Spice avoided playing covers and according to Box, always strove “to

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.