URIAH HEEP Sign New Management Deal, Seek Label Home

URIAH HEEP have signed to Simon Porter at Duroc Media Ltd. for management. The announcement, which takes place with immediate effect, sees the band reunited with Porter, who acted as HEEP's publicist for ten years during the Seventies and early Eighties when he worked as publicity director of Bronze Records.

Comments Porter (who also represents STATUS QUO): "I'm absolutely delighted to be working with Mick Box and the band again. I'm a longtime fan of URIAH HEEP and we always had an extremely good working relationship in the past and have kept in touch over the years. The immediate priority now is to sign the band to a new record deal and put together a game plan for the next eighteen months. It's an exciting time and I'm extremely confident that together we can take the band to new heights."

Comments guitarist Mick Box: "As you all know, I have looked after the band's interest at a management level for a number of years now and I have been looking long and hard to get the right person for the job to take over from me so that I can concentrate more on the music than the computer. It has been an exhausting time keeping it all together but at last we have found somebody to take the reins and push it to a higher level that both the band and the fans want. I have held off on the record deal as I felt it important to have management involved from the new recording upwards. That is not to say we are starting from scratch as we will be having discussions with three companies who have shown interest and the meetings have already begun. In the interim period, myself, Phil and Trevor have been writing all along so we have a wealth of material at our disposal.

"I feel that this is a great move as we have known Simon for years and I feel it will be a good working relationship that will take us forward. We will have an international band, an international manager, an international agent and shortly an international record company with the correct distribution in place which will help immensely when we tour.

"We thank you all for your patience and your support as always but it was very important to get this right and have everything in place before we announced it. We are moving into a new era that is very exciting that hopefully will see us release more new material and that will enable us to continue to tour the world."

In other news, URIAH HEEP singer Bernie Shaw has finally decided to tie the knot with his Czech girlfriend Radka Malik. This will take place in his hometown of Victoria, B.C., Canada on August 28, 2005. They got engaged just before Christmas 2004 when Bernie proposed at Frankfurt airport on the way to Canada for Christmas. He asked Mick to be his best man, who, of course, said yes. They have just come back from the Czech Republic where Bernie met all of Radka's family for the first time.