Uriah Heep bass guitarist Paul Newton to publish first book

Paul Newton was the original bassist in Uriah Heep and has travelled the world performing with different versions of the band.

Stories of his life on the road prompted numerous people to say ‘you should write a book’ – so when the second lockdown came along in 2020, he started to do exactly that.

“I sat down and put a few things on paper to see what I could do, and soon the ideas started to flow,” he said.

Paul's book will be on sale at Ledbury Books and Maps (Image: Paul Newton)

“I didn’t want to write an anthology because there’s so many of those things out there, especially of Uriah Heep, so I decided to make it a fictional tale.

“It gave me a bit of scope to make it a readable story and to make it more interesting. It’s based on my life but through the eyes of an alter-ego.

“It was a self-indulgant exercise really, I have records on my shelves with my name on them and thought it’d be nice to have written a book, too.”

That book will soon be available to buy from Ledbury Books and Maps, having been published by Malvern company Aspect Publishing.

Mr Newton, who turned 75 last week, tought himsel to play the guitar after persuading his father to buy him one.

“I turned pro in 1966 and was working in London when I answered an advert in the Melody Maker, which was the musician’s bible, for a bass guitarist for a band called Spice,” he said.

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“When we got a record deal that band became Uriah Heep. I recorded three albums with them and left in 1972.”

After working for a few years as a studio and session musician, Mr Newton eventually left the music industry to follow his father into construction, working as a surveyor and moving to Ledbury.

For the past 20 years, he has balanced his life in Ledbury with “five or six” Uriah Heep shows a year and gigs with local bands.

A keen member of Ledbury Bowling Club, he is just starting work on his second book, which is going to be a crime thriller, or as he says “something totally different”.