Lionel Petersen was born, bred and grew up in Alexandra Township.He had a few gigs with a band The Thunderballs and later joined a dynamic group from Eersterust in Pretoria , The Miracles .He recorded an album with them called The Miracles introducing Lionel Peterson ( note the spelling mistake on the sleeve). The very successful and popular group The Invaders from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape recruited him from The Miracles with whom he recorded two albums including the favorite album There's a light , there's a way. He toured overseas with the group and upon their return he left them to go solo and joined the well known and successful management stable of Clive Calder and Ralph Simon. Lionel had a hit and received a Sarie Award for his first single Come Back Liza. He scored several top hits with tracks like I need a little love, Private number, Try a little love, Thats the way , Keep on coming back etc. During this time he toured South Africa with his stable mates Richard Jon Smith, Jonathan Butler, Ronnie Joyce, Ivan Ross, The Rockets , Sophia Foster and Cecil Mitchell. Lionel afterwards joined the Soweto group Harari and later on joined the famous Rhema Church in Randburg and switched to gospel music. He recorded various gospel albums and became a pastor. His son Lyndon , also a very talented singer joined him in the Rhema worship team .Sadly Lionel fell ill during 2016 and he hasn't been performing since but he is recovering well and hopefully will hit the stage soon.