Researching Lee Payne

Payne joined Luton Town as a schoolboy, but was later released as an eighteen-year-old. His first senior appearance in football came with Hitchin Town in 1985 and after a successful spell there he moved on to Barnet, for whom he played twice in the Conference as they finished in second place at the end of the 1987–88 season.

After three more appearances for Barnet the following season, Payne was sold to Newcastle United for a non league record transfer fee of £125,000 and in October of that season made his football league debut against Middlesbrough in a 3–1 victory at St James Park. He went on to make seven appearances for the Magpies before moving to Reading in March 1989 for a transfer fee of £60,000.

After making 34 appearances and scoring 3 goals Payne moved to the Netherlands to play for Eerste Divisie (second-tier) club BV Veendam in 1990. In his first season, he became BV Veendam's player of the year making 32 appearances and scoring 12 goals. In 1991/92 Payne was transferred for a sum of around £100,000 to rival Dutch club FC Emmen where he spent three seasons before returning to BV Veendam for a further season only to be forced to end his professional playing career in 1995/6 through a serious knee injury after a short spell back in England in 1993, during which he played once in the Conference for Gateshead – although Payne continued playing for another few years back in amateur football in the Netherlands.

After fully retiring, he subsequently became a scout for a number of clubs throughout Europe, including West Ham, before later becoming a football agent, holding a FIFA agent's license and represents a number of high-profile footballers in England. Payne's father was a manager in non-league football in England, notably Wealdstone. Payne who has a strong Christian faith is also Ambassador for Sports Chaplaincy uk .

He started playing guitar at age of 17, but eventually switched to bass. His creative mind was and still is influenced by horror movies and science fiction.

Cloven Hoof was originally formed in the heart of the West Midlands, England in 1979. The group went through various line up changes until spring 1982 when the band line-up consisted of Payne on bass guitar, David Potter on vocals, Steve Rounds on lead guitar and Kevin Poutney on drums.

In the early days of Cloven Hoof the members, in keeping with their science fiction theme, used one of the four elements as a pseudonym - Payne's was Air, but since the dissolution of the band's first stable line-up in the mid 1980s they decided to drop the stage names.