Lee "Spike" Ryder (Spike being the name Mick Taylor calls him) has been around the music scene around 38 years ,born in Kingsbury, N.W.London, the son of a professional accordion player Laurie who played with the world famous Prima Scala Accordion Band.
Lee naturally started life playing accordion at 7 years old and was taught by the Legendary Martin Lukins,he learnt to sight read music at the age of 9 and was playing in Martin's orchestra .The youngest in the band  was 23.....Lee was 9!!!!
At this time everybody was playing guitar,Lee wanted to play, but Laurie would not pay for guitar lessons ,the guitar was not a proper instrument according to dad so Lee packed in the accordion, bought Bert Weedon's play in a day book and taught himself guitar without the help or backing from his dad.Lee's love of real music led him to the blues which he has not veered from and is still playing traditional blues to audiences worldwide to this day. He left school at 13 and was playing pro at 14 touring and playing London clubs and bars of that era as a dep guitarist and with his own bands ,finally forming the band that "nearly" made it "The Hush" a reincarnation of a band he formed while at school with drummer JoeCoulson,
Ian"Mid"Middleton, Graham Rogers,but unfortunately without any of the original members. In that era he and the band were constantly supporting big names ,Zeppelin,Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac,America,Chicken Shack,Collisseum,Stevie Marriot to name but a few, but were destined to be a top support band nothing else.... unfortunately. Lee then met up with other musicians and finally were looked after by Chas Chandler until Lee retired.
Lee left the biz in late 1972 thoroughly fed up with music and playing after several bad experiences involving his management, he never picked up a guitar or owned a guitar until 1992 when he made a  powerful ,dynamic comeback and took the the blues world by storm.
He now has made his mark on the blues scene again , his style is unmistakebly 60's and more to the point his own style ,his "less means more" guitar style and soulful ,heart renduring vocals  with so much light and shade has got him admiration and rave reports from other musicians and the press, and he is constantly being compared to Peter Green but the thing that interests him most is his fans, they are the most important critics say's Lee.
It certainly shows when you go to a Lee Ryder show the response and respect the massive audiences give him is overwhelming.
Lee has now finally got his ideal band Vince Lewis (Bass) has been with him 10 years, Roger Brewer(drums) has been with him over 7 years and have now enlisted guitar supremo Simon Bishop as second guitar, Keyboard players Dave Lennox (Blodwyn Pig) or Janos Bajtala a superb world class player are Lee's regular players and Lee has been known to use horn sections, again the best musicians in their field Nick Pentelow(Gary Moore) Frank Mead (Gary Moore) also the NFL Horns.

So as you can see Lee only picks the finest musicians to work with so you can imagine what the band sounds like!!
Lee's favourite stand in guitarist and old friend Alan Darby regularily play gigs together not as often as both would like as Alan is either away touring or working with all the top names of the industry currently playing with Brian May,Lulu,Bonnie Ratt,and formerly Eric Clapton's second guitarist on his world tour a couple of years ago or Lee is busy doing something.
Lee refers to Alan as a true gentleman and friend something that doesn't normally exist in the music biz,who else would be playing at Buckingham Palace on Sunday standing next to the Queen and on Friday giving up a theatre in the West end to play at The Globe in Brentford next to Lee, that friendship and mutual admiration started a long time ago after Alan heard tapes of Lee through a mutual friend of both of them Pete Sinfield who was the instigator and producer of 70s legends King Crimson and lately the writer of "Don't Think Twice" recorded by Celine Dion and insisted that he met Lee and played alongside him, the two of them together are totally electrifying..
Lee then was approached and asked to front "The Midnight Blues Band" Gary Moore's band but without Gary, working with Andy Pyle but after a while Lee decided it wasn't for him and left and  the legendary James Litherland took over on guitar / vocals.
over the last few years Lee has worked with various members of Van Morrison,Gary Moore,Bonnie Tyler,Snowy White,Status Quo,Dire Straits,and too many more too list, he considers his main influences to be Peter Green and Paul Kossoff both of whom he has played with in years gone by.
The second from last album "One Careful Owner" has made a tremendous impact and has sold well thanks to Paul Jones at Jazz FM playing it to the many British blues fans out there,the album incorporates two superb original tracks "Ain't Givin' up" and "Reason Why" written by Lee and a track written by long time friend Polly Brown (Pickettywitch)called "Freedom" the rest are familiar great blues tracks re-defined and manipulated in a way that they are Lee's songs..............nobody can emulate them , he has done what he usually does takes a song and makes it his own in a way that is impossible to explain until you hear it ! .
Lee has been referred to as one of Britain's Blues Godfathers having stuck to the blues and nothing else for all those years,these days he spends most of his time helping his son Ryan  in his company isoimages as a celebrity photographer,catching A list celebs doing what they shouldn't!!!!
Check out http://www.isoimagesuk.com.