James Leslie Binks (6 July 1951 – 15 March 2025) was a Northern Irish heavy metal drummer. He is best-known for being the drummer for Judas Priest, with whom he played from 1977 to 1979.

In an interview in 2017, Binks stated that amongst the main musical influences on his playing throughout his career were Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, Ian Paice, Billy Cobham, Mahavishnu Orchestra,Lenny White, Chick Corea and Return to Forever, also mentioning his appreciation of early British rock and roll band, The Shadows.

Previously working for Eric Burdon of the Animals and the latin music-funk-R&B-soul-rock fusion band War, Binks was also a drummer on Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover's album The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast (1974). The album project began as a soundtrack for an animated film based on a well-known English children's book, but a promo for the film never gained any interest, so the project was scrapped. Glover went on to release the soundtrack as a "Roger Glover and Friends" title. One of the featured vocalists, Eddie Hardin previously of The Spencer Davis Group, later released his own albums, the first of which was Eddie Hardin's Wizard's Convention (1976), which again included Binks on drums.

Alongside session player Mo Foster and Ray Fenwick, later of Ian Gillan Band, Binks played for the pop band Fancy who had two U.S. hits in 1974 with a cover of Chip Taylor's "Wild Thing", and "Touch Me". Fancy's song "Feel Good" from the album Wild Thing has been sampled over one hundred times, most notably by Def Jam hip hop artists Beastie Boys on the song "3-Minute Rule" off their album Paul's Boutique (1989). Binks' drum break on "Feel Good" has also been sampled on "Walking in My Shoes" by Depeche Mode, and by Eric B. & Rakim on "Move the Crowd The Wild Bunch (sound system) Remix". The Wild Bunch, who sampled Les Binks' beats, were a collective composed of members of Massive Attack alongside vocalists such as Tricky (rapper).

Through his connection to Roger Glover who had just wrapped up production of their album Sin After Sin, Binks joined the up-and-coming heavy metal act Judas Priest in March 1977 for their world tour – their first on American soil. Binks stepped into the role held briefly by noted session drummer Simon Phillips who had performed on Sin After Sin but did not wish to continue. Binks remained with Judas Priest for two and a half years, until July 1979, recording the studio albums Stained Class and Killing Machine (both 1978) and the live album Unleashed in the East (1979), all of which feature a faster thrash metal, speed metal double bass drumming approach, thus helping to develop and explore new terrain within heavy metal music, building on foundations already established by bands like Deep Purple on Fireball and Deep Purple in Rock.

"Exciter", The opening track on Stained Class featuring Bink's double bass drumming, is regarded as an important early influence on Thrash Metal, while the album as a whole is regarded as a significant influence on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Describing Binks’ performance on the album, Loudwire magazine writes that “the breakneck-speed drumming by…Les Binks ( was ) carving metal's future…Binks, whose forceful work galvanizes this sound with a cavalcade of double kicks and manic fills, introduced himself and the album in the first five seconds of opening track, “Exciter.” Regarded by many as the first speed metal song, "Exciter" sows the seeds of future thrash metal.” Commenting on the production values on the album , Revolver magazine states that the sound engineer Dennis MacKay “not only wound up capturing the best Judas Priest drum sound to date on Stained Class, but he also helped the band achieve a tight sonic attack that was both impeccably clean and lethally powerful”.

Whilst with Judas Priest, he received a writing credit for the song "Beyond the Realms of Death" from the album Stained Class. Binks made a home demo of the track with friend Steve Mann of the Michael Schenker Group helping on guitar, and at a band rehearsal he picked up a guitar to show them the song. The band loved the song and vocalist Rob Halford then crafted the song's lyrics and title.

Les Binks features prominently on Judas Priest’s drum-dominated "Take On the World", released as a single in January 1979 and notable as the first Judas Priest single to chart in the UK top 40, reaching number 14. "Take on the World" was also later covered by new wave band The Human League on their 1980 tour. In 2021, the band Spoon released the single "Wild", which sampled Les Binks' drum patterns from "Take On the World." The record was also remixed by sound engineer dubplate producer, Dennis Bovell, featuring the same Les Binks’ drum pattern.