Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends

Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends is the début album of English rock singer Screaming Lord Sutch (b. David Sutch). It was recorded in September 1969 at Mystic Studios in Hollywood and released on Atlantic Records on 25 May 1970. The album featured an all-star line-up with contributions from Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page (who also co-produced the album) and John Bonham, guitarist Jeff Beck, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, and Jimi Hendrix Experience bass-player Noel Redding. Rick Brown and Carlo Little were previously with The Savages. Page and Bonham were using some of these sessions to test out Mystic Studios as a possible recording venue for Led Zeppelin II. Many of the musicians who sessioned for Sutch on this album later had grave misgivings upon its release. They were under the assumption these were demo quality recordings of rock standards, unaware that Lord Sutch would be adding lyrics and vocals at a later date, and releasing it as an album. As a result the artists disowned the project and the album did poorly saleswise.

This album has also been released in May 1985 under the title Smoke and Fire (Thunderbolt THB LC 2002).