Lawrence Hayward

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Lawrence Hayward (born 12 August 1961, also known as Jon Lawrence or simply Lawrence) is best known as the enigmatic singer, songwriter and guitarist of seminal British indie band Felt. He is often described as being eccentric.

Felt released ten albums in the 1980's, and Lawrence was the only constant member of the band from its inception in 1979 to its dissolution in 1989, though he doesn't appear at all on the band's penultimate album, Train Above The City. During his time in the band, he served as lyricist and primary songwriter, though early on he shared songwriting credits with then-lead guitarist Maurice Deebank, who left the band in 1986.

Very little is known about Lawrence's background or personal life - even his last name has never been verified, since in official songwriting credits, only his first name is given. It is sometimes reported that he is from Water Orton, a suburb on the outskirts of Birmingham (where Felt formed), though at times Birmingham itself is reported as his place of birth. Early on he was heavily influenced by Tom Verlaine of Television in both his guitar-playing and his idiosyncratic vocals.

After the dissolution of Felt, Lawrence formed Denim. Influenced by 1970s glam rock, Denim released two albums in the 1990s, but mainstream success continued to elude Lawrence. A third album, Denim Take Over, was shelved indefinitely.

2000 saw the full-length debut of Lawrence's current project, Go Kart Mozart, released through his personal imprint, West Midlands Records and distributed by Cherry Red. The 2005 follow-up was titled Tearing Up The Album Charts – a wry comment on his failure to achieve commercial success, a habit the album itself did nothing to break. UNCUT awarded Lawrence the dubious honour of being "one of the stars fame forgot" [1].

As of August 2006, Lawrence is working on a new Go Kart Mozart album, set to be released in October of this year. Additionally, filmmaker Paul Kelly is working on a documentary centered around Lawrence, titled Lawrence of Belgravia (a reference both to the Englishman who led the Arab Revolt and the district of Central London in which Lawrence resides), which is set to premiere at the London Film Festival in either October or November of this year [2].