Lucifer was a British solo rock project active in the early 1970s, the alias of Denys Irving. Howard Marks clearly states in his 1997 autobiography that Lucifer was the solo work of Denys Irving, with financial assistance from Marks. This admission by Marks went unnoticed for years, so the identity of Lucifer was often falsely attributed to Peter Walker of The Purple Gang, due to the fact Walker started calling himself Lucifer in the late sixties. There are also references to Lucifer and Denys (spelt Dennis) Irving in the biography 'Howard Marks, His Life and High Times' by David Leigh. The records were only available via mail order through adverts in papers such as 'OZ magazine' (issue numbers 41/42), 'Record Mirror' , 'New Musical Express' & 'International Times' (it or IT, issue numbers 126/127 & 128).
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Denys George Irving was born on 4th January 1944 and attended Dulwich College (1954–1961), where he won the Fawkes Memorial Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford (1962) where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was married to the actress Merdelle Jordine ('Crossroads', 'Death May Be Your Santa Claus', 'Riddles of the Sphinx', 'The Sweeney') with whom he had a child. On 5 August 1976 Denys Irving was killed in a hang gliding accident at Mill Hill, Sussex. [1] Denys was also a pioneer in early computer animation and some of his work has recently been shown at the Tate Gallery (see: http://www.lux.org.uk for further information).
In 1997 'Cheater Slicks' included a cover version of Lucifer's 'Hypnosis' on their double CD 'Forgive Thee' (ITR 054). In 2000, John Miller released a cover version of Lucifer’s ‘Winter’ on his ‘Preference’ album (Polenta LEN18, available from www.cdvine.co.uk). Since the re-release of ‘Big Gun’ by Dynamic, every mention of Lucifer seems to include the reference to it being the work of the “acid-ravaged mind of Peter 'Lucifer' Walker ex-The Purple Gang (band)”. This unfounded attribution appears to come from the Rock Encyclopedia books by Vernon Joynson, but he gives no sources for his information. The Denys Irving attribution comes from Howard Marks and Mike Ratledge who both knew Denys at Oxford University.
