DEKE LEONARD

Before Your Very Eyes (1979)

(UK) United Artists UAG 30240 

SIDE ONE:

  1. Someone Is Calling 3:15 (Leonard)
  2. Fools Like Me  3:15  (Leonard)
  3. Marlene  3:00  (Leonard)
  4. Oh  2:51  (Leonard)
  5. When Am I Coming Back  4:35  (Leonard)
  6. Get Off The Line  3:10   (Leonard)

SIDE TWO:

  1. Hiding In The Darkness  4:20   (Leonard)
  2. Big Hunk Of Love  2:18   (Leonard)
  3. I Feel Like A Pill  3:00 (Leonard)
  4. The World Exploded In My Face  3:50  (Leonard)
  5. What Do We Do When The Money Runs Out?  3:55 (Leonard)
  6. Bad Luck  3:59  (Leonard)

The Band 

Deke Leonard -- Guitar, Piano, Vocals (All) 
Martin Ace -- Bass (A:1,2,3,5,6; B:2,3,4,5)
Dave Charles -- Drums (All except B:6)
Malcolm Morley--Keyboards (All except B:6)
John McKenzie -- Bass (A:4; B:6)
Chris Parren--Organ (A:4)
Terry Williams -- Drums, Backing Vocals (B:6)
Ron Francois -- Bass (B:1)
Produced by Martin Rushent at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth; Eden Studios; Olympic Studios, Barnes; and Advision. 
Engineers: Dave Charles, at Rockfield,
Martin Rushent at Advision,
Aldo Bocca, at Eden..

Liner Notes by Deke:

O.K.  Here we go.  This sleeve not is liable to get very complicated because as soon as I get to the end of these things I remember some vital piece of information I have forgotten about.  So this ocean of facts will probably be jumpled up, certainly not in any logical or chronological order, but stick with me and by the end you will know as much as I do about this record, which is not a log. 

First I'd like to give you some idea of time.  As I write this Skylab is about to crash down on our heads, braining those fortunate enough to have brains, (Me? I have no cause for concern) Bjorn Borg has just won Wimbledon for the fourth time, and my local off-licence has run out of Sangria. 

This record started life about a year and a half ago in Rockfield Studios when I spent about two weeks of occasional recording getting some new songs down on tape.  Several of those songs appear on this record re-recorded, but one appears in its original Rockfield glory.  That song is 'Bad Luck'.  Terry Williams played, drums, John McKenzie played bass, John McKenzie played bass, and Dave Charles engineered.  Vocal backing was done by Billy Bremner, Terry Williams, Malcolm Morley, Anton Mathews, myself and Dave Edmunds who also organized it all because he's good at handling drunks.  A bit like the blind leading the blind.  The brass was added later but I'll get to that in a minute. 

The rest of the record was recorded at Eden Studios, Olympic Studios and Advision round about the month of April '79.  We started by doing the backing tracks at Eden.  Dave Charles played the drums, Malcolm Morley played the keyboards, and Martin Ace played the bass on everything except 'Hiding in the Darkness' on which Ron Francois played, and 'Oh' on which John McKenzie played.  Chris Parren did the organ on 'Oh' but that was a few days later at advision.  The engineer at Eden was Aldo Bocca, a fellow card-sharp, and the Tape-Op was Neal King, who seems to know millions of ladies who ring him up every two minutes or so.  I asked him what was the secret of his charm but he just smiled.  A nice smile.  The kind that makes millions of ladies want to ring it up every two minutes or so.  Anyway we watched a lot of T.V., talked a lot, played around with a pack of cards a lot and waited for the producer to arrive a lot.  But we all like to work fast when we finally get round to working and it was soon in the can.  A very enjoyable few days. 

Then we moved to Advision to do the vocals and the odd overdub.  The backing vocals were done by Martin Rushent, Malcolm Morley and me, with the exception of 'Get off the Line' and 'Marlene' which I will come to in a minute.  Martin Rushent engineered and was assisted, or hampered as the case may be, by Ken Thomas, Nick Walker and Laurence Diana who seem to exist in a Hugh Hefner kind of world. 

Then we moved to Olympic to do the brass and the rest of the backing vocals, becaause we needed a big room.  At this point we had a stroke of luck.  The Tina Turner Band was in town and we were lucky to get Lenny Macaluso, the guitar player and leader of the band, to do the brass arrangements for us.  Bobby Patrick spent three sleepless days and nights copying all the parts in time.  Thank you, Bobby.  Anne Roseberry did a brass arrangement for 'What am I gonna do when the money runs out' and part of it was used together with Lenny's parts.  The brass players were Chris Mercer, tenor and baritone, Ron Aspery, tenor, and Martin Drover, trumpet. 

Then came the singing.  Also from the tina Turner Band came Kenny Moore and Billy Haynes.  They were joined by Vicky Silver and Doreen Chanter.  They did 'Get off the Line' and 'Marlene'. 

The engineer was Laurence Burrage and the Tape-Op was Phil Chapman who is really an engineer but he helped us out at the last minute. 

Then back to Advision for the mixing.  We also put some handclaps on, and these were done by Martin Ace, Martin Rushent, Malcolm Morley, Virginia Peck, Jan Stevens and me. 

The whole caboodle was produced by martin Rushent, who is like a cross between Mahatma Gandhi and Idi Amin.  The record was cut byu the magical George Peckham.  The Pictures on the cover were done by the magical Brian Griffin, and the cover was done by the magical John Pasche. 

Finally I would like to thank the following people.  Will Youatt whose work on the demo of 'When am I coming back' contributed so much to the final arrangement.  Jenny and Barry Marshall and the entire office staff for all their help in making this record a pleasant and smooth ride.  John Eichler for absolutely nothing. And Eryl Maynard for keeping my body and soul from killing each other, and smoothing my fevered brow. 

This record is dedicated to Ilie Natase, George Best, Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and Mohammed Ali. 

Well that's it.  Now you know as much as I do, which as I said before is not a lot.  So take care.  See ya, 

--Deke 


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