THIS MONTH...
NEWS OF THE MONTH:
The long awaited Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich performance at the Paris Pop Festival in June 1967 is now available on YouTube. The full show was filmed and finally screened on French TV in early 1969. This full TV programme can be seen here on the wonderful Bedazzled.com website:
Festival International de Pop Music
50 YEARS AGO
On Wednesday 15 May 1963 (Tich's birthday), Salisbury band The Avengers suffered a car accident on their way back from a dance near Poole (Dorset). The manager and bassist of the sextet were killed in the collision. Peter Mason was playing rhythm guitar with the band, who had just turned professional. Mason, born in Liverpool, had earlier come to Salisbury to work on a farm.
40 YEARS AGO
The Premiere of Lindsay Anderson's "O Lucky Man" took place on 2 May 1973. The film was the second of Anderson’s trilogy (with "If" and "Britannia Hospital"), starring Malcolm McDowell. The inspired soundtrack was written by Alan Price.
30 YEARS AGO
On Sunday 15 May 1983, Ian 'Tich' Amey, former lead guitarist of The Bostons, turned 39.
20 YEARS AGO
In May 1993, the Exotica label released "The Exotic Beatles Part 1" CD!
10 YEARS AGO
On 18 May 2003, the Solid Silver 60s Show 2003 stopped at the Palladium, London, England. With The Dakotas, Wayne Fontana, Barry Ryan, The Searchers and... Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
RECORD COVER BLUNDER
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich were involved in one of the more spectacular record cover blunders in rock history.
In 1981, Polydor in Italy (Orbis) put out a huge series of albums called Historia De La Musica Rock ("The History of Rock Music") with one or two volumes for each of about a hundred different artists. The volume by the Dave Clark Five came out with the cover featuring a group photo of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich! Speculation about how this kind of quality control gaffe could occur was that the photos were all in an alphabetically arranged set of folders, and when reaching in to the "Dave Clark Five" folder, a hand accidentally reached into the folder behind it, which was "Dave Dee." Or the photo could have been accidentally misfiled in the adjacent folder. But the really funny part of the situation was that nobody noticed the error until the album was in the stores! By then, they just figured, "Ignore it. No one will notice." Adapted from: http://www.bsnpubs.com/mercury/fontana/fontana.html
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JIMI HENDRIX AND TICH MEET IN BERLIN
Jimi and Tich meeting in Berlin
Competitors before a microphone - good friends in private:
Two hard competitors in show-business - peacefully united at the same table. I managed this rare shot shortly before the start of the television recordings with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in Berlin.
Not to withhold this rare meeting from posterity, I requested Jimi and Tich to sit together for the camera.
So they did - to prove that in private they were good friends.
This letter, written by Bravo reader Claus-Dieter Schmidt, was published in Bravo 1967/46, dated November 6th.
Like London-upon-Thames and Paris-upon-Seine, Berlin-upon-Spree was one of the 60's pop music European capitals. The TV show mentioned here was "4-3-2-1 Hot and Sweet", a ZDF (second channel) Saturday afternoon monthly show, hosted by Lotti Ohnesorge. The Jimi Hendrix-Dave Dee episode was broadcast on 2 September 1967. It was not a live show, so the recording took place sometime before, probably at the end of August 1967. Jimi Hendrix arrived in Berlin on 31 August.
On 1st September, Barry Gibb gave a party at the "Hotel Arosa" in Berlin for his 21st birthday. Jimi Hendrix and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were invited.
The two groups had already met in Frankfurt and Offenbach, for a common "Beat, Beat, Beat" Show on German TV in May 1967. But their first encounter was on 26 February 1967, in Southend, Essex, where Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich topped the bill - contrary to what is sometimes indicated elsewhere. At the time, Hendrix was only at the start of his new-found fame, and he was not yet the crowd-puller he was to become soon.
BBC SESSIONS ON CD
(The Zabadak Magazine review)
DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH 'The BBC Sessions' BR Music BS 8026-2 (2CD)(77m56s)(69m18s)
(Netherlands) 1st March 2008
One great point of this 54 track release is that there are 9 (DD)DBM&T tracks here for virtually their very first true release, but there are also many other aspects, and so let's begin. Excellent to hear 'Hold Tight!' showing that they could reproduce their studio sound live & a fine solo from Tich. As we have previously said before then Dozy emerges as an underrated soul singer and his lead vocals on both 'Hands Off' & then (for first time release) 'Hello Josephine' being both top. The solid soulful 'Hello Josephine' is one of the best finds here (great track). Pity was never released on vinyl at the time (that session recorded 2nd August 1966) but again if so then we wouldn't have the pleasure to finally hear it now.
The 2nd of the new tracks is 'Watch Your Step' & though we've already heard before via BBC transcription discs and DVD great to hear it here in top quality. 3rd new one is '(You've Been A) Bad Girl' (written by Harman/Davies/Dymond/ Wilson/Amey) and is another good sound. This is one of the strongest written by the band in terms of catchiness. It is not psych but pure pop. 23rd track here (4th new) is 'Dr. Feelgood' which is a competent rocker. 'If I Were A Carpenter' is superb & suits the band. Tich with his special effects pedal creating a great guitar sound. On most of the well-known songs then it has to be said that the original studio sound is the superior, but that doesn't take anything away from these versions.
Many have been also especially re-recorded (it was BBC policy that this be done for their shows & probably related to a copyright decision) and so not really totally live as per example 'Zabadak' & 'Wreck Of The Antoinette' (done for the shows) & so there are just slight differences. The TOTP version of 'Zabadak' (which we've already heard on DVD) is a fine subtle re-interpretation (recorded on 5th October 1967) & may well be better than the actual single. There are in fact two different versions of 'Zabadak' here and both are fine. With 'Please' well then this version reaches new heights & interesting new touches – quite brilliant.
Slight disappointments are that 'Just Dropped In' is missing (as it did come out on a BBC transcription disc & was always particularly fond of this) and also 'Dancing In The Street', plus that there are no actual pics of the band from any of their BBC Sessions, reproduced in the CD booklet.
Moving on to CD-2 & 2nd track here then Dave Dee bravely tackles (not completely successfully) 'Paint It Black' (5th new) with star performers being Beaky & Mick with their interesting guitar & drums interplay. A cover of Buffalo Springfield & Neil Young's 'Mr Soul' (6th new) is an excellent outing with Beaky in fine vocal & Tich's extended solo. If some of these 6 (not released in the 60s tracks) had have come out on their 2nd & 3rd LPs then it could have strengthened DDDBMT's case back then rather than as is evident the paltry 15 weeks that they accumulated on the UK LP charts.
There's a fine re-interpretation of 'Loos Of England', which breathes new life into it (how many others had the courage to tackle songs like this one?). Strangely a couple are exactly the same as the original studio recordings. Was looking forward to hear how they'd perform 'Tonight Today' live but it was not to be (applies also to 'Bad News' & 'Mr. President' which both also sounded identical to the original studio recordings). 'Rain' though is quite different with now just the two lead guitars and is really live.
Getting to more highlights on this release, then there are the 3 new never before heard DBM&T tracks in 'Talk To Me' (Beaky's lead vocal), an excellent 'Helplessly Hoping' & 'Bluebird' (Dozy does the little lead on both of these otherwise its mostly shared vocals). 'Talk To Me' is in fact not the Small Faces song (that which was the flip of 'Here Come The Nice') as the track listing indicates, but is actually a cover of Moby Grape's 'Can't Be So Bad', which was an often covered fave with Brit bands. Stephen Still's 'Bluebird' as per 'Mr. Soul' are both from the same Buffalo Springfield LP (one of the great albums from the 60s & which had a huge impact on the band). These 3 new additions revive strong memories of the 'Fresh Ear' LP and what could & should have been.
54th & final track on this 2CD release is the beautiful & peaceful 'Sweden'. Back to those 9 new ones, then each and all were certainly up to the standard at the time of those recordings that originally came out (on vinyl).
Congratulations goes out to BR Music & Bert van Breda (along with help from Herman van Gaal) for making this all possible & keeping the DDDBM&T flag flying high.
Ron COOPER (ZABADAK Magazine)
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