Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich bassist RIP

Good band, made some top songs.


Five friends from Wiltshire, David John Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Frederick Stephen Amey (Tich), formed a group in 1961, originally called Dave Dee and the Bostons.[1] They soon gave up their jobs (e.g. Dave Dee was a policeman) to make their living from music. Apart from performing in the UK, they also occasionally played in Hamburg (Star-Club, Top Ten Club) and in Cologne (Storyville).

Vocalist Dee, the ex-policeman, was at the scene of the motoring accident that took the life of the American rock and roller Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960.[1]

In summer 1964, the British songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley became interested in recording them. The band was set up in the studio to make recordings with Joe Meek. These recording sessions failed to get off the ground as an interview with Dee stated that Meek "had very strange recording techniques. He wanted us to play the song at half speed and then he would speed it up and put all these little tricks on it. We said we couldn't do it that way. He exploded, threw coffee all over the studio and stormed up to his room. His assistant [Patrick Pink] came in and said, 'Mr Meek will not be doing any more recording today.' That was it. We lugged all our gear out and went back home".[3] While these recording sessions proved unsuccessful they eventually gained a recording contract with Fontana Records.

Ken Howard said that: "We changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, because they were their actual nicknames and because we wanted to stress their very distinct personalities in a climate which regarded bands as collectives."[4] The distinctive name, coupled with well produced and catchy songs by Howard and Blaikley, quickly caught the UK public's imagination and their records started to sell in abundance.[5] Indeed, between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than the Beatles and made the odd tour 'down under' to Australia and New Zealand, where they had also experienced some marked chart success during this period.

They also scored a Number One hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1968 with "The Legend of Xanadu".[5] The combined sales figures were in excess of one million copies.[6] Their other Top 10 UK hits included "Hideaway", "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!", "Save Me", "Touch Me, Touch Me", "Okay!", "Zabadak!" and "Last Night in Soho".[1][5]

"Bend It!" was a big hit in Europe, including a Number One in Germany. To obtain a bouzouki sound on the recording, an electrified mandolin was used. The combined UK and European sales were over one million.[6] However, in October 1966, the British music magazine, NME commented that dozens of US radio stations had banned the record, because the lyrics were considered too suggestive. The group responded by recording a new version in London with a different set of words, which was rush released in the US, as the original single was withdrawn from sale.[2]

The band were big sellers elsewhere in the world, particularly in British commonwealth countries. In New Zealand, the group had three number one hits, and 7 other songs reached the top 10. In Australia, they reached the Top Ten with "Hold Tight!", "Bend It!", "Zabadak!" and "The Legend of Xanadu". In Canada, the band scored two top ten hits with "Zabadak!" and "The Legend of Xanadu", and hit the top 30 with "Break Out"—a song that didn't chart in any other country.

In the US, the group failed to break out nationally, although they had regional successes, particularly in northeastern cities such as Cleveland, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Boston where both "Bend It" and "Hold Tight" gained considerable airplay and charted in the top 40 on local radio stations. "Zabadak" gained extensive US airplay during winter 1967-68, climbing Top 10 in several major US markets including Los Angeles, but despite pockets of radio exposure, the band never gained mass airplay in America; "Zabadak" was the band's only single to chart in the national Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 52. This is at least partially a result of both the band's US labels, Fontana and Imperial Records, failing to secure them a US tour or TV appearances. Fontana set up just two appearances on national US TV programs. These were in July 1966 ("Hold Tight" on Where the Action Is) and Piccadilly Palace on 26 August 1967 (performing their then-current single "Okay"). Imperial scored none.

In September 1969 Dee left the group for a short-lived solo career. NME reported the previous month that Dee was to play a motorbike gang leader in the forthcoming Marty Feldman film Every Home Should Have One.[7] The rest of the band, re-billed as (D,B,M and T), continue releasing records until they broke up in 1972. In the 1980s the group reformed again without Dee, although there was one further single with him, "Staying With It", in 1983.[1] In the meantime Dee had become a record producer with Magnet Records.[8]

In the 1990s, they started performing once more, this time with their one-time leader, Dee. Dee was a J.P. in Cheshire until he retired from the bench in 2008 due to his ailing health. He continued to perform with his band almost up until his death on 9 January 2009.[9] He had been suffering from prostate cancer since early 2001.

Ward-Davies died in January 2015, aged 70, after a short illness.[10]