Lucifer's Friend

This is just too badass not to share...

I know Trouble's Eric Wagner is a huge fan...I need to check them out.

John Lawton is a badass vocalist. He still sounds like that. Too bad his Heep output was so limpwristed.

Their stuff is WAY too expensive used right now, eventually when a decent priced reissue hits the streets I'm buying their first 5 albums (including the one released under the name Asterix).

They came out of the same Hamburg scene as Nektar. They were originally called German Bonds, then released an album as Asterix, then finally adopted the Lucifer's Friend moniker and recorded their "second debut" under that name.

They were a very talented band, whose main problem was they never did completely figure out what direction they wanted to go in. Their albums have a "everything but the kitchen sink" mentality which I love...but I'm sure might irritate those looking for more straight-ahead stuff.

I have two of their albums on vinyl that a friend just gave me a few weeks ago, excellent material and I agree with Spec, Lawton sounds great with Lucifer's Friend, and he sang great in Uriah Heep but the material Lawton did with Uriah Heep was a major disappointment.

That wa righteous!! Never heard of them, but that was cool, man. Was that a french horn?

That horn part was ridiculous.

Temple of Blood wrote:

That horn part was ridiculous.

I dunno, I liked it. It kinda came outta left field and added some charm. Especially watching the organist quickly picking it up and putting it down to keep up. Nowadays, he'd just hit a button on his keyboard for a pre-programmed sound effect. He's doing it old-school.

It's some kind of English horn I think, it's on the studio version as well.

I never heard of this band until i heard Trouble's cover of this song on SMC. It's a pretty cool song in the vein of Diamond Head. I don't like the horn though... it takes away from the overall heavy vibe.

Here's the studio version, the horn is mixed more effectively here:

detuned wrote:

Here's the studio version, the horn is mixed more effectively here:

The singer's voice reminds me of Robert Plant.

Some of my "druggie" friends in college used to listen to this band, Flash and the Pan and other really obscure bands.

I don't remember any songs but I think I remember a Lucifer's Friend album cover with a chick in fishnet stockings.

Yep. I looked it up on Amazon. This is the one I remember. Still don't remember any songs though.

That was a later lineup with a different vocalist, more pop/rock oriented.

Good Time Warrior was from the era when they featured Mike Starrs on vocals. By then they were playing an almost AOR/Pomp sort of mix. I like it though, reminds me of the band "Lake", if anyone remembers them.
The Lucifer's Friend album from '81, "Mean Machine" is a return to good Hard Rock.

So far I would say I like the second album the best. It still has the heaviness of the first album, but with some interesting progressive rock twists thrown into the mix.

This is the opening track "Hobo" and it's a stomper!

Great band listened to them quite a bit in the 70's.

Wargod51