Lee Kerslake was of course the long-time drummer with the great Uriah Heep for around three decades until his health issues forced him to leave the band around 2007.
To Lee’s credit he battled on – for example making a fine classic rock sounding album with Stefan Berggren called the Sun Has Gone Hazy – do check that one out.
As Lee’s cancer progressed he was able to begin work on his debut solo album in 2015 and showed plenty of determination and resilience to complete it in 2019. Sadly, Lee passed last year (2020) and now we are able to enjoy that solo album – Eleventeen.
Of course I simply had to buy it as a Uriah Heep fan since the mid-1970s and also a big admirer of Lee’s powerhouse and often underrated drumming.
Please don’t expect Uriah Heep Mark II here. One has the impression listening to the album that this is Lee going out on his own terms both saying goodbye and at the same time paying tribute to various people and situations at the same time.
The songs vary in style and delivery with the lyrics often raw and poignant. This comes across in Lee’s vocals too.
The opener – Celia Sienna – is a sort of gentle, mainly acoustic slow burning ballad which is something of a grower the more it’s listened to.
Take Nothing for Granted an excellent up tempo rocker with a pulsing riff and a nice clean lead break. Could have come off Heep’s Different World or Equator. Check it out:
Where Do We Go From Here and You May Be Yourself both written by Lee and examples of the raw and poignant stuff. Both ballads with feeling if perhaps a little clichéd.
Port and a Brandy a honky-tonk piano pub knees-up style affair with lyrics perhaps hinting at the partaking of the occasional after-show drink (or any drink….) along the way over the years.
You’ve Got a Friend being a cover of the Carole King song and, I think, another way for Lee to say goodbye as his note in the booklet suggests: “this one is to all my friends past and present who I have loved through music”.
Home is Where the Heart Is goes back to the meaty up-tempo rocker before the instrumental Mom closes it out.
An eclectic mixture of songs from one of rock music’s finest drummers taken away from us far too early. Sadly a posthumous release however. And sadly again not unusual for former Uriah Heep members with Trevor Bolder’s Sail the Rivers released last year and Ken Hensley’s My Book of Answers due soon.
Do check out Lee’s album and remember a fine drummer doing things on his own terms.