FROM TIME TO TIME

Anyone familiar with "The Landsdowne tapes" collection of Uriah Heep outtakes, unreleased tracks and alternative versions will recall what a goldmine that set is. "From time to time" is a similar collection of songs recorded by Heep's former keyboard player and songwriter. The compilation's title is taken from a track on Hensley's first solo album, but note that the song does not actually appear here. Hensley was actively involved in the preparation of the album, contributing extensive sleeve notes giving details of each track.

Many of the songs here were recorded by Ken for his first three solo albums, but omitted due to lack of space, although the brevity of "Free spirit" indicates the omission of some may have been down to quality control too! Interestingly, Ken's sleeve notes for "Love at first sight", which might have appeared on that album, simply say "I don't remember too much about this one".

A number of the tracks feature appearances by well known rock musicians such as Simon Kirke and Paul Kossoff (Free), Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople, Bad Company), Ian Paice (Deep Purple) and Kenny Jones (The Who). These stars appear simply because they were friends who were "around at the time".

A number of the tracks are in the form of advanced demos, the most interesting being an early version of "If I had the time". The song was transformed by Uriah Heep from what you hear here into a magnificent track on "Sweet freedom". This is one of the tracks to feature the guitar work of the late Paul Kossoff. Two other future Uriah Heep songs are included, although the titles here are different. "Take care" became "Footprints in the snow" and "Does anything matter" ended up as "Woman of the world"; both appeared on "High and mighty". Personally, I find the versions on this compilation to be far superior.

Other tracks of particular interest are the single B-side "Who will sing for you" "as you probably missed it's debut" and the intended title track for "Free spirit". Hensley says now that it was a mistake to leave the latter off the album. In retrospect its omission may simply have been down to the fact that it is too much like a Uriah Heep song.

"Guilty" is unusual in that only the vocals are by Ken, the piano being played by Linton Naiff who also looked after the string arrangement. The ballad "Maybe you can tell me" features backing vocals by Clare Torry, the star of Pink Floyd's "Great gig in the sky".

Four of the tracks are demos from sessions recorded at Luxembourg studios in London. Of these, "Black hearted lady" and "Cold autumn Sunday" would find their way onto Ken's debut "Proud words on a dusty shelf" and "Longer shadows" appeared on "Eager to please". The versions here are not that different to the finished articles, but all feature Kossoff and Kirke and are thus of particular interest.

While this collection is clearly intended for fans of Uriah Heep, and specifically of Ken Hensley, it does actually stand up well as a solo album by Ken in its own right. Only a few of the songs will be at all familiar, and even then not in the way they appear here. The added bonus of the set featuring so many legendary names simply enhances the album's appeal.

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