On October 15th this year, after a musical career of more than 50 years, I was privileged to be a part of another piece of rock & roll history, when I was invited to join Mick and Uriah Heep for a special concert in Moscow.

For me it was an amazing experience, a kind of re-entry into a world I had left behind so many years ago and, as it was happening, looking across the stage at Mick, seeing Lee on the drums, I was able to re-live so many great memories.

And I found myself wearing a permanent smile and laughing constantly, like some kind of impish child!

Of course David and Gary were not there but in a way they were, along with all the others who, over the years, helped make Heep into the legendary rock band it was and still is.

This concert was dreamed up more than 3 years ago, but it takes a lot to make a dream like this into a reality, so, while my manager Steve Weltman and many, many others were managing the business end of things, I spent many hours wondering how it would be, meeting Mick again after years of separation, connecting with the band as it is today and re-learning songs I hadn´t played for about 40 years!!

And I will confess, I was a bit nervous when I arrived at the hotel in London which would be our base for 5 days of rehearsals.

I need not have been ... Mick greeted me with the same beaming smile I remember so well and it seemed as if all the water that had flown under our respective bridges over the years had somehow washed away any prospect of conflicting thoughts or interests. (Well, maybe age and maturity had a little to do with it!!)

I met the band as everyone arrived and I met the crew ... long time since I´ve had one of them .... and, by now, any apprehension I may have experienced had morphed into me being genuinely excited about what lay ahead.

I had quite forgotten how it feels to be inside a permanent band´s environment, but the guys made me feel so welcome and rehearsals, though long, loud and hard, went really well.

Of course I won´t soon forget Phil and Russell´s constant cries for ¨LUNCH¨ and, although things were not 100% perfect (when are they?), by the end of the week we knew we had a show that would make the fans happy ... which is what this was all about.

At the end of the day and in many ways, this was a great experience for me and I would welcome the chance to do it again.

It defintely changed my attitude to some things and gave me new-found respect for what Mick is doing to keep the name of this great band alive so ...

Thanks to everyone concerned. Take good care of yourselves and remember, they really can´t keep a good band down!

God bless,

Ken <>