The

Discography

Single "King Of The Rock'n Roll Party" © 1973 This is Lake's second single, released in late 1973. The formation of the band was still far from the successful 1976 line up which eventually released their debut album. At this level the band included the musicians Osete "Lilo" Malagia [guitar], a small brass section consisting of Benny Whelan [trumpet] and Gerd Beliaeff [saxophone and trombone], as well as drummer Freddy Graack. Lead singer at this time was Ian Cussick, who later pursued a solo career. Other than these Martin Tiefensee, Detlef Petersen and Geoffrey Peacey were already with Lake. This song is a collaboration of keyboarder Geoffrey Peacy and Hamburg-based John O'Brien Docker.

Single "Sailor" © 1974 As could be ascertained this was Lake's third single. The cover shows only five band members, already including lead vocalist James Hopkins-Harrison. Ian Cussick had left the band at this time. It appears the other musicians shown on the cover are drummer Dieter Ahrendt, Geoffrey Peacey, Martin Tiefensee and Detlef Petersen. Alex Conti was still missing with this formation. "Sailor" was once again composed by Peacy and O'Brien Docker.

"Lake" © 1976 This is the highly successful first album of Lake. The opener "On The Run" was a hit for the band, immediately catching the public interest. The album yielded a single hit, "Time Bomb", which eventually hit #13 in the US charts. This song was produced by Geoffrey Peacy and James Hopkins-Harrison. Detlef Petersen was responsible for the production of all other songs on this album. By the way, this is not the original cover artwork !

"Lake II"   © 1978 The pressure for success raised tremendously after the success of the debut album, therefore different production locations for these recordings were booked : beside Hamburg, also Wales and Colorado. To "have to wait" two years for the next release was rather unusual at that time, especially for a German rock band. The album was again produced by Detlef Petersen, plus the entire band Lake.

"Paradise Island"  © 1979 I recall vividly how the eyes of the German music-scene were set on Lake in 1979 ... because of the fact that both first releases were excellent in manners of quality and have been very successful everybody was very anxious for the third release. The result was a brilliant piece of work, in comparison to international standards, but it was also obvious that the success wasn't as much as with the first two albums. But the album once again contains a lot of songs that are still classics to fans [like "Into The Night", "Glad To Be Here" and "The Final Curtain"].

"Ouch !" © 1980 After three of the six band members had left and Lake had to be reformed this is album #4 and brought a completely reformed line up. Suprisingly the deep cut into the band's history didn't have a negative effect on the quality of Lake's music, and songs like "Celebrate", "Jamaica High" and "Living For Today" have shown. It's the first album with Achim Oppermann who later turned out to be Lake's major songwriter together with James Hopkins-Harrison. My personal tip : "Listen To Me" - the social critic announcement about the situation of north British coal mine workers.

"Hot Day" © 1981 Lake could not slow down : after more changes in line up "Hot Day" points out clearly the personal style of James Hopkins-Harrison, who had written most of the songs together with guitarist Achim Oppermann. The album was recorded in Berlin and co-produced by Udo Arndt. Ballad of the century : "We Can Try".

"Lake Live ... On The Run" © 1982 After a collaboration of six years with Lake and decreasing success the recording contract was obviously discontinued. CBS took the chance and released this double-live album, where all the great hits and songs come in live versions. These recordings were made in the years of 1979 and 1980 with contributions of the original, successful line up of the first three longplayers, as well as the reformed band including Achim Oppermann. It's very interesting to see and hear Lake's bow on Steely Dan with the cover version of "Black Friday".

"No Time For Heroes" © 1984 With their new recording company Polydor in the back Lake pursued a powerful comeback. At this point, the Lake sound became more European, using more dance rhythms and synthesized dance sounds. But many fans were dissatisfied about this and the album failed success with the sales. Nevertheless : there are outstanding compositions and high quality arrangements contained on this release, as "Continental Vagabond" and "Dreams In The Night" prove. My personal favorite : "Tell me Why" and "Scotsman", James' intimate and ironical Scotland hymn.

"Voices" © 1985 After "No Time For Heroes" had failed success the frustration within the lineup of Lake grew. The band was touring the north of Germany most of the time but the record sales didn't rise despite the high standards. The same is true with this album, "Voices". "Alright" and "More Than A Feeling" were once again songs with a great hit potential. The album was in fact more or less a duet effort of Achim Oppermann and James Hopkins-Harrison with additional session musicians, because both were responsible for the production and most of the songwriting.

"So What" © 1986 Lake's last official release of new songs, similarly based on the creativity of Opperman and Hopkins-Harrison as the predecessor was. With "In The Midnight", the title song "So What" and "My Emotions" there were once again three potential hit songs included. "So What" also contains the song "Inside To Outside" which has been a major hit for former Kajagoogoo lead singer, Limahl. This circumstance shows that the quality of Lake's compositions [and especially Achim Oppermann's skills] at this late point was much better than people had expected it to be, considered the little success they received at the time.

"Greatest Hits"  © 1990 This is a collection put together by Lake's former recording company CBS, therefore only consisting of songs that were recorded up to 1981. Except for the fact that 17 songs are included "Greatest Hits" isn't worth the mention. But it may be a good choice for people who'd like to have an overview of Lake's CBS years.

"Definitive Collection"  © 1997 This 'Definitive Collection' is once again a summary of the CBS years of Lake. Most interesting is the bonus CD, where we can find two live tracks taken from the "On The Run" live album, plus two solo pieces of former lead guitarist Alex Conti [which actually have nothing to do with Lake's catalogue of songs].