Leedon Records

Other releases included singles by Duane Eddy, Huey Piano Smith, Dion & the Belmonts, Dick Dale and Little Junior Parker.

Although he was still contracted to Festival Records at the time, O'Keefe was able to work as a consultant to Leedon, and he signed a number of other prominent Australian artists including Lonnie Lee, The Delltones and Warren Williams.

According to Leedon employee Max Moore, O'Keefe did not receive a salary for this work, so he was compensated with an increase in his fee for appearances on Gordon's famous "Big Show" concert tours, on which he had become a regular featured attraction.

The Leedon "LK" series was started in June 1961 with Lonnie Lee's "You're Gonna Miss Me" and from this point on the label's releases were made up almost entirely of Australian artists.

Internationally, Leedon's most significant signing was a young British-born vocal trio, the Bee Gees, who recorded numerous singles and one LP for the label.

However their manager at that time, Nat Kipner had just been appointed to head new Sydney label Spin Records and he was able to negotiate the group's move from Leedon to Spin, in exchange for Festival being granted the Australian distribution rights to their subsequent recordings, a lucrative deal that continued for several years after the band moved back to UK in 1967 and signed internationally with the Robert Stigwood Organisation and Polydor.

In the mid-1960s Leedon released many classic beat-era singles and albums by bands including Ray Brown & the Whispers, The Showmen, The Pogs, The Amazons, which featured singer Johnny Cave (aka William Shakespeare) and bassist Harry Brus.

Johnny O'Keefe 1969