Leo de Kroo (born 8 July 1941) is an Australian pop and country music singer, and an accomplished luthier.
[1] De Kroo initially began his music as a solo artist in Perth, Western Australia before he met up with his "brother" Doug, a Perth born singer, who had formed the band the 'Bob Kats' and then later changed that name to 'The Red Rockets', a Skiffle group, and then after the skiffle boom ended, changed their name again to 'The Roulettes'.
[5] As the Red Rockets and later The Roulettes, de Kroo and the band would occasionally play at Scarborough's 'Ye Olde 'Kool-Korner' Kafe', a milk-bar that had an outside jukebox, a venue that later became known as 'The Snake-Pit'.
Putting their car 'George', a Ford Anglia, on a ship they departed on a four-day voyage to Adelaide, and after sight seeing that city over 3 days, they drove the rest of the way to Melbourne.
After reaching Sydney, The De Kroo Bros also entered the world of all the major television shows at the time simply by telling the producers they were good enough.
[9] Brian Henderson and Bandstand travelled with The De Kroo Bros in 1965 to Canberra for early versions of today's ubiquitous talent shows, and even to Papua New Guinea for filming and such.
In October 1961 The De Kroo Bros played as the support bill for the Cliff Richard and the Shadows Show tour of Australia and New Zealand,[13] and with their new record company successfully reached a top 10 single on the national charts with "(And Her Name Is) Scarlet" (released 1963) which reached hit single status in Australia in 1963, especially in the cities of Sydney (#4), Brisbane (#1), and Perth (#5).
[14] "(And Her Name Is) Scarlet", had been written by Herb Newman,[15][16] although the writer credit on record labels has been to a pseudonym, either Barry Stuart or Steven Howard, and had been released in America by Bob Wilson.
[13] By 1965 Leo and Doug were so popular that the Australian Women's Weekly even included a "how-to" article on knitting a mohair Beatles style jacket just like those worn by the De Kroo "top pop boys".