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LEAPY LEE
(ARTIST BIOGRAPHY) Musician, comedian
and actor Leapy Lee is perhaps best know for his hit record ‘Little
Arrows’. It was written by Albert Hammond, released in the UK in
August 1968 and went straight into the charts. It remained there for
twenty-one weeks in eighteen countries enjoying global sales of
nearly 3,500,000. This earned Leapy Lee a coveted gold disc. It
spent fourteen weeks on the US bestsellers peaking at number twelve.
Leapy was born in 1939 in Eastbourne, Sussex, the only child of
Kathleen and William. He was educated at Bourne Secondary Modern and
went on to have his first taste of work as a bingo Caller, club
Manager and Barrow Boy in the Portobello Road.
His first professional gig was in 1955 at The Panorama Espresso
Lounge, Eastbourne with his London debut at Metropolitan Theatre,
Edgeware Road, the following year. His first season was in 1958 at
the London Palladium in a show called Large as Life. He went onto
appear in Johnny the Priest (Players Theatre, London), Oh Dad, Poor
Dad, I’ve Locked You in the Closet (Lyric Theatre) and Sparpers
Can’t Sing (Theatre Workshop, Stratford and Criterion Theatre,
London).
Leapy’s first record was released on Pye Records in 1962 called
‘It’s All Happening’, however his first major hit arrived eight
years later in the guise of ‘Little Arrows’ reaching number one in
eighteen countries.
Leapy moved to Saudia Arabia as a show producer in 1976 and in 1983
moved to his present home in Mallorca where he opened a bar with
Andrew Ray, son of comedian Ted Ray. It didn’t last and in 1985 he
started the cabaret circuit continuing to entertain the crowds to
this day. Between 1998 and 2001 Leapy and his family featured
prominently in the BBC television series ‘Passport to the Sun’
fronted by, first Liza Tarbuck then Nadia Sawalha.
He has appeared on TV, in film, on radio and the stage as one of the
UK’s original all-round entertainers. |