Thursday, May 14, 2009

John Lawton - REBEL ["Stargazer"] and ZAR ["Live Your Life Forever"]

Following his departure from URIAH HEEP in '79 singer JOHN LAWTON recorded a solo album [Heartbeat] as well as a killer Hard rock album from a reformed LUCIFERS FRIEND titled "Mean Machine" [1981 Elektra], a very underrated album from the early 80s HR/HM period.

Mean Machine set the tone for a few future '80s projects that Lawton would be involved with; these being the hard rock / metal albums by REBEL ["Stargazer"] and ZAR ["Live Your Life Forever"] - both featuring German guitarist Tommy Clauss. The Rebel album was also Lawton's produced by Lawton, and featured a number of strong songs such as "Broadway Nights", "Surrender" [not the Russ Ballard tune!], and a great remake of Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" [which was quite different to HEEP's of a few years later]. The ZAR album had more of a 'metal' bite to it, and featured a few gems such as "Heart Of The Night", "Gone For Tomorrow" and the title track
Songwriter, guitarist and producer Tommy Clauss was the one who founded Zar in 1989. Within a year his/their debut album "Live Your Life Forever" was ready, featuring no one else than John Lawton (ex-Uriah Heep) on lead vocals. But Lawton didn't stay for too long, because the material for the second album sounded a bit too heavy for his taste. In came Tommy Bloch and with him behind the mike "Sorted Out" was released in 1992. Another two albums, "From Welcome To Goodbye" (1994) and the rather tough and weird "Holy Rhythm Of Nature" (1996), followed, before Clauss and his mates disappeared from the scene.


























01. Stargazer
02. Broadway Nights
03. Give It All You Got
04. Iron Horse
05. Surrender
06. Innocent And Wild
07. Hold Your Head Up
08. Wings Of Fire

John Lawton (Vocals)
Tommy Clauss (Guitars)
Albert Stübler (Keyboards)
Peter Weber (Bass)
Peter Garratoni (Drums)

REBEL ["Stargazer"]

Link http://www.mediafire.com/?oyywqkyizmz





















  • John Lawton - vocals
  • Tommy Clauss - guitars
  • Jerry Schafer - keyboards
  • Peter Kumpf drums
  • Bernard Grunen - bass
  • Rolf Kersting - bass ( on 3 tracks )
  • Richard Schwarz - drums ( on 1 track )
Tracklist:
1. Heart of the Night 03:57
2. Line of Fire 03:46
3. Live Your Life Forever 03:56
4. Lost Son of the King 05:27
5. Cry of the Nile 04:01
6. Gone for Tomorrow 04:04
7. The Look of Your Eyes 03:49
8. She's a Liar 04:27
9. Fire and Ice 03:56
Total playing time 37:23


ZAR ["Live Your Life Forever"]

link http://www.mediafire.com/?zttw1gomztz

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for a great post. What a fantastic vocalist.

    ReplyDelete
  2. lawton rules he is one of the best /long live the powerfull and incredibly john lawton.

    ReplyDelete

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