In 2012 Keith Newman spoke to Leo De Castro, guitarist Ray Oliver, promoter Bob Burns and soul singer Evan Silva to get the story of elusive singing legend Leo De Castro, who died 3 March 2019, age 70. Here is the second part of his story.
Leo De Castro Live at the Basement, Sydney, 1987 for the Voodoo Soul concerts. Photo: Bob Burns, Big Beat Music.
A series of sell-out concerts in the late 1980s celebrating the talent Leo De Castro, reassured the reclusive Kiwi singer that his contribution to Australian music had not been forgotten.
Although the CD of those performances never made it to the street until 20-years later, it was testimony to his enduring vocal gymnastics. Then when he reappeared in concert in Hobart in 2008 it finally put to rest persistent rumours of his death.
The wild boy from the King Country had arrived in Melbourne at the age of 18 after a career that began in his early teens when he hit our TV screens as New Zealand’s top Little Richard impersonator.
Across the Tasman he joined established band The Browns, formed King Harvest with top Australian players which, after chart success with two singles, migrated into Friends.
Friends had their own boogie, blues and rock ‘n roll hits, and were among the top acts at the 1973 Sunbury Music Festival.
When he left Friends in mid 1973, several members went on to form another iconic Australian band, Ayers Rock. Within a short time Leo joined up top musicians including members of Renee Geyer’s Mother Earth and a couple of Kiwis — guitarists Harris Campbell and Tui Richards — to create the Johnny Rocco Band.
The unit named after gangster boss Johnny Rocco; played by Edward G Robinson in the 1948 movie Key Largo, had a residency at the Polaris Room in the heart of Kings Cross playing funky music in their prohibition era pinstripes and felt hats.
They headed into the studio with Kiwi engineer Wahanui Wynyard to record their only album, Rocco, which featured the single 'Good Times', a Rare Earth cover, and a pre-Renee Geyer version of 'Heading in the Right Direction'.
For a time it looked like the Johnny Rocco Band were about to go international with Billboard magazine describing the album as “Dynamite” and a US tour planned.
They’d been signed by 20th Century Records who were behind Barry White and Edwin Starr, but for Leo, something didn’t feel right.
“I said to the guys don’t get your hopes up. Let’s wait till we get the tickets then we can celebrate. Someone took the money and ran. Our manager went over there to try and sort it out but he got a visit from a couple of the boys with things under their jackets who said back off or ‘bang, bang’.”
The manager freaked out and headed back to Australia via New Mexico. Leo doesn’t like to talk about the album much because of the disappointment and the fact that a number of the musicians no longer with us.
Band members went their own way either rejoining Renee Geyer or founding jazz-rock unit Crossfire, while Leo become a sought-after session singer.
Struggling with a drug addition that had hospitalised him and at times threatened to derail his career, Leo increasingly went bush, moving to Hobart for long periods or returning to New Zealand.
After a couple of years working in a timber mill in Queenstown his old bass player Tim Partridge contacted him to join 10-piece unit called Babylon which had minor success with a reggae cover of the Elvis Presley classic 'Suspicious Minds'.
Leo went off the radar again until promoter Bob Burns, who had first seen him perform 'Lucille' on an Australian TV show as a young teen, tracked him down in Hobart.
Burns lured him back to Sydney to perform in a sell out three concert series at Sydney’s famous musician’s venue The Basement in October 1987.
“Nothing that was recorded of Leo is even a fraction of what he was like at his best. The studio was not a natural environment for him and couldn’t capture the power, tone and richness of what he was like as a live performer,” says Burns.
At the Basement Leo de Castro was reunited with his Johnny Rocco Band members, Kiwi keyboardist Dave McRae and members of Air Supply, Moving Pictures and the Jules Holland R&B Orchestra.
A couple of months after the Basement Sessions Burns, still determined to capture the spontaneous vocal genius of Leo De Castro for future generations, got him together with two seasoned swing jazz bands
The resulting albums were later digitised and released in 2007 as Voodoo Soul and The Long White Clouds.
A series of sell out concerts in the late 1980s celebrating the talented Leo De Castro reassured the reclusive Kiwi singer that his contribution to Australian music had not been forgotten.
Although the CD of those performances never made it to the street until 20-years later, it was testimony to his enduring vocal gymnastics. Then when he reappeared in concert in Hobart in 2008 it finally put to rest persistent rumours of his death.
