Heres my latest interview with Ken Hensley for the Russian news agency TASS (English newswire): CULTURE: MUSIC-ROCK-HENSLEY-INTERVIEW Hard rock legend Ken Hensley to present his band Live Fire in Moscow MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. A legendary figure in rock, Ken Hensley, will give a concert with his new band Live Fire in Moscow on November 27. Hensley, famed frontman of British metal legends Uriah Heep, currently on tour in Russia, will present his selected songs, written in different years of his career. The next day, Hensley and Live Fire are expected to play in the city of Kaluga in central Russia. “Our normal show is about two hours and the set list contains the best reproductions of Heep songs, plus tracks from our two Live Fire albums,” Hensley said in an interview with TASS. “I have to say that this is a great, great band ‘live’ and I am excited to bring Live Fire to Russia for the first time!” Hensley’s band Live Fire consists of guitarist Ken Ingwerson [ex Street Legal], drummer Tom Arne Fossheim, and new singer and bassist Roberto Tiranti [of Labyrinth]. “Tom Arne and Ken Ingwersen are from Norway. Roberto Tiranti is from Genoa in Italy. They are all professional musicians so, when they are not working with me, they have many other projects to work on,” Hensley said. Hensley’s concert tour performances in Moscow and Kaluga will feature the Hammond organ, one of the most fascinating musical instruments widespread in the 1960s and 1970s. This electric organ, provided by the Russian side, was used by Jon Lord, the famous and now deceased keyboard player from Deep Purple, during his concerts in Russia. When asked whether he would be able to play this unique organ with a symbolic car plate attached to it which had a region code of Kaluga this time, Hensley said: “Yes! I will be playing the very same instrument.” Responding to a follow-up question if he himself had Hammond at home, Hensley said: “No. I dont record, I only write at home so I have my piano and my guitars.” The 69-year-old musician expressed hope that his two concerts with Live Fire “will give both the business people and the audiences an opportunity to assess the value and viability of doing more shows” with his band. “It must be remembered that booking a band in Russia involves a lot more than just fee negotiations,” Hensley noted. “There is also the issue of to what extent a promoter can pass on the costs of visas, flights, hotels and food for a group of musicians and technicians.” Hensley had previously mentioned that organisers often sought to attract more guests as they curbed their spending on a band to reduce ticket prices, and he had more than once been forced to give solo performances instead of a full-length rock show. “Money is obviously a big part of any decision a promoter makes and I agree with this, because of the effect on the people who want to buy tickets. Of course you have to factor in fees, flights, food, hotels, ground transportation etc ... but visas are expensive too!” Hensley said during one of his earlier arrivals. “Well, apart from the Live Fire shows, I have brought new and different songs this year, some older and one or two that are totally new, so people will get a look at the future. And yes, we will do the questions and answers, plus the meet and greet afterwards,” Hensley continued. Asked whether there would probably be any special guests like local bands, string ensembles or symphony orchestras, Hensley promised “some surprises and definitely a female string trio in the city of Nizhny Novgorod”. Speaking about his plans for the future, the musician revealed he was preparing something new for his 70th anniversary. “I will start work on a new studio album in early February 2015. I am fairly sure it will be a Live Fire album but I still need to develop the last three or four songs, to be sure,” he said. Hensley’s current tour of Russia, which started on November 17 in the small city of Bryansk, some 250 miles southwest of Moscow, covers 23 cities and will finish in the Volga river city of Saratov on December 17. Best known for his role in the world-renowned band Uriah Heep, Ken Hensley is widely acclaimed as one of the founding fathers of hard rock. Born in London in 1945, the singer-songwriter, keyboardist and guitarist has a long and illustrious career, having played with and fronted acts as diverse as British 60s psyche rockers The Gods to American southern rockers Blackfoot. During his 10-year tenure with Uriah Heep between 1970 and 1980, Hensley wrote or co-wrote some of the bands best-loved songs, including “Lady in Black”, “July Morning”, “Free Me” and “Easy Livin”. His talent for songwriting and his lyrical depth flourished in Uriah Heep, as did his efforts on guitar and his distinctive use of keyboards, particularly the Hammond organ. At the peak, Uriah Heep was up there with the likes of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as one of hard rocks original Big Four. Increasingly addicted to cocaine and dismayed at watching Uriah Heep turn into a cover band, Hensley left in 1980. He relocated to the States to pursue a solo career and sort himself out. In 2006, Hensley formed Live Fire, providing his trademark keyboards, guitar and vocals, alongside Norwegians Ken Ingwersen, Eirikur Hauksson, Sid Ringsby and Willy Bendiksen, initially just to perform Ken’s songs live. In 2009, Tom Arne Fossheim replaced Willy Bendiksen as drummer, and in 2011, Ken Hensley and Live Fire released their first studio album “Faster”, followed by studio albums “Live”, with the original line-up, and “Trouble”, with a line-up completed by Roberto Tiranti in 2013. Hensley visited Russia for the first time in 2002. Since then, his performances have become regular in this country. --0--
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 22:09:46 +0000
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