Chatting with Lee Fardon

I had the pleasure and honour of chatting with Lee Fardon recently. I first heard about Lee many years ago, when my friend Leigh brought me his album “Palestine”. I was hooked - and thank you Leigh!!  Lee is incredibly talented and fun to chat with. We spoke about his early days, his influences, his days with Arista Records and how the quarantine affected him. His partial bio is below. Lee is an English singer/songwriter, instrumentalist and recording artist. He was born in Battersea, south London in 1953. For his 10th birthday, Lee’s father brought him a Dansette record player and  the Bob Dylan’s album Freewheelin, which proved to have a profound influence on his future career. In the early 70’s Fardon played as a solo artist, playing folk based rock and roll in various London folk clubs such as The Nag's Head pub in Battersea,[1] The Crypt at St Martin in the Field, Trafalgar Square, The Mandrake Club in Soho and The Half Moon pub in Putney. At this time, he began writing his own lyrics. He was signed in 1977 by Arista Records when he formed his first band, Lee Fardon and the Legionaires. The Legionares played most of the pub rock venues in London including the Hope & Anchor, Islington, Finsbury Park Rainbow Theatre, The Hammersmith Odeon and the Marquee Club, where the band supported Dire Straits for four Sunday nights. By 1982 he was signed by Aura Records and formed The Lee Fardon band. [2] Subsequently, Lee toured with Dire Straits, was produced by Mark Knopfler and recorded with Annie Lennox. His second album received critical acclaim, notably, Alan Jones the editor of Melody Maker wrote that “The God Given Right” was “bold, thrilling and breathtakingly assured". [3]Journalist Patrick Humphreys, in an article in Melody Maker, described Fardon as “the God given writer”.[4] Difficult to categorize in a single genre Lee fuses rock, folk, soul and pure poetry. His new CD, “On the Up Beat: is amazing. It’s a fusion of the New Orlean’s sound and jazz. The youtube “The Making of On The Up Beat” shows the making of this CD. At Room with a View Studio. The video is created by his talented wife, Sharon Fuller, an extremely talented artist. I’ve linked his website and YouTube below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIAA4FgyIlo https://leefardonmusic.squarespace.com/