Released in March 1981, Before Your Very Eyes is the legacy of Deke Leonard's post Manband solo career. Recording sessions started at Rockfield in late 1977, and then picked up again in April 1979 at Eden, Advision and Olympic studios. The record very nearly didn't see the light of day as Andrew Lauder's replacement A&R man at United Artists didn't like it. After a two year delay, and the takeover of UA by EMI the album escaped eventually but was given no publicity. Deke has wryly described it as; "A star crossed album", and original vinyl copies remain pretty rare.

'Someone Is Calling' was performed frequently by the 'Slow Motion' era Manband, but is here at last realised to its full potential. 'Fools Like Me', a savage satire on the stupidity of warfare was also known as 'Killing Germans' and contains some distinctive Leonard guitar lines. Will Youatt gets a namecheck for helping on the arrangement for 'When Am I Coming Back', Deke is in fine voice on 'Hiding In The Darkness' and gets to do his Elvis impersonation on 'Big Hunk Of Love'. 'What Am I Gonna Do When The Money Runs Out?' gets the big production treatment with a full brass section over a twelve bar stomp, and two bonus tracks, 'Map Of India' and 'Hey There!(Lady In The Black Tuxedo)' originally released as two sides of a single round things off.

(www.manband-archive.com)