Lucifer's Friend

Lucifer's Friend
Origin Hamburg, Germany
Genres
Years active
  • 1970–1982
  • 1994
  • 2014–present
Labels
Associated acts
Website lucifersfriend.com
Members John Lawton
Peter Hesslein
Dieter Horns
Stephan Eggert
Jogi Wichmann
Past members Joachim "Addi" Rietenbach
Peter Hecht
Herbert Bornhold
Mike Starrs
Adrian Askew
Curt Cress
Andreas Dicke
Udo Dahmen

Lucifer's Friend is a German hard rock band, formed in Hamburg in 1970 by guitarist Peter Hesslein, singer John Lawton, bassist Dieter Horns, keyboardist Peter Hecht, and drummer Joachim Reitenbach.[1] The group was noted as early practitioners of heavy metal and progressive rock,[2] they also incorporated elements of jazz and fusion into their music, especially in their fourth album Banquet of 1974.[3][4] Furthermore heavy metal, the band has been cited, too, as one of the pioneers of doom metal, helping to define both genres due to their heavy sound and dark oriented lyrics of their acclaimed debut Lucifer's Friend of 1970,[5] and returning to their roots in 1981 with Mean Machine, although more influenced by speed metal.

History

In 1969 after a tour with his past band called Stonewall, the British-born singer John Lawton went to live in Germany, there he met Peter Hesslein, Dieter Horns, Peter Hecht, and Joachim Reitenbach, they 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 and soon they changed their name to Lucifer's Friend, continuing their career under that name onwards.[6]

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 . 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, 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, 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 and NWOBHM. The band officially broke up in 1982 but thirteen years later, in 1994 John and Peter Hesslein briefly reformed to release a new CD, Sumo Grip under the name of Lucifer's Friend II, with Curt Cress, Andreas Dicke, Jogi Wichmann and Udo Dahmen replacing the classic line-up. After this they broke up once more.

Recent years

Although John Lawton stated that the crew weren't interested in getting back to record or perform live again,[7] in August 2014 he published the news in his website of an eventual reunion with the original line-up to play in some dates of 2015 including Sweden Rock Festival in June,[8] after almost 40 years since their last gig together. Also they will release a new compilation album called Awakening in April 6 followed by four new tracks.[9] Due the demise of their original drummer Joachim "Addi" Rietenbach a few years ago, his position is now occupied by Stephan Eggert, also the original keyboardist Peter Hecht refused to participate in the reunion, due this the guitarist Peter Hesslein recorded the keyboard tapes in the new album, hiring once again Jogi Wichmann (who played in Sumo Grip) as the live keyboardist for the upcoming schedule in 2015 and 2016.

The Lucifer's Friend song "Ride in the Sky" is shown in the Bulgarian film Love.net, starring Lawton, as a song by a fictional band called Tabloid.

Members

Past members

Discography

Lucifer's Friend albums

As Lucifer's Friend II

German Bonds (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on bass)

Bokaj Retsiem (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on bass)

Hell Preachers Inc. (Includes future Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)

Brother T & Family (Includes future Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)

Electric Food (singer George Mavros backed by Lucifer's Friend members, without John Lawton)

Asterix

Pink Mice (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members, except John Lawton)

Hepp, Hahn and Huhn (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards and Dieter Horns on bass)

Okko Becker (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)

Propeller (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)

Frankie Dymon (Includes Peter Hecht on keyboards)

The Rattles (Includes Herbert Bornhold on drums)

David Frank Selection (Includes Peter Hesslein on guitars)

John Lawton (Includes all original Lucifer's Friend members)

Notes

  1. ↑ John Gorman; Tom Feran (27 August 2008). The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio--a Memoir. Gray & Company. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-59851-051-5.
  2. ↑ Lucifer's Friend at AllMusic
  3. ↑ Banquet at AllMusic
  4. ↑ Nielsen Business Media, Inc. (17 February 1979). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. p. 7. ISSN 0006-2510.
  5. ↑ 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."
  6. ↑ Jeff (8 April 2014). "Stone Cold Crazy: A Very Candid Conversation with John Lawton". Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  7. ↑ http://rockchicago.net/interview-with-john-lawton-lucifers-friend-uriah-heep/
  8. ↑ Sweden Rock Festival (11 October 2014). "First bands confirmed for Sweden Rock Festival 2015". Retrieved 14 February 2017 – via YouTube.
  9. ↑ "John Lawton - Official Website". Retrieved 14 February 2017.

References

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