Lucifer (British band)


Lucifer was a British solo rock project active in the early 1970s, the alias of Denys Irving. Howard Marks clearly states in his autobiography Mr Nice, that Lucifer was the solo work of Denys Irving.
This admission by Marks went unnoticed for years, so the identity of Lucifer was often falsely attributed to Peter Walker of The Purple Gang, due to the fact Walker started calling himself Lucifer in the late sixties.
There are also references to Lucifer and Denys Irving in the biography Howard Marks, His Life and High Times by David Leigh, and the e-book Rogue Males: Richard Burton, Howard Marks and Sir Richard Burton by Rob Walters. Denys Irving is also mentioned in the book A history of artists' film and video in Britain, 1897 - 2004, by David Curtis. The records were only available via mail order through adverts in papers such as Oz magazine, Record Mirror, New Musical Express and International Times.

Biography

Denys George Irving was born on 4 January 1944 in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, and attended Dulwich College, where he won the Fawkes Memorial Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was married to the actress Merdelle Jordine, 'Timeslip' with whom he had a child. On 5 August 1976 Denys Irving was killed in a hang gliding accident at Mill Hill, Sussex. Denys was also a pioneer in early computer animation. Some of his work has recently been shown at the Tate Gallery, and his films are held in the LUX collection.

Legacy

In 1997 Cheater Slicks included a cover version of Lucifer's "Hypnosis" on their double CD Forgive Thee. In 2000, John Miller released a cover version of Lucifer's "Winter" on his Preference album. Venien has recorded a tribute version of "Fuck You" entitled "FvkU!" with his new group Dirty FvKn! Pistols which will be released shortly. In 2012 the English composer Simon Rackham released the track "Lucifer's Song". Since the re-release of Big Gun by Dynamic, every mention of Lucifer seems to include the reference to it being the work of the "acid-ravaged mind of Peter 'Lucifer' Walker ex-The Purple Gang". This unfounded attribution appears to come from the Rock Encyclopedia books by Vernon Joynson, but he gives no sources for his information, and Julian Cope also makes this error in his 2006 Head Heritage Exit LP review. The Denys Irving attribution comes from Howard Marks, Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine, Naomi Zack,, and Denys' brother Andrew.

Discography

Albums