My name is Darrell Sensing. I'm 38 years old and a Manufacturing Engineer with "Sanders - A Lockheed Martin Company". I started with Lockheed in 1979 in California and thru "down sizing" & "right sizing" I have ended up on the other side of the country.
I spent my formative years growing up in Palmdale California which is approx. 50 miles north of Los Angeles.
I heard my 1st Heep probably late 1970 early 1971. My brother-in-law, who is 8 years my senior, worked in a music store and picked up Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull and all of the other emerging bands of the 70's. I instantly was hooked on Gypsy, Dreammare, and the rest of the self titled release from Uriah Heep.
In September 1972 I went to my 1st concert at the Hollywood bowl which featured "Black Sabbath" and "Captain Beyond". That was my 1st exposure to a real concert, having only seen little honky tonk type set-ups prior to that. Shortly there after I saw my 2nd concert....Uriah Heep opening for Deep Purple.
>From then on, the number one source of entertainment for my friends and I was listening to music and going to concerts. Heavy Metal / Melodic rock has been my passion ever since.
I recently started doing web pages for the L.A. based band "Takara" and for "Jeff Scott Soto" in general after being lucky enough to come to know all the members of Takara. I think any HEEP fan would love Takara and their "Taste of Heaven" CD.
Jeff was the singer for the original Yngwie Malmsteen "Rising Force" recordings and is one of my favorite vocalist today. Aside from being a super nice guy who e-mails back and forth with me, Jeff has been the mastermind behind some of the best neo-classical, heavy metal, progressive, and melodic rock of the last 15 years.
It's been a real kick to come to meet all the HEEPSTERS on the web thru the mailing list and Pow Wow. Having relocated to Nashua New Hampshire with my job, I felt like I might be the only guy in the world left that liked good music. I can't stand the lack of imagination the U.S. radio stations display and I was always wondering "Where are all of those thousands of people that attended the concerts I went to". Well, it's good to finally find you all. Any of you Heepsters that read this, and would like to hear some of Jeff's post "Yngwie" work (including Takara), drop me an e-mail and I'll get a tape made up and mailed out to you. Most of all, keep rockin' and "stay in touch"!!!!!