David Byron

David Garrick (29 January 1947 – 28 February 1985), better known by his stage name David Byron, was a British singer who was best known in the early 1970s as the original lead vocalist of the rock band Uriah Heep and their hit singles "Easy Livin'" (1972) and "Stealin'" (1973). Byron possessed a powerful operatic voice and exuded a flamboyant stage presence.

David Garrick was born in Essex to David James Garrick and Rosetta Caroline Florence Purkis, who wed in the late 1930s. His father worked as a compositor, type-setting for a London based printing firm called Odhams Press. He enrolled into Normanhurst Infant School in 1952.

Byron was educated at Forest School, Walthamstow, from 1958 to 1964, where, as a popular pupil, he excelled at sports and was in the school's 1st eleven football team. From the mid-1960s to early 1970s, he did session work for a company called Avenue Recordings, singing lead and backing vocals (occasionally along with Mick Box on guitar and Paul Newton on bass). These were cover versions of Top 20 hits and were released on EPs and LPs.

In a 1973 interview, Byron said: "I started singing at the age of five. My mother was singing in a jazz band. My whole family was into music. Everybody played an instrument." His first venture into professional music was with an Epping-based semi-pro band called The Stalkers, which also featured Box. Byron and Box then teamed up to form the band Spice (1967–1969), which also featured Newton on bass and Alex Napier on drums. Before settling on the name Spice, other names were considered, including 'The Play'. A handful of acetates exist of unreleased tracks recorded at the time and credited to 'The Play'.

The band gigged extensively locally under the management of Paul Newton's father and they secured a recording deal with United Artists, which issued the band's only single, "What About The Music/In Love"; copies of which now fetch around $50 to $100 on the collectors' market. Newton's fathers wife also convinced David to change his surname to Byron.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.