Lionheart

Formed in 1980 by Dennis Stratton (guitar) on his exit from Iron Maiden, he was joined in this crusade by vocalist Jess Cox (b. England, ex-Tygers Of Pan Tang), Frank Noon (Next Band/ Def Leppard) on drums, Steve Mann (Liar) on guitar and Rocky Newton (Wildfire) on bass. They made their highly impressive debut one Saturday night at the Marquee, London, but suffered from bad press thanks to criticism of Cox. This led to the cancellation of the next two appearances and saw Cox replaced by Reuben Archer (Lautrec). Noon quit in 1981 to join Paul Di’Anno’s band before setting off for Waysted. The nucleus of Stratton, Mann and Newton continued with various line-ups that included drummers Les Binks (Judas Priest) and Clive Edwards (Grand Prix). In 1982 they signed to Heavy Metal Records but only managed to release one track, on the Heavy Metal Heroes, Vol. 2 compilation. That track, ‘Lionheart’, remains the only representative recording of their early sound, as they later changed their style significantly. With the addition of Chad Brown on vocals and session drummer Robert Jenkins, they went on to record an album with producer Kevin Beamish (REO Speedwagon). This was a slick, Americanized effort that failed to capture the old fans’ interest or that of their target audience in the USA.


In 1985 the band continued with drummer Andy Bierne and Phil Lanzon (keyboards), who had been playing with re-formed glam rockers Sweet. After a while, Lanzon also left and was replaced by Steve Mann from Stratus and new vocalist Keith Murrell. They eventually split up in 1986, with Bierne going into management, Murrell to Mama’s Boys and Newton and Mann joining MSG. Stratton later found fame in Japan as part of the British All Stars/ Praying Mantis line-up, which featured a number of ex-New Wave Of British Heavy Metal musicians.