Don't forget to read New Year greetings from John Lawton. Our congratulations to all who visited our site, wrote us emails, signed the guestbook, and showed any kind of interest to to John's past and present activities! It's been half a year since this page first got online, a lot of great things happened since then and we're looking forward to New Year, such as new recordings, new tours and of course your e-mails, containing feedback and suggestions! Happy New Year!!!

Other news:

1. "Live in Europe-79", the famously posthumous live release, which, at the moment, remains the only officially-released live Heep recording from the Lawton era, and is currently out of print, is in the process of being remastered by Robert Corich of Red Steel Records.. Most probably it will be a double CD set, with some "new" tracks! The story behind this album is such that Rob Corich has asked Heepsters for a copy of 'LIE-79' for the purpose of remastering since his own copy had been stolen!!! Boris Shnitzer was the kind soul donating his copy! The prize in this 'contest' is fashionably significant - the honour of being mentioned in the coveted 'Thanks' section. :-)

2. There is currently some chance for a release of Gun Hill's "Nighheat"album on the Red Steel label. Let's keep our fingers crossed! We'll inform you if something new happens. Or, if you wish, write to Rob Corich that you really want to see it released A.S.A.P. at RCORICH@AOL.COM!!! :-)

3. This site was mentioned in new issue of UHAS magazine! It also was rated at No.3 in a Heepsters' poll, "Heepsite of the Year" (after Rodriog Werneck's Ken Hensley site and my own Russian Uriah Heep page).

4. It's not really news, rather a request going out to all fans. Firstly, if you have lyrics for any Lucifer's Friend album other than "Where The Groupies Killed the Blues" and "Good Time Warrior", please share them with us! It's not really urgent, but it would be nice to have lyrics for all LF albums. Secondly, if you have heard the "Nightheat" album and have some free time, could you please submit your review of it...? Anything - praise, critique, anything you feel like writing is welcome! I'm planning to collect all those reviews to make it easier on all those who haven't heard this album yet, to help them with the decision of whether to buy it or not! :-)

Vlad, 29 December 97.

Latest news from John's letter:

1. John and Iris Lawton just returned from a trip to Germany. They were attending Uriah Heep concert. "It was good gig and we were met with open arms here and enjoyed it very much!" - says John.

2. The dates for the next Swiss tour are already lined up.Gun Hill will be on the road from the 25th March till the 9th April, we will have exact tour dates on this page as soon as it has been finalised. Gun Hill will be playing a few English gigs leading up to March and try out some of the new programme,which will include some Heep and some Lucifers stuff!

3. There will be new version of Les Humphries Singers "Mama Loo" song recorded, in Munich, January 98. It will be only John and some backing vocals.

8 December 97.

LUCIFER'S FRIEND's albums SNEAK ME IN (1980, feat. Mike Starrs on vocals) and MEAN MACHINE (1981, feat. Mr. Lawton!) are to be reissued on CD for the first time on December 24, 1997, in JAPAN. Suggested retail price in the U.S. - around $30 each (wouldn't expect anything less for a Japanese import).

Alex.

3 December 97

Gun Hill news update:

Gun Hill have decided to come off the road, from January '98, for three months. Purpose of this action is the reconstruction of band material and program development. All gigs booked in advance, to be performed during this time, will be honoured; but new bookings will only be added as from April 1998. At this stage a Swiss/German tour is also in preparation, to commence in early April '98.

Meanwhile the band members are concentrating on writing some new material, with the prospect of recording in summer of '98.

A big thanks to all to "all our fans" who have come to see us during 1997, sent us encouraging e-mails, ordered our CD and stayed loyal throughout.

Extra special thanks have to go to Vladimir and Alex, for creating not only the John Lawton site, but also including Gun Hill info with such enthusiasm, dedication and great ideas. They well and truly have put Gun Hill on the map!!

Since joining the "net force" we have made many friends world wide. "Please stay in touch!!"

Not forgetting the hard work, put into organizing and promoting Gun Hill's Tour of Germany in summer of '97, by Peter Bethge, Eduardo Capurro, Stefan Eickhoff and Alexander Krispin. The enormous "stress" suffered by Roger Stoltzer, Steve Kingston and Robert Merkling while looking after us in Switzerland, ( especially the wine tasting session!! ) has left it's mark; Roger having to take a holiday in Turkey, Steve suffering liver problems and Robert becoming teetotal.

We are looking forward to seeing you all again in 1998!!!

You can download complete version of Gunhill news update, with new tour dates, in Word document here.

1. An exclusive interview with John Lawton will appear in next issue of "From time to time" (FTTT) magazine. FTTT is a fanzine, published by Kevin Julie and dedicated not only to Ken Hensley and Uriah Heep in all forms, but also to wider range of rock bands and musicians, such as Dio, etc... Read more about FTTT at Ken Hensley's page, or email Kevin Julie at <lunytune@vaxxine.com>.

2. Clive Rogers, guitarist from England, emailed me and said he co-wrote now famous Gunhill tune "Wall of Silence". It was credited to Rick Bonner only on Gunhill CD, but Clive said he helped a lot with arrangements. Clive is writing his solo album now, and he is also working with his band "Cobra" (album release is scheduled for April 98), in Neil's studio (Old Barn). Good luck, Clive!
I'll put more detailed info soon.

3. Graham's live report is now with pictures!

Vladimir.

20 November 1997

Two Heepsters on the Web, Graham Hulme and Peter Warton, have attended Guh Hill gig 31 October 97. Graham Hulme wrote exclusive live report for JL page. He also got an answers to few Heepsters' question (although real interview never was in plans!). John says that:

1. Lucifer's Friend back catalogue. At the moment it seems unlikely that any deal will be reached to rerelease in the States. The last attempt led to a few difficulties, as I understand it and nothing is in the pipeline at the moment.

2. John is planning to get together with Peter Hesslein at the end of this year or beginning of next year, with the primary objective being to have fun! Tapes? "We'll see how it goes" was the answer. /it's looking great! -V.M./

Also please note a ordering info page was refined just a little. Details about other albums have been added. (Although most frequent answer to a question like "where I can get NNN" sounds like "it never been released on CD", second is "it's out of print" and third is "We don't know". :-)

1 November 97.

"Gun Hill is just returned from Switzerland in the early hours of Monday morning (20 October) The tour was great fun, although it rained almost every day. We seem to have that effect!" - John Lawton.

24 October 97.

New page about "Stay on Top" - German Uriah Heep fanclub. Another source where you can get "Night Heat" and their own-created Gunhill t-shirt.

21 September 97.

You can now order "Night Heat" directly from John Lawton at this page.

17 September 97.

Luckily, I'm almost finished with most urgent updates regarding new CD, photo gallery, etc. You can visit specail page devoted to "Night Heat" CD there. Other updates include pages about each Gunhill member, photo gallery with some new photo's sent by John himself. There are still a lot of things to work with.

Vlad, 11 September 97.

Read new Gun Hill Tour Info - Tour Dates for UK till December and _some_ of tour dates for their European tour (October). I'll add more dates as soon as I'll get more info from John.

26 September 97.

Vladimir 25 September 97

Since we're now in contact with Mr. Lawton himself, via email, this page will be no longer be called "unofficial". :-) It's a wonderful achievement - not even 2 months since we've got it up and running, and John has already seen it! Thanks to all for your precious help in creating this page, including Roy, Rodrigo, Mac, Thommie, Dave Owen of UHAS... 

Vlad and Alex.

For those who forgot to look into guestbook:
 

There are some major news. John Lawton's band Gunhill has just released their first CD album. It's called "Night Heat". Here is the article from freshest issue of UHAS magazine. I hope to get ordering information too.

• July 11 Yelton Hastings
• July 13 Royal Wells Tunbridge Wells
• July 19 The Anchor Bourne End
• July 25 Hillingdon Arms
• July 26 Flying Dutchmann Hildenborough
• July 27 Wluite Hart West Hoathley
• August 1 Rose and Crown Kings Langley
• August 9 Yelton Hastings
• September 12 The Anchor Bourne End
• September 13 Yelton Hastings
• September 19 Rodmill Eastbourne
• September 20 Lunch time - Snooks Hemel Hempstead
• September 26 Rose and Crown Kings Langley 

Castle is releasing remasters of Lawton'era Uriah Heep albums - Firefly, Innocent Victim and Fallen Angel, with some bonus tracks. Only one completely now track is "Been Hurt" on "Fallen Angel". One known version of this song is with John Sloman on vocals.

His previous project is a Lucifer's Friend album called "Sumogrip", recorded by the re-united band in 1994. Now Lawton is playing with his own band Gunhill, mainly small venues in England and Germany. He has recorded a demo tape with this band (see "albums" page - click on the left). In 1995 he replaced Bernie Shaw in Uriah Heep during the tour of South Africa and Austria. Some of those performances were recorded and tapes do currently change hands... But this was only a temporary arrangement, and as soon as Bernie got his voice back, Lawton left Heep again.

There was some info on the Heepsters mailing list a few months ago, concerning Lawton's current recordings and gigs with Gunhill, but they are not very fresh. We shall try to find out more in the future.

Here is this email (dated 14 March 97). Without spellchecking...

>Hello, you die hard friend of URIAH HEEP
>I am a friend of John Lawton and I sit in Germany ( Braunschweig),
>I am a member of the fantastic German Fan Club "Stay On Top"
>which is very busy and interested in some news.
> But here are some NEWS for you:
>John plays with his BAND-GUN HILL on some Concerts in Germany in 1997,
>they`ll bring stuff from the moving past such great Albums of "Firefly,
>Innocent Victim",and of old,old, old Tunes from LUCIFER`S FRIEND (very
>popular in the early '70's. This is my first message on INTERNET, but
>that won't be the last one.
>I've so much work to do to bring John Lawton back to the ROCK-SURFACE,
>and back were he belongs - right to the top babeeee'iii'ee  aah
> (Coverdale'1984)
>GUN HILL is still recording a brand newe CD in MARCH in London,
>and (Peter) will inform you on every move they make in the near future.
>Peter Bethge from Braunschweig/Lamme
>(I love everone, who loves KEN, MICK, DAVID, JOHN, LEE, GARY, BERNIE;
>PHIL;...TREVOR,

We have also Gunhill live reviews, and Lawton's interview, both from UHAS magazine, refer to Gunhill page. Vladimir Milovidov, 5 July 1997.

Other John Lawton - related news sources:

(c) 1997