Lea Maalfrid


“Lea’s Leaving Home” was Rip It Up’s affectionate headline when singer-songwriter Lea Maalfrid departed New Zealand in August 1978. The singer-songwriter with the Greta Garbo cheekbones seemed to be on a fast track to fame.

She was leaving for Australia, intending to record some demos to take to Los Angeles. Already that year she had won the APRA Silver Scroll for her gorgeous piano ballad ‘Lavender Mountain’, and had supported Joe Cocker and Manhattan Transfer.

Lea Maalfrid - This Love (album, 2022)
Marcia Hines - Lavender Mountain (written by Lea Maalfrid)
The 1975 Ragnarok single Fenris
Lavender Mountain
Lea Maalfrid - Pleasure Machine 
Lea Maalfrid - Lavender Mountain
Ragnarok with Lea Maalfrid (L-R): Ramon York, Mark Jayet, Lea, Andre Jayet, Ross Muir.
Lea Maalfrid
Photo credit: Photo by David Roberts
Transformer and Lea Wyber - Crazy Feeling (Revolution) Lea Maalfrid
Joe Cocker appeared at the Founders on 19 June 1977, with a band that included Bobby Keyes and Nicky Hopkins. Lea Maalfrid was the support act. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, Eph-E-MUSIC-Popular-1977-01
Lea Maalfrid has performed very rarely in New Zealand since she left in the late 1970s, however this was one such occasion - at the 1984 New Zealand Music Awards
Camera script for Radio with Pictures, 22 October 1977. Performers were Skylord, Lea Maalfrid, Shannon. Skylord drew the short straw with a call time of 9.00am. 
Photo credit: Denis Doherty collection
Flyer for the 1973 tribute show to Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, performed by Otago University students in Dunedin and Auckland. Among the performers, many would achieve success in a variety of fields: Lea Wyber as songwriter Lea Maalfrid, Graham Wardrop as a guitarist, Tim Hazledine as a professor of economics, Ian Taylor as an animated graphics entrepreneur, Robin Mohi as a TV newsreader, Ross Somerville as an historian and editor, and Lachland Rutherford as an EMI executive. 
Photo credit: Ross Somerville collection
Bonnie Raitt - Storm Warning
Lea Maalfrid
Photo credit: Photo by David Roberts
Ragnarok with Lea Maalfrid
Lea Maalfrid on Debbie Harwood's 2007 Classic Hits radio series Give It A Girl
Ragnarok with their live PA, Lea Maalfrid at left. 
Mike Harvey and Lea Maalfrid with the 1977 APRA Silver Scroll award
Photo credit: Mike Harvey Collection
Sheena Easton - You Could Have Been With Me
Lea Maalfrid, 2022
Producer Mike Harvey and Lea Maalfrid recording Goddess of Love in the mid 1990s
Photo credit: Mike Harvey Collection
A Lutha poster for a 1973 NZBC concert at Otago University's Union Common Room; also on the bill is Lea Wyber aka Lea Maalfrid. 
Trivia:

In 1995, Storm Warning was covered by smooth jazz pianist Bob James and his daughter Hilary.

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