  After leaving A Foot In Cold Water in 1978, Hughie Leggat (also formerly of The Lords of London and Nucleus prior to that) formed the short-lived Thunder Road, then recruited younger brother Gordie to help write some songs and come up with a new band. The London, ON brothers took on the guitar duties and assembled Private Eye with bassist Howard Warden and Paul Stamp on drums.Michael Cohl agreed to manage them and they began doing the Toronto area circuit when they were signed to Capitol Records in 1980. They took a dozen songs the Leggat’s had written and came out of Phase One Studios late that year with a collection of tracks that were rock without being edgey, soft without being sappy. The band’s eponomyous album was released in the spring of ’81 and featured ‘the hard side’ and ‘the soft side.’ “Your Place Or Mine” and “Beneath The Wheels” were released as the ‘hard’ singles, along with the reflective “Changes,” backed with “Everybody Knows.” The band continued the tour schedule a little while longer. But without proper support from the label, they called it quits before year’s end, and all four members would go on to other projects, or disappear all together. The Leggat brothers formed Leggatt and released the double album ILLUMINATIONS in ’82. They too would drop out of the scene until resurfacing as the Mississippi Hippies and cutting a self-titled album in 2005.  PRIVATE EYE (1981) What Do You Want From Me Your Place Or Mine Good Girl Gone Bad Beneath The Wheels Changes I Hate To Tell You Everybody Knows Stay Until The Morning Come My Way |
