The Lead were a band of foreigners residing in Japan, and were an anomaly as the only successful geijin rock group in the GS scene. The initial lineup of the band was Phil Trainer (aka Phil Steele)  on bass guitar and vocals. Tamia Hasegawa Arbuckle on rhythm guitar and vocals. Mark Elder, lead guitar and vocals, Allan Hill drums and vocals. Their first album was titled "The Lead Goes R&B" and was an album of cover songs released on RCA Victor Japan. The band were also managed...

The Lead were a band of foreigners residing in Japan, and were an anomaly as the only successful geijin rock group in the GS scene. The initial lineup of the band was Phil Trainer (aka Phil Steele)  on bass guitar and vocals. Tamia Hasegawa Arbuckle on rhythm guitar and vocals. Mark Elder, lead guitar and vocals, Allan Hill drums and vocals. Their first album was titled "The Lead Goes R&B" and was an album of cover songs released on RCA Victor Japan. The band were also managed by Victor Geino, RCA's management company, and a Mr. Ozawa was the band's main manager at the company. The Lead recorded a couple of singles in Japanese, original songs by Japanese composers. One release was a chart hit, Aoi Bara (Blue Rose) in 1968. The band were produced by Robby Wada.

Mark Elder left Japan suddenly due to legal complications, and a replacement was needed to take the lead guitarist's place. Alan Merrill, new to Japan, was recommended to the group by his girlfriend Michi Nakao, a featured Go-Go dancer at Tokyo's most prestigious disco in the 1960s, Mugen. Merrill auditioned at The Pasha club in Akasaka in November of 1968 where the band were playing, and got the job immediately. He jumped in and helped them finish their second album for RCA, "Sound Of Silence" (also an album of cover songs) which was already in progress, singing four songs on the recording and playing lead guitar on a few tracks.

Phil Trainer had similar legal complications in Japan as Mark Elder had previously experienced, and left Tokyo in 1969 to join the band The Clinic in Italy. At that point Victor management gave up on the band. By the summer of 1969 the band were finished. 

Phil Trainer  has recorded a number of solo albums and singles under the names Phil Trainer and also a pseudonym Phil Steele. Tamia Arbuckle  became a Scientologist and played on and wrote the album "Battlefield Earth" with L. Ron Hubbard as his co-writer. Alan Merrill went solo with Watanabe Productions, and was the first male signing to Atlantic Records Japan, recording the chart hit single "Namida." Merrill's later career is well documented on the internet. Allan Hill's whereabout are unknown.