1970s
Leon began the 1970s by re-recording the whole of his album Songs For Sceptical Circles, for his new label, Acorn. Thereafter he released a new studio set (Hugga Mugga) - but the rest of the
first
half of the decade was dominated by major stage and performance projects. From 1970 to 1972, Leon worked for Inter-Action, a community organisation based in London and founded by Ed Berman. Leon was
awarded a bursary from the Arts Council which funded him for two
years, writing scripts and songs for the group from a small office in Chalk
Farm, just north of Camden. There
are something like 30 new songs known from this phase of work, most of them
children’s songs. Many have never been recorded, but the bulk of them would
appear in the 1974 songbook, That’s Not
The Way It’s Got To Be.
Elsewhere, Leon wrote the most successful of his several plays, The Last of the Studleys, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the afternoon of July 15, 1972, with Raymond Francis and Geoffrey Beevers appearing. (Leon also wrote three others prior to 1974, all of which were performed by professional troupes at the the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.)
His next major project was composing the songs for the stage adaptation of the Horace McCoy novel, They Shoot Horses Don’t They. The production, adapted by Ray Herman and directed by Caroline Smith, premiered in March 1973, and ran at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. We know of 11 songs which Leon contributed. Only four of them have ever been released on disc, but all were presented as sheet music in the songbook, That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be (1974).
After this, Leon resumed his regular recording work, collaborating for the rest of the 1970s with Roy Bailey. Together they released a trilogy of albums between 1975 and 1979, which remain among Leon's most popular LPs.
Leon also continued with his interest in writing for the stage, with his latest play, Life Is What You Make It, premiering at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in September 1978. It was also staged at The Crucible in Sheffield (where They Shoot Horses had earlier played - see above) and was performed at the Almost Free theatre in Soho, run by Ed Berman, where the entrance fee was whatever one wanted to pay. The play starred Leon and Roy Bailey, plus Mike Carter and Pam Scotcher.
Elsewhere, Leon wrote the most successful of his several plays, The Last of the Studleys, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the afternoon of July 15, 1972, with Raymond Francis and Geoffrey Beevers appearing. (Leon also wrote three others prior to 1974, all of which were performed by professional troupes at the the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.)
His next major project was composing the songs for the stage adaptation of the Horace McCoy novel, They Shoot Horses Don’t They. The production, adapted by Ray Herman and directed by Caroline Smith, premiered in March 1973, and ran at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre. We know of 11 songs which Leon contributed. Only four of them have ever been released on disc, but all were presented as sheet music in the songbook, That’s Not The Way It’s Got To Be (1974).
After this, Leon resumed his regular recording work, collaborating for the rest of the 1970s with Roy Bailey. Together they released a trilogy of albums between 1975 and 1979, which remain among Leon's most popular LPs.
Leon also continued with his interest in writing for the stage, with his latest play, Life Is What You Make It, premiering at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in September 1978. It was also staged at The Crucible in Sheffield (where They Shoot Horses had earlier played - see above) and was performed at the Almost Free theatre in Soho, run by Ed Berman, where the entrance fee was whatever one wanted to pay. The play starred Leon and Roy Bailey, plus Mike Carter and Pam Scotcher.
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Songs For Sceptical Circles [second version] LP, Acorn, 1970 |
|
The Word is Hugga Mugga Chugga Lugga Humbugga Boom Chit LP, Trailer, 1971 |
|
That's Not the Way It's Got to Be LP, Acorn, 1975 |
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Palaces of Gold LP, Acorn, 1975 |
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Love Loneliness Laundry LP, Acorn, 1977 |
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If I Knew Who the Enemy Was LP, Acorn, 1979 |