Michael Andrew Leadbitter (12 March 1942 – 16 November 1974) was a British writer, researcher, magazine editor, and a leading authority on blues music, who had an important role in the revival of interest in the blues, particularly in the UK in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Mike Leadbitter was born in Simla, India, but grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea, England.
He attended Bexhill Grammar School, and began buying rock and roll and rhythm and blues records and magazines in his mid teens, often on import from the US.
[2] He took on the role of reviews editor, and was particularly responsible for compiling discographies of major blues artists such as B.B.
His health suffered through overwork, and after contracting a virus he developed meningitis, dying in hospital in London in 1974 at the age of 32.