John Lawton

Biography

Lawton began his musical career in North Shields, England, in the early 1960s with The Deans, a group who decided at random that he should be singer. He then moved on to West One and later Stonewall which included John Miles, Vic Malcolm (later of Geordie) and Paul Thompson (later of Roxy Music).

After Stonewall finished their stint at Top Ten Club in Hamburg in 1969, Lawton decided to stay in Germany, after having been offered the job as singer with German rock band Lucifer's Friend (1969–1976 and 1979–1995) with whom he recorded seven studio albums. He also joined the Les Humphries Singers, in the early 1970s (which included the Eurovision Song Contest in 1976).

In 1976 Lawton joined Uriah Heep as their frontman, recording the albums Firefly, Innocent Victim, Fallen Angel and Live in Europe '79, touring Europe and the US until September 1979.

During his longstanding career Lawton has worked with some big names of rock, on various projects, including Roger Glover's "Butterfly Ball" live at the Royal Albert Hall in 1975, featuring David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Ian Gillan and Twiggy. He sang on Eddie Hardin's "Wizard's Convention II " with Chris Farlowe, Denny Laine, Paul Jones and Tony Ashton.

Lawton worked with some of the finest record producers, including Tony Clarke (Moody Blues), Jimmy Miller (Rolling Stones), and Harold Faltermeyer (Pet Shop Boys), who produced the titles Lawton sang on the Lenny McDowell Project "Lost Paradise".

Lawton sang with German rock band Rebel, later known as Zar, on three albums, during the late 1980s and 1990s including their hit singles "Line of Fire" and "Eagles Flight", and moved on to Volker Barber's classical project "Excalibur". He also sang on several German commercials, including the "Colgate Gel" TV spots, the "Peter Stuyvesant Travel" spots, the Stuyvesant single "Come Together" and a stint for Harley Davidson Motorbikes.

Lawton formed GunHill, later known as JLB (John Lawton Band), in January 1994, touring the UK and Europe. In 1995 he briefly rejoined Uriah Heep for two weeks, to tour South Africa and Austria with Deep Purple, filling in for their singer Bernie Shaw, who was suffering from voice problems at the time.

Discography

With Asterix

(pre-Lucifer's Friend)

Asterix – 1970

With Lucifer's Friend

Lucifer's Friend – 1970

Where the Groupies Killed the Blues – 1972

I'm Just a Rock 'n' Roll Singer – 1973

Banquet – 1974

Mind Exploding – 1975

Mean Machine – 1981

Sumogrip – 1994

Awakening – 2015

Too Late To Hate – 2016

Black Moon – 2019

With the Les Humphries Singers

We'll Fly You To The Promised Land – 1971

We Are Goin' Down Jordan – 1971

Singing Detonation – 1971

Old Man Moses – 1971

Mexico – 1972

Sound '73 – 1973

Mama Loo (= La Onu Cantante) – 1973

Live in Europe – 1973

Carnival – 1973

Sound '73/II – 1973

The World Of – 1973

Kansas City – 1974

Sound '74 – 1974

One of These Days – 1974

Rock 'n Roll Party – 1974

Amazing Grace & Gospeltrain – 1975

Party on the Rocks – 1975

With Uriah Heep

Firefly – 1977

Innocent Victim – 1977

Fallen Angel – 1978

Live in Europe – (recorded 1979, released 1986)

Ten Miles High – (A demo session recorded in 1979 with John Lawton. Some songs were later released on other albums, otherwise officially unreleased)

The Magician's Birthday Party – (live, recorded 2001, released 2002)

Magic Night Archived 23 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine – (live – recorded 2003, released 2004)

Solo

Heartbeat (also released as HardBeat; 1980)

Still Payin' My Dues... (2000)

Heartbeat (Expanded) (Red Steel 2000)

Heepsteria! (Several solo, Gunhill & JLB contributions) (Red Steel 2000)

With Rebel

Stargazer – 1982

Rebel/Zar (Remastered 2 on 1) (Red Steel 2001)

With Zar

Live Your Life Forever – 1990

Rebel/Zar (Remastered 2 on 1) (Red Steel 2001)

With Gunhill

One Over the Eight – 1995

Night Heat – 1997

Live in Germany '99 – 1999

With the Hensley Lawton Band

The Return (Live at Heepvention 2000) – 2000

With the Lawton Dunning Project

Steppin' It Up – 2002

One More Night (Live) – 2002

With the John Lawton Band

Sting in the Tale – 2003

Shakin' the Tale (Live) – 2004

With Chris Catena

Freak Out! (Lawton features in the song "It's a long way to go" – 2003

With OTR – On The Rocks

Mamonama – 2008

With Intelligent Music Project

The Power of Mind (with Maxim Goranov Band; 2012)

My Kind of Lovin' (2014)

Celebrating The Life Of John Lawton

33 songs which covers John singing from 1971 to 2014' - 2023