums) joining with members of the tribute band Forever Heep, dedicated to the classic Uriah Heep repertoire, that played several times as a backing band for Ken Hensley himself, founding member of Heep. In 2021 the band released its first collection of original material, “A Dream Of Fantasy”, which featured Hensley himself on keyboards and slide guitar. The album got enthusiastic reviews especially from fans of that specific and immortal sound, the marriage of Hammond organ and big guitars. After several shows, including a prestigious appearance at the prestigious Porto Antico Festival in Genoa, the band entered the studio to produce it’s album of original material, showing a clear growth in personality, still maintaining firm roots in the classic, powerful and melodic sound of the first album. As an homage, the album features a strong cover of the most obscure Uriah Heep deep cut, “Green Eye”, an outtake from the 1972 classic ‘Demons and Wizards’ sessions. Cover art was made once again by none other than the legendary Rodney Matthews, responsible for countless classic covers for bands like Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, Magnum, Diamond Head, etc. The members of Blind Golem all come from experienced bands, having released several albums with Bullfrog, Rocken Factory and Forever Deep, and played thousands of shows through the years backing rock legends like Don Airey, Roger Glover, Ian Paice, Bernie Marsden, and opening for Uriah Heep, John Lawton, Uli Jon Roth, Dan Baird, Doug Pinnick. Like the first album, ‘Wunderkammer’ is released by Andromeda Relix Records and it will also be issued on splendid double LP, in a gatefold package, in the near future.

Band Line-up: Andrea Vilardo, lead vocals. Simone Bistaffa, Hammond Organ, Piano, Keyboards. Silvano Zago, Guitars. Francesco Dalla Riva, Bass, Lead & Backing Vocals. Walter Mantovanelli, Drums.

www.facebook.com/BlindGolemhttps://www.andromedarelix.com

KEN HENSLEY – Our Brother the Legend, new book!

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Trevor Hensley has put together and issued a new book on his late brother Ken. Titled ‘Our Brother – the Legend ‘, it is 110 pages full of stories about Ken from the perspective of his family. There are rare and family pics of Ken, stories of his early days growing up, of the band’s he was in, hobbies, and as part of the Hensley family. There’s also stories from musicians Ken worked with like Joe Konas,, Jack Williams and Ken Ingwersen (among them), as well as some nice recollections from a few fans who’d met and seen Ken over the years. Discographies, Trevor’s picks of his favorite Ken Hensley & Uriah Heep songs, and more. A fun and excellent read, with plenty of previously unheard tales, and unseen images. Love the story of Ken’s mom coming to see Heep only to pull out her knitting! 🙂

You can order a copy of ‘Ken Hensley: Our Brother – the Legend’ through Trevor simply by sending him a private message on Facebook. A nice little addition to the Ken Hensley/Uriah Heep collection!

*You can check out Trevor’s radio show at wwe.redfiveradio.co.uk , as well as visit the Ken Hensley Fan Club on Facebook.

URIAH HEEP-SAXON – US Tour, Heep ‘guest’ keyboard player

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On the current US tour which sees Uriah Heep & Saxon co-headlining, Heep will have Adam Wakeman guesting on keyboards, Wakeman mentioned this in his Twitter feed a while back. Uriah Heep posted that “Due to family commitments Phil Lanzon will not be appearing on this run of dates and filling in on keyboards will be Adam Wakeman (Ozzy Osbourne/ Black Sabbath/ Deep Purple)….”

Adam Wakeman

Both bands will play 80 minute sets, and alternate every few shows of who’s on first. Saxon will be promoting their excellent latest album Hell, Fire, and Damnation, while Uriah Heep will finally get to perform a number of songs (4?) from last year’s awesome Chaos & Colour release. Following the Heep tour, Adam Wakeman will be performing shows with his band ‘Jazz Sabbath’s.