lucifer's friend "where the groupies killed the blues" vg++/vg++ promo names

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Competitive pricing is my goal to get rid of the hundred's of Lp's I have. I may miss a thing or two sometimes on my listings, but I will always be here to help resolve the issue, so not to worry. I try my best to grade lp's, and on occassion I will play test if time allows... I use the goldmine standard to rate my records, again these are my personal records, some are new, some are used. Please do your home work if you do not know what a goldmine standard is. I have been collecting records since my 20's and I am 56 at the moment. Its has been a passion and a part-time hobby, but now it is time to let alot of these records go so I can downsize. I hope you love and enjoy music as much as I do, and selling is another way to get to know other people with a like minded interest as I. I offer a refund policy, so please give me the opportunity to make good if there is a problem with a transaction. I charge 25 cents for supplies reflected in the shipping cost

In 1969 after a tour with his past band called Stonewall, the British-born singer John Lawton went to live in Germany, where he met Peter Hesslein, Dieter Horns, Peter Hecht and Joachim Reitenbach, who 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.

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 1977: it 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. He was replaced by Ian Cussick. With him the band recorded and released 7" single "Old Man Roller / Writing On The Wall" in June 1977. Later same year he 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 the band 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.