Lucifer's Friend
Lucifer's Friend | |
---|---|
Origin | Germany |
Genres | Heavy metal, progressive rock, hard rock |
Years active |
1970–1982 1993–1997 (as Lucifer's Friend II) |
Labels | Vertigo, Janus, Fontana, Repertoire |
Associated acts |
The German Bonds Stonewall Asterix The Pink Mice Electric Food A.R. & Machine Les Humphries Singers Uriah Heep Edison Lighthouse Colosseum II James Last Orchestra The Giants Gunhill The Bonds |
Website | |
Past members |
John Lawton Peter Hesslein Peter Hecht Dieter Horns Joachim Rietenback Herbert Bornhold Curt Cress Mike Starrs Adrian Askew Andreas Dicke Jogi Wichmann Udo Dahmen |
Lucifer's Friend was a 1970s German rock band. The group were noted as early practitioners of heavy metal and progressive rock.[1] They also incorporated elements of jazz into their music.[2] The band have also been cited as one of the pioneers of doom metal.[3]
History
The British-born John Lawton was vocalist for a group called Stonewall. Peter Hecht, Dieter Horns, Peter Hesslein, and Joachim Reitenbach were members of a band called the German Bonds. The five joined together to record an album under the band name of Asterix in 1970, then changed their name to Lucifer's Friend and continued under that name. Another group called the Pink Mice was a side project by some of the members in 1971 minus Lawton.
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 (Billingsgate, Janus, Passport), often a year or more after their release in Europe. Thus, despite airplay in some markets and a cult following, the band's albums were hard to find and commercial success eluded them. The band was finally signed to Elektra Records in the late 1970s who released three albums with a more commercial pop oriented sound, but by then interest in the band had waned; those albums were even less successful than the earlier ones.
Lucifer's Friend was known for changing musical styles and influences on each album. The self-titled 1970 debut had dark lyrics and a stripped-down guitar and organ style and sounded similar to Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath [citation needed]. That album is still sought after by fans of early heavy metal music. The second album, Where the Groupies Killed the Blues, took an entirely different direction; it was a very experimental album of progressive and psychedelic rock, mostly composed by John O'Brien Docker. On the third album, I'm Just a Rock & Roll Singer, 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 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 established a holding pattern and tried to combine the jazz of Banquet with the garage-rock of Rock & Roll Singer, but was not as well received as the earlier albums. Vocalist John Lawton left in 1976 to join Uriah Heep and was replaced by Mike Starrs, former vocalist with Colosseum II. John Lawton returned for the 1981 album Mean Machine. On the two albums without Lawton they moved to a more commercial sound, on 1978's Good Time Warrior and 1980s Sneak Me In.
John Lawton's 1980 solo album on RCA, Heartbeat, was a Lucifer's Friend album in everything but name, with the lineup 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 in the early 1990s to release a new CD, Sumo Grip.
Discography
Lucifer's Friend albums
- Lucifer's Friend (self-titled, 1970)
- Where the Groupies Killed the Blues (1972)
- I'm Just a Rock & Roll Singer (1973)
- Banquet (1974)
- Mind Exploding (1976)
- The Devil's Touch (1976) (1970-1976 Compilation)
- Good Time Warrior (1978)
- Rock Heavies:Lucifer's Friend (1980) (1970-1976 Compilation)
- Sneak Me In (1980)
- Mean Machine (1981)
As Lucifer's Friend II
- Sumo Grip (1994)
Side projects and related bands
German Bonds (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on Bass)
- Sonata Facile b/w So Mystifying (1965)
- We are Out of Sight b/w Sing Hallelujah (1966)
- Skinny Eleonore b/w Birthday is Today (1969)
Bokaj Retsiem (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on Bass)
- Psychedelic Underground (1968)
Hell Preachers Inc. (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)
- Supreme Psychedelic Underground (1968)
Brother T & Family (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)
- Drillin' of the Rock (1970)
Electric Food (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)
- Electric Food (Electric Food album, 1970)
- Flash (Electric Food album, 1970)
Asterix (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members)
- Everybody b/w If I Could Fly (Does not include John Lawton, 1970)
- Asterix (Asterix album, 1970)
Pink Mice (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)
- In Action (1971)
- In Synthesized Sound (1971)
Hepp, Hahn and Huhn (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on bass)
- Alive and Goodnight (1971)
Okko Becker (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)
- Sitar and Electronics (1971)
Propeller (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)
- Let us Live Together (1971)
Frankie Dymon (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards)
- Let it Out (1971)
The Rattles (Includes Herbert Bornhold on drums)
- The Witch (1972)
David Frank Selection (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)
- Blues & Electronics (1972)
John Lawton (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members)
- Heartbeat (John Lawton solo album, 1980)
Notes
- ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p19037
- ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/r43684
- ↑ Christe (2003), pg. 345, "Beginning with the overlooked Lucifer's Friend and Necromandus in the early 1970s, doom crawled through the 1980s with Trouble, Witchfinder General, the Obsessed, Candlemass, Pentagram, and Saint Vitus, then into the 1990s with Cathedral, Sleep, and Burning Witch."
References
- Christe, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-380-81127-8
External links
- Lucifer's Friend discography at Discogs
- Lucifer's Friend at AllMusic
|
[es:Lucifer's Friend]