23 Facts About Deke Leonard

Roger Arnold "Deke" Leonard was a Welsh rock musician, "serving a life sentence in the music business".

Deke Leonard formed his first band, Lucifer and the Corncrackers, with Mike Rees, Geoff Griffiths and Clive "Wes" Reynolds, in 1962, whilst still at Llanelli Grammar School, taking his stage name from "Deke" Rivers, the character played by Elvis Presley in his second film Loving You.

Deke Leonard joined The Jets, on keyboards, but preferred playing guitar, so reformed The Corncrackers with additional guitarist Brian Breeze, before replacing Vic Oakley as bass player in The Blackjacks, with whom he toured US bases in Europe.

Deke Leonard initially stayed with Man until they were mixing their second album 2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle, then left to join his wife in Llanelli.

Deke Leonard became productivity manager in a piano factory, but quit after supporting a wild-cat strike, and was accepted back into the band, whilst Man's original bass player and drummer were replaced by Leonard's former Dream colleagues, Martin Ace and Terry Williams.

Deke Leonard joined Help Yourself to avoid them having to cancel a tour, as Malcolm Morley was ill, but stayed on after Morley rejoined, recording Christmas at the Patti on 19 December 1972, as support to Man.

Deke Leonard recorded his first 'solo' album Iceberg, with Mike Gibbins, Byron Berline, Tommy Riley, Martin Ace, Beau Adams and all of Help Yourself.

Deke Leonard rejoined Man in January 1974, bringing Malcolm Morley and Ken Whaley with him.

Deke Leonard stayed until Man disbanded in December 1976, playing on all the albums from Rhinos, Winos, and Lunatics to All's Well That Ends Well.

When Man disbanded, Deke Leonard still had a solo record contract, so recorded Before Your Very Eyes, with Martin Ace, Terry Williams and others.

Deke Leonard briefly played with Sean Tyla in the Tyla Gang, appearing on their 1977 album Yachtless, then reformed Iceberg, initially with Lincoln Carr and Terry Williams.

Deke Leonard briefly moved to the USA in 1981, where he worked on Walter Egan's album The Last Stroll, before rejoining Sean Tyla to form The Force with Micky Groome and Paul Simmons.

In 1983 Deke Leonard disbanded Iceberg again, to join the reforming Man, playing with them until 1996, when he suffered a minor stroke.

In 2002 Deke Leonard issued Unfinished Business a CD of demos, rejects and out-takes.

Later that year Micky Jones had several operations on a brain tumour, but in 2004, when Jones had recovered enough to rejoin, Deke Leonard decided to leave Man again.

In 2004, Deke Leonard formed another Iceberg, with former Man bassist Will Youatt, guitarist Clive "Snob" Roberts and Bob Richards.

In 2004, Deke Leonard recorded a solo album Freedom and Chains, the studio time being sponsored by 56 "Angels" who are credited in the sleeve-notes; and in 2005, a collection of Iceberg recordings for 1970s radio shows, including John Peel, was released as Wireless.

Deke Leonard started his writing career with sleeve notes for the 1970s Man albums.

Deke Leonard read extracts from the books for a series of BBC radio programmes It's Crazy Man which won "Best Radio Documentary" at the 2006 Celtic Film and Television Festival and were nominated for a Sony Radio Academy "Special Music Award" in 2006.

Deke Leonard has toured a one-man show, retelling selections of his rock'n'roll anecdotes, interspersed with songs, and has regularly appeared at the Dylan Thomas Literary Weekend in Laugharne.

Deke Leonard has appeared as panellist, commentator and narrator on several television and radio programmes including: Pub Rock Quiz, Rock Of Ages, Dragons Breath, Tales Of The Road and Juke Box Heroes.

Also in 2015, a collection magazine articles, Deke Leonard Speaks: A collection of musings and diary notes from "The Welsh Connection", was published for Kindle.

See Man discography for the 25 + albums Deke Leonard made with Man.