It all started way back in 1976 when Rick Savage, Tony Kenning and Pete Doubleday started a band called Atomic Mass. Savage & Doubleday were on guitar and Kenning on drums. They brought in Andy Nicholas on bass and lead vocals were handled by Nick Mackley. Andy would leave and Rick moved to bass while Pete Willis was brought in on guitar. The singer left to be replaced by multiple singers who came and went. It was a revolving door of musicians.
Finally, things started to take shape. Joe Elliott came in and auditioned at only 18, but to play guitar not sing. He had met Pete on a bus back in November 1977. While auditioning, I guess his guitar playing was only so-so as they felt he was better as the lead singer. Then finally the last missing piece was added in January 1978 with the late-great Steve Clark on guitar. At this point, there was still no Rick Allen.
Now, they needed a new band name and Joe suggested they go by Deaf Leopard. Thanks to Tony, they changed the spelling to be more in the style of Led Zeppelin and Tony thought it would look less punk.
The band went to record the E.P. Fairview Studios in Hull, England way back in November of 1978 and it was self-produced. However, right before the recording, Tony Kenning quit and they used drummer Frank Noon from a band that called themselves “The Next Band”. Shortly thereafter, the band hired a 15 year old kid to be the drummer named Rick Allen. The E.P. only included three songs and was recorded by a band that was quite different than the band you know and love today.
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