Roger Arnold "Deke" Leonard (18 December 1944 – 31 January 2017) was a Welsh rock musician, "serving a life sentence in the music business".
He formed his first band, Lucifer and the Corncrackers, with Mike Rees (vocals), Geoff Griffiths (drums) and Clive "Wes" Reynolds (bass), 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.
[3] Leonard also 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.
On his return, he rejoined The Jets, with Tony "Plum" Hollis on vocals, Martin Ace (bass) and Beau Adams (drums).
[2] In November 1968, Leonard joined The Bystanders, to replace Vic Oakley (again), just as the band changed their musical direction, from close harmony pop to a psychedelic/American west coast style, and their name to Man.
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.
He 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.
Leonard recorded his first 'solo' album Iceberg, with Mike Gibbins (Badfinger), Byron Berline (The Flying Burrito Brothers), Tommy Riley, Martin Ace, Beau Adams and all of Help Yourself.
Leonard briefly moved to the USA in 1981, where he worked on Walter Egan's album The Last Stroll,[12] before rejoining Sean Tyla to form The Force with Micky Groome (bass) and Paul Simmons (drums).
After extensive touring, they recorded an eponymous album, The Force but Tyla suffered severe stage fright and left the band, which became another Iceberg.
[14] He has also 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.
[16] His fourth book, the third in his autobiographical series, Maximum Darkness: Man on the Road to Nowhere was launched at Micky Jones' 4th Memorial Jam on 13 December 2014, although officially published in January 2015.