Fans of British singer John Lawton will have a 2CD compilation celebrating John’s life in great music to be issued July 7. John, who passed away June 29, 2021, had been recording for over 50 years, and was best known as the lead singer for German progressive hard rock band Lucifer’s Friend, as well the singer for Uriah Heep in the latter half of the ’70s. He also recorded & toured with The Les Humphries Singers in the ’70s, and later recorded with such bands and projects as Rebel, Zar, Gunhill (a band he formed in the ’90s), The Lawton-Dunning Project, (his own) John Lawton Band, OTR, and The Intelligent Music Project, plus a few solo albums, and various guest appearances (notably with Uriah Heep years after he left). John’s last album was 2019’s Black Moon with Lucifer’s Friend.
Celebrating The Life Of John Lawton is a collection of 33 tracks, spanning his career from the early ’70s until 2015. And it appears to be a well thought out set, as opposed to something predictable. It is actually more about some of the rare recordings he did, singles, guest appearances, and one-off projects and albums he was a part of, including previously unreleased material . I don’t see any Lucifer’s Friend songs, or too many Uriah Heep titles, but this does touch on most of the bands and projects I mentioned above. So, this will be an essential purchase for fans of John’s career. The man put out so much great music, that this will be an excellent celebration of his work.
*Available for pre-order at: https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/john-lawton-celebrating-the-life-of-john-lawton-2cd/
*Artist royalties donated to British Heart Foundation charity to research “Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm”.
Track Listing
DISC ONE
1 Corner Street Girl
2 Little Chalk Blue
3 Out Here
4 Is There Anybody There?
5 Eloise
6 Me And My Harley
7 Stargazer
8 Broadway Nights
9 Heart Of The Night
10 Dirty Tricks
11 Colgate Gel
12 Set The World On Fire
13 Back To The Highlands
14 Someone Sings
15 Come Together
16 Wise Man
17 I Am Alive
DISC TWO
1 Feelings
2 Tonight
3 It’s A Long Way To Go
4 Mama Loo Impromptu Jam
5 I’ll Be Here
6 Written On The Wall
7 Been Away Too Long
8 Mamonama
9 Shine
10 Ride On
11 Salvation
12 River of Dreams
13 Fairytale
14 Rain
15 Rock ‘n’ Roll Is My Thing
16 Things We Can’t Do
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/LucifersFriendOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/uriahheepofficial
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/lucifers-friend-black-moon-cd/
Outsider Rock 
I had the chance of meeting up quite some times with this great singer. I admired his vocal qualities eversince i heard The Les Humphries Singers on tv. Of course, i was to young there to understand English, being born in Belgium, didn’t include speaking any other language than my own Flemish, with a good dash of French. But growing up, my daily duties prevented me to really be busy with music, for several years, until i went to a pub in Verviers, Route 66, and met the John Lawton Band for the first time. We had an instant friendship going on from there. Later, i organised, with the help of Louis Rentrop, the Dutch Heep webmaster, a tour for the band, through The Netherlands and Belgium. Many occasion, throughout Europe, brought us together in the years that followed.
John was just a great man, with lots of jokes, i suppose that’s a typical English thing :-). His way of singing still is, to me, superior and that will always be so. And having had many occasions to listen up real close, is a nice heartwarming memory, that i will hold tightly in my heart until i blow my last breath.
John, rest in peace my friend.
Staf
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