Editing David Byron (section)

==Early life (1958–1969)==
David 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forestschoolheritage.daisy.websds.net/|title=Forest School Archive|website=Forestschoolheritage.daisy.webds.net|access-date=15 May 2020}} {{registration required|date=May 2020}}</ref> 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 (musician)|Paul Newton]] on bass). These were cover versions of Top 20 hits and were released on EPs and LPs.
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://forestschoolheritage.daisy.websds.net/|title=David Byron: Pure Heart, Pure Art, Pure Performer | publisher=Alchemists Publishing poted on issuu.com |date=June 2018 |work=Rock Legend News|access-date=2023-07-01}}</ref>

His first venture into professional music was with an [[Epping, Essex|Epping]]-based semi-pro band called The Stalkers, which also featured Box.<ref name="Larkin"/> Byron and Box then teamed up to form the band [[Spice (British 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' and 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.

Deciding that the Spice sound would require keyboards, they recruited keyboardist/guitarist/singer/songwriter [[Ken Hensley]], who was Newton's bandmate in [[The Gods (band)|The Gods]]. During this time, Byron renamed the band Uriah Heep from the [[Charles Dickens]] novel ''[[David Copperfield]]''.