Lucifer's Friend - the original line-up |
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Legendary German rock cult band, formed in
1970 in Hamburg.
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The group were noted as
early practitioners of
heavy metal
and
progressive rock.
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They also incorporated
elements of
jazz
into their music. |
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The
British born
John
Lawton
was vocalist for a group called
Stonewall. |
Peter
Hesslein,
Dieter Horns,
Peter Hecht and
Addi Rietenbach were |
members
of a band called the German Bonds. |
The five joined together to record an album
under the name of
Asterix in
|
1970,
which
later became Lucifer's Friend. |
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The early albums were released on the
Vertigo Records
label in Europe,
but
in the United |
States those albums were released on a series of small independent
record labels, |
often a year or more after release in Europe. |
Thus, despite airplay in some markets and a cult following the band's
albums were |
hard
to find. |
Lucifer's Friend was known for changing musical styles and influences
on each album. |
Their influential and ground breaking self-titled 1970 debut album had
dark
and stripped |
down
lyrics, guitar , organ style and sounded
similar to Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, |
Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath |
. |
The single release "Ride the Sky"
became a rock classic, having
been |
covered
by many of today's younger rock bands. |
That album is still sought after by fans of early heavy metal music |
. |
The second album, "Where the Groupies Killed the Blues"
(1972),
took
an
entirely |
different direction; it was a very experimental album of progressive
and psychedelic rock, |
lyrics mostly composed by John O'Brien
Docker. |
. |
On the third album,
"I'm Just a Rock & Roll Singer" (1973), they
changed direction again |
this time in the straightforward rock style popularized by
such
groups as |
Grand Funk Railroad, and gritty "life on the road"
themes
in the lyrics. |
. |
"Banquet"
(1974) featured extended, multi-layered jazz fusion compositions and a
30-piece |
backup band, alternating with some shorter tracks reminiscent of
Chicago and Traffic. |
Those first four albums are all concept albums of a sort and along
with |
the
self-titled
Asterix
album are the most sought after today. |
. |
"Mind Exploding" (1976) established a holding pattern and tried to |
combine
the
jazz of Banquet with the garage-rock of Rock & Roll Singer.
|
. |
Vocalist John Lawton left in 1976 to join Uriah Heep and
was replaced by Mike Starrs, |
former vocalist with Colosseum II. |
Recording
"Good Time Warrior"
1978 & "Sneak Me In"
1980 with them.
|
On the two albums
without Lawton they moved to a more commercial
sound. |
. |
John
Lawton returned for the 1981 album "Mean Machine". |
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John Lawton's 1980 solo album on RCA,
"Heartbeat", was a
Lucifer's Friend album in |
everything but name, with the line-up from "Sneak Me In"
performing
as backup musicians |
on
that project. |
. |
Lawton's official return,
"Mean Machine",
found the band
returning to |
heavy metal, this time in the vein of Rainbow. |
The
band officially broke up in 1982 but briefly reformed as
"LF 2"
in the |
early
1990s to release a new CD,
"Sumo Grip". |
. |
Lucifer's Friend reformed at the end of 2014, a the request of
the fans...literally... |
some
30 years after they recorded their very last studio album. |
. |
2015 saw the release of 2 CD set
"Awakening"
with 1 CD a best of
compilation
featuring 10 |
songs
from their original studio
PLUS
FOUR BRAND NEW STUDIO TRACKS on a bonus disc. |
. |
In
June 2015 followed "Sweden Rock Festival" were the band
headlined the 4 Sound Stage, |
recording the
"Live @ Sweden Rock Festival" CD,
released January 2016, |
capturing the bands excellent live show. |
. |
After
playing several high profile festivals during 2015 & 2016
incl. "Sweden Rock", |
"Night
of
the Prog" and "Rock of Ages" etc... the band
released
the album |
"Too
Late To Hate" their first true Studio Album since 1981. |
. |
2017
Lucifer's Friend have been invited back to play the
"Sweden Rock
Festival"
while |
simultaneously working on new song material for a possible 2018
release.....;-) |
. |
2019 saw
the release of
"Black Moon"
with 10 new tracks, which proved to
|
be the
last LF CD in the final line up. |
.. |
Sadly
Dieter
Horns
passed away on
19. December 2020, due to
Covid, having |
suffered
from bad health for a while. |
. |
The
passing of
John
Lawton
on
29. June 2021
came totally
unexpected, due to |
Abdominal
Aortic Aneurysm . |
.. |
December 2021 saw the release of the LF compilation CD
"The Last
Stand" |
& |
in August
2023 a tribute CD
"Celebrating The Life Of John Lawton" |
in honour
of John Lawton, was released. |
. |
Peter
Hesslein, the only surviving member of the 3 LF main players |
will still
continue to write solo music. |
. |
Check out
Peters solo instrumentals
"Night Drive 1, 2 & 3" |
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