Portsmouth Music Scene


The Portsmouth Music Scene

Lee Sutton

Real name Leonard Sutch, An English drag artiste of the 1960' & 1970's

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portsmouth news article 1970.jpg lee5 lee8
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In the early 1960's he recorded at Joe Meek's Holloway Road Studions as a straight vocalist.
Lee worked in the Portsmouth area continuosly in the 1970's at the Bishops Waltham Country Club and in Portsmouth at the Honky Tonk Bar in Southsea and many other local venues.

Who could resist a female impersonator who billed himself as "Lee Sutton, a Near Miss"? Lee, born Leonard Sutch, was very popular in London in the late 60s and early 70s and there were there albums released of his material. On the back cover of his last album (released after his death in 1978) it states that the greatest tribute, in Lee's mind, was paid to him when Danny La Rue asked him to work at his hotel at Christmas 1971 -- the only time that Danny had ever booked another female impersonator.

Lee died in August 1978 at Danny LaRue's country house hotel, Walton Hall in Warwickshire.

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Joe Meek ?– 'Work In Progress - The Triumph Sessions' RPM Records (2) ?– RPM121 2 × Vinyl, LP, Compilation UK Released: 1994
Lee Sutton We Ain't Giving Nothing Away.
Lee Sutton Keep Your Sunny Side Up.

"Presenting Lee Sutton, a Near 'Miss'" (Jubilee LP 2073, UK, 1968)
(LP)(Columbia / EMI
SCX 6284 also Jubilee 2073; 1968)
Vinyl 1968 USA LP. Stereo version. Features drag artist Lee Sutton in six skits. Recorded at the Union Tavern Camberwell, London.
Track Listing
Side A
1. Open The Show With A Bang
2. Navy Blues
Side B
3. The Lady's A Fake
4. Let's Go Commercial
5. Coffee Without
6. Tavern In The Town

Drag For Camp Followers
Lee Sutton, vocals and piano
Accompanied By – The Cliff Harper Trio
Columbia ?– SCX 6481 1971
Recorded At – Bishops Waltham Country Club
Tracklisting
A1a Introduces
A1b Bona Eke
A1c At The Club
B1a Introduces
B1b Drag-Bag
B1c Sing Along With Me
B1d Fiddle-De-Dee

"The Best of Lee Sutton (a Near Miss) - Uncensored" (EMI LP 163, UK, 1979)
--also, one other UK album on EMI, possibly called "A Bang in the Alley"


Hear Lee Sutton on You Tube
a rare recording of Lee Sutton at the Union Tavern in 1968 and Bishops Waltham

- Lee Sutton at the Union Tavern -

- Lee Suttun at Bishops Waltham -


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