The Lawton Years
The Lawton Years
HEEP HOLDS AUDITIONS
After David Byron left the band, auditions were held for
bassist and lead vocalist positions since John Wetton
decided to leave as well. David Coverdale and
Denny Ball auditioned but the positions were given
eventually to Trevor Bolder and John Lawton. Other
vocalists considered were Ian Hunter and Gary Holton.
HUNTER ASKED TO JOIN HEEP?
In interviews, Ian Hunter has said he was actually asked to
join Uriah Heep after David Byron was fired. Hunter said he didn't care much for the
type of music Heep was doing and passed on the opportunity. Although Hunter is
a very talented vocalist, he would have been
a terrible choice for Heep. His vocal style was totally wrong for
he band. As was proved later, Heep occasionally made
poor personnel decisions. I suspect the vocalist position was never officially
offered and Ian was just one of many vocalists being considered.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
In 1976, Trevor Bolder replaced John Wetton
as bassist in Uriah Heep. Trevor then replaced
John Wetton as bassist in Wishbone Ash just four years later.
JOHN LAWTON JOINS BAND
Englishman John Lawton was based in Germany and even
his wife Iris was German. The bands with which he had been working were complete opposites. On the one hand, he fronted the German hard rock band, Lucifer's Friend, a
name which probably hurt sales in some English
speaking countries although the band had a
pretty good following in Germany. On the other hand, John sang with a kind of "Up With People"
sort of ensemble, the Les Humphries Singers.
This group did a lot of religious sort of pop songs. One of the most important
projects with which John was involved was Roger Glover's Buttlerfly Ball.
In fact, Roger Glover passed John's name on
to Heep when he heard the band had
a vocalist vacancy. Del Roll passed a tape of John singing to the band and Heep was impressed with his pipes.
NEW LINEUP TO THE STUDIO
Within 3 weeks,the new incarnation of Uriah Heep was rushed
into Gerry Bron's new studios, the Roundhouse.
As John Lawton remembers things,the music tracks were almost
complete when he joined the band. He just went in and added the vocals to the songs.
JOHN'S MAKE-UP SECRETS
At Heepvention '99, I asked John Lawton whose idea it
was for him to wear make-up in his days with Heep. He said
his wife Iris originally came up with the idea and it fit what he was trying to do. He had never worn make-up in his previous bands
but he wanted to have a totally different image than David Byron in
Heep. He felt it was important for him to be his own man in Heep and not to try to copy David.
MORE DEEP PURPLE TIES
When Deep Purple was looking for a new vocalist in 1973, John Lawton was a candidate for
the position. As John Lawton said in an interview with Dmitry Epstein, Ritchie Blackmore was
a bit of a fan of Lucifer's Friend at the time. In
the end, Deep Purple went with David Coverdale. In
retrospect, John Lawton said he was glad he didn't the job.
BACK TO FANTASY AGAIN!
Despite a much advertised change in musical direction,
Firefly was once again a return to the tried and
true formula of fantasy lyrics, at least for the title
track. The artwork was also rather similar
in style to a Roger Dean cover. Ken Hensley was inspired to
write "Firefly" when he saw his first firefly
in New Jersey at his then parents-in-laws' home.
HEEP TOURS USA WITH KISS
With Uriah Heep's popularity down a bit in the USA,
the band was again playing tours in the support position. This did
have its benefits though, since Heep was once more playing large venues
in support of Kiss. John Lawton told me at HV99 that he remembered that
tour well. On one occassion while he was on stage performing,
he noticed Paul Stanley just off stage flirting with his wife.