Leckey was born in 1964 in Birkenhead on the Wirral, opposite Liverpool. Growing up he was a “casual” (read: football hooligan). He went to art college in Newcastle and first appeared alongside Damien Hirst at the ICA's New Contemporaries show in 1990. He all but disappeared for a decade, until ‘’Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore" put him back on the map in 1999.

The video collage spans three decades of British subculture – northern soul, soul weekenders, casuals, and rave. Leckey spent years sourcing the clips and building relationships for their use. The audio track was released on vinyl in 2012 by Boomkat in-house label, The Death Of Rave.

Leckey coedits the journal Saturday with Polly Staple, director of Chisenhale Gallery, London, and Edwin Laliq. He was a professor of film studies at the Staedelschule in Frankfurt until 2010.