Year : 2012
Style : Melodic Rock , Progressive Rock
Country : United Kingdom
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 144 mb
Bio:
John Lawton (born 11 July 1946 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England) is a rock and blues vocalist best known for his work with Lucifer's Friend, Uriah Heep and the Les Humphries Singers.Lawton began his musical career in North Shields, UK, in the early '60s with The Deans, a bunch of kids 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 legendary German rock cult 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 '70s (which included the Eurovision Song Contest in '76).In 1976 Lawton joined Uriah Heep as their frontman, recording the albums Firefly, Innocent Victim, Fallen Angel[1] and Live in Europe '79, touring Europe and the U.S. 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 '80s -'90s 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 2 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.Inspired by German top producer Robert Papst and his partner Reinhold Hoffman, Lawton re-recorded one of the Les Humphries Singers' favourites, the 1970s hit "Mama Loo", in January 1998. In August 2000, his solo album Still Paying My Dues to the Blues, produced by Robert Papst, was released in Europe, UK and Scandinavia, by Hypertension Music Hamburg and distributed through EDEL Germany. (The album has been re-released in 2010).During the 4th Uriah Heep Annual Convention in London, May 2000, plans were made for a one-off concert by the so-called Hensley/Lawton Band. Lawton was joined by former Heep keyboardist Ken Hensley, for the first time 21 years after Lawton's departure from Uriah Heep in 1979. With them were Paul Newton (their original bassist), and 2 members of Lawton's band Reuben Kane on lead guitar and Justin Shefford on drums. They played a collection of old Heep classics and some of Hensley & Lawton's solo songs, and the concert was recorded for a CD release called The Return.In 2001 Lawton teamed up with Ken Hensley to form the Hensley Lawton Band. After extensive touring, during Spring and Summer of 2001, culminating with a concert in Hamburg, Germany, featuring a full orchestra and a new rendition of Heep's old classic "Salisbury", both Ken and John returned to their respective solo careers. On 7 December 2001, both John Lawton and Ken Hensley appeared on stage with Uriah Heep during the annual Magician's Birthday Party at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. This concert was recorded and released as a CD/DVD.The John Lawton Band - "JLB" was taken on by Classic Rock Productions in 2001 to record the acoustic CD Steppin' It Up, which features John & Steve Dunning. One More Night Live at the Mean Fiddler, CD & DVD, was recorded in 2002, which was followed in 2003 by JLB's Sting in the Tale CD, an original studio rock album. Later that year followed another Live CD & DVD Shakin' The Tale. JLB had been touring extensively with their last gig in Hamburg, September 2004, when Lawton decided to take an indefinite break.In May 2006 Lawton joined forces with Dutch guitarist Jan Dumée (ex-Focus) to form the On The Rocks project. On The Rocks - "OTR" featured Brazilian musicians Ney Conceição on bass, Xande Figueiredo on drums, and Marvio Ciribelli on keyboards. Lawton and Dumée wrote and recorded the tracks for the debut album Mamonama, released in October 2008.In September 2008 John Lawton appeared on stage at the Heepvention 2008 in Spain, with former Uriah Heep members Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake and Paul Newton, together with Jan Dumee from the OTR project on guitar.In December 2008 John entered the world of television by presenting the Bulgarian travel documentary series "John Lawton presents" which also includes music from the Mamonama album. Made by the Bulgarian TV company "Skat", the films feature interesting historical landmarks of Bulgarian towns and cities, traditional festivities and interviews with the city mayors and local people. So far the series consists of 19 documentaries, including the municipalities of Karnobat, Sozopol, Tsarevo, Primorsko, Burgas, Smolyan, Pamporovo, Varna, Malko Tarnovo, Velingrad, Shumen, Popovo winter, Popovo spring, Chepelare, Lovech, Kavarna, Stara Zagora, Nedelino.In 2009 John again joined Ken Hensley, Lee Kerslake and Paul Newton to appear at Heepvention 2009 in Salo, Finland with a Finnish guitarist completing the line-up.In March 2010, John made his acting debut in the motion picture Love.net, filmed and produced by Bulgarian film company Miramar Film. Part of John's scenes were shot at Liscombe Park, UK, featuring a guest appearance by Uriah Heep guitarist Mick Box, with the remainder filmed in Sofia. He also recorded the movie's soundtrack song - Tonight. The film was premiered in Sofia on 26 March 2011.In November 2011 John teamed up with Bulgarian band Diana Express to record the album "The Power of Mind" which was composed by Dr. Milen Vrabevski. The album was released in 2012.
Album:
John Lawton, most famous for his time in Uriah Heep and Lucifer’s Friend, is part of a very interesting experiment in rock and roll and psychology. The new concept album, The Power of Mind, was written by Dr. Milen Vrabevski but performed by John Lawton and the Bulgarian rock band Diana Express.The press release describes the album “The Power of Mind' as an exploration into the science of positive thinking and its applications to the subconscious mind.Lawton describes the effort, “'The Power of Mind' is a concept album with positive thinking being the theme. In the world of today, I don't think there are many better things to focus on. The way the songs flow into each other is really the way one would read a book or relate stories to friends. The melodies and lyrics say a lot about how we should view each other."Think of this as a positive thinking man’s Pink Floyd mixed in with some great three chord bluesy boogie rock and some straight forward old school rock that Lawton is famous for.The project came very naturally, he admits, ”The involvement came via a musician friend of mine from Sofia, Bulgaria, who knows the writer and producer of the album, Milen Vrabevski. I met with Milen briefly in Sofia after an exchange of e-mails and he gave me a copy of the original 'The Power of Mind' CD, which had been sung in Bulgarian. I must say I liked it very much, it was very well sung, played and produced. Milen then asked me if I would consider singing the whole album again in English and after looking through the English lyrics I agreed. It was a real joy to record in the studio in Pleven, owned by the guitarist of the band, Maxim Goranov. It took me about a week and a half to complete the solo and backing vocals."While hard rock is not known for touchy feely feel good stuff, this is a unique experimentation in psychology and music. It is presented in a true rock opera type setting with songs flowing from one into the other. The music and message are both performed well and Lawton is very excited for the world to hear this music and to buy into the concept.“People who know me and my background will expect something new and with The Power of Mind , they have exactly that. The album is a collection of excellent songs very well played and produced and one which I am very proud of...so make sure you give it a good listen. Think positive and trust in the Power of Mind."
Line Up:
John Lawton - lead vocals - See also: ex-Zar, ex-Asterix, ex-GunHill, ex-John Lawton, ex-Jon Petersen & Skyliner, ex-Les Humphries Singers, ex-Rebel, ex-Stonewall, ex-Sweet Mama, ex-The Deans, ex-Uriah Heep, ex-West One, ex-Lucifer's Friend
Yasen Dimitrov - Hammond, vocals
Georgy Rusev - bass, vocals
Svetlo Mihaylov - guitar, vocals
Dimitar Semov - drums
Tracklist:
01. Intro
02. Mind Power
03. Two Hearts
04. Love's Light Shining
05. Maxi Rock
06. Fairytale
07. Rock And Roll Is My Thing
08. The Search
09. Spiringtime
10. In Rhythm With You
11. Now I Know
12. New Rhythm
13. Love In The World
14. Finale
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
