Leo De Castro's full name is Kiwi Leo
De Castro Kino. He was born in the King Country and in 1966 his family moved to
Auckland. Leo started hanging around the Auckland club scene and his break came
when he joined the Dallas Four in 1968 while they were playing at the
Platterack. In doing so he added a fiery soul style that went down well and gave
new impetus to the band. Leo only stayed with them for about six months before
deciding to go for a solo career.

Leo was regarded by many in the industry as
having the best soul voice around. He was praised for his vocal abilities and
was always able to gather quality musicians around him. Obviously the record companies didn't agree
as nobody offered him a recording contract. Bad mistake, as he went on to
do wonderful things in Australia.

In 1969 Leo headed for Sydney and joined the Browns, which included Ronnie Peel from the
Pleazers. He then worked with Leo
and Friends. That band broke up at the start of 1970, so in September 1970 he
formed King
Harvest. They immediately earned acclaim as one of the leading 'heavy'
bands on the burgeoning Melbourne progressive rock circuit. There were lots of
line-up changes, John Williams from the Rebels, joined mid 1971. King
Harvest broke up in September 1971, when De Castro formed Flite for a
couple of months, but by December 1971 he had formed a different group called Friends.
By mid 1973 Friends had broken up, not before performing at Sunbury 1973,
so De Castro formed the short-lived New King Harvest, but by the end of
the year a new band was formed, called De Castro.

De Castro, as a group, played a mix of
funk, soul, rock and blues. It was a style he would pursue for the rest of his
career. Later in the year Leo joined Sydney funk outfit, Johnny Rocco Band,
recording "Heading In The Right Direction", later made more famous by Renee
Geyer. In 1976, De Castro formed Cahoots, but by May 1977, the band
was billed as Leo De Castro and Rocco, and by the end of the year it was
the Leo De Castro Band. Then came Heavy Division in 1978, followed
by Le De Castro and Babylon in December 1978.

In the early eighties, De Castro moved to
Tasmania, where he continued to play with various combinations of groups. In
October 1987, he gathered a group of musicians under the Friends banner
for a series of shows at the Basement in Sydney.

In 1995 De Castro returned to New Zealand.
For what is probably New Zealand's best passionate soulful voice, Leo De Castro
was very seldom recorded. Over the course of 25 years, Leo recorded just seven
singles, two with King Harvest, two with Friends, two with Johnny
Rocco Band and one with Babylon. There was one album with Johnny
Rocco Band called "Rocco".