DECEMBER 1965
December 65
French EP release: Millie – Bloodshot Eyes (Fontana EP 465 293)
Millie Small’s fourth French EP comes with a picture sleeve and a “Stanhope Sound” trademark.
December 65
French EP release: Les Silkie – You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Fontana EP 465 294)
The Silkie’s first French EP comes with a picture sleeve and a “Stanhope Sound” label.
Both were on Fontana, but not recorded at Stanhope House: Millie was an Island production, Silkie were produced by The Beatles at IBC Studios. Besides, Ska and Folk can hardly fit in the same bag ?
December 65
French EP release: Wayne Fontana et Les Mindbenders – She Needs Love (Fontana EP 465 295)
Their second French EP comes with a picture sleeve and a “Stanhope Sound” trademark.
December 65
French EP release: Les Pretty Things – Honey I Need (Fontana EP 465 296)
Their second French EP comes with a “Stanhope Sound” label stamped on the statue in the picture sleeve.
All these Fontana EPs were released in France on the same label as Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. They would produce most of their discs in the Philips studios in Stanhope Place, hence this "Stanhope Sound".
Thu 2/12/65
Dave Dee sends a letter to Radio London thanking Ben Toney, Programme Director :
1, Cherry Walk – Shirley – Southampton – 2/12/65
Dear Mr Toney,
I am writing on behalf of my group “Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich” to say thanks a million for all the help you have been with our latest record "You Make It Move" which looks like being a really big hit, mainly thanks to you making it both a 'climber' and also for putting it in your charts this week.
We hope to see you at Ken and Alan's Party @ Swiss Cottage the 23rd December.
With many thanks
Dave Dee
p.p. DAVE DEE, DOZY BEAKY MICK & TICH.
Fri 3/12/65
Single release: The Beatles – We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper (Parlophone R 5389)
Double A side single, the first by McCartney (the most heard in the English speaking countries), the second by Lennon (the hit side on the continent).
John sings “She’s a big teaser, she took me half the way there...” and Harman/Dymond/Davies would be much softer in 1969 on their own "P. Teaser" although the “P” refers to what John Lennon actually really meant.
Sat 4/12/65
Locarno Ballroom, Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich supported by The Ying Tongs
Wed 8/12/65
NME n°986: You Make It Move by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich enters the Top 30
"You Make It Move" chart run in the NME was : 25 – 23 – 24 – 19 – 25 – 19 – 30 – 24 (8 weeks) which is twice dubious: by its slow progression, and by climbing up again after a downfall, suggesting payola (it seems it was not uncommon at the time, both on offshore stations and selected disc shops). NME is not in cause, Melody Maker for instance has a similar chart-run, but longer, being a Top 50. This could only affect the lower reaches of the charts, for a short period (supposed to lauch a record).
Thu 16/12/65
Film: Battle Of The Bulge, Warner Bros., Hollywood, USA (167 mn, colour)
Directed by Ken Annakin. Starring Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Charles Bronson and Steve Rowland in one of his last film compositions.
In the winter of 1944, a Panzer brigade leads a German last-ditch secret counter-attack against the Allied front in the heavily wooded Ardennes Sector of Belgium/Luxembourg.
One of Steve Rowland's last movies before he settled down in England and became a producer for F
ontana Records.
Fri 17/12/65
Birthday: David Harman’s celebration – Dave Dee is 22 today (no he's not)
The other four members of the group had all turned 21 in 1965
Amazingly, Dave has been able to cheat on his birthday since the first biographies that were supplied by the group in 1965. Not until his death in 2009 was the public aware that he was in fact two years older than he had always claimed. Many teenage stars of the sixties kept their age secret or pretended to be younger than they were, to be closer to their fans. But this is the only time the secret has been kept for so long.
Fri 17/12/65
Album release: The Honeycombs – “All Systems Go” (Pye NPL 18132)
I Can't Stop / Don't Love Her No More / All Systems Go / Totem Pole / Emptiness / Ooee Train /
She Ain't Coming Back // Something I Gotta Tell You / Our Day Will Come / Nobody But Me / There's Always Me / Love In Tokyo / If You Should / My Prayer
The album contains four Howard Blaikley songs, two of which would be covered by Dave Dee & Co.
Sat 18/12/65
Oasis Club, 45-47 Lloyd Street, Manchester, Lancashire, England
Dave Dee, Dozy, Mick & Tich supported by The Ying Tongs (Beaky was ill)
Sun 19/12/65
Radio London Fab Forty n°4: You Make It Move - Peak position
1 (1) We Can Work It Out / Day Tripper - Beatles
2 (6) To Whom It Concerns - Chris Andrews
3 (4) Keep On Running - Spencer Davis Group
4 (9) You Make It Move - Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
5 (11) Till The End Of The Day - Kinks
Tue 21/12/65
Pantomime: Babes In The Wood, Palladium Theatre, London, England
This 1965 Christmas pantomime opened on December 21, starring Frank Ifield.
This picture of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich riding their motorbikes was taken soon after.
Wed 22/12/65
Film: Doctor Zhivago, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hollywood, USA (197 mn, colour)
Directed by David Lean from a novel by Boris Pasternak.
With Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guiness, Tom Courteney.
Music scored by Maurice Jarre (who earned one of the film's five Academy Awards)
A Russian epic set in the years before and through the Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War.
“Doctor Zhivago” would win 5 Oscars in April 1966. Its soundtrack, "Lara’s Theme", would become one of the most successful tunes of the year, helping to spread a traditional Russian atmosphere, at the time of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. But spy stories and movies, TV series, and the news, were full of the confrontation between East and West.
Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley denied this movie had a conscious influence when they wrote "Okay" in 1967.
Thu 23/12/65
Dave and Alan's Party @ Swiss Cottage (Ken Howard’s Home)
Howard and Blaikley invite all London and offshore stations DeeJays for a Christmas party
Fri 24/12/65
NME n°988 page 7: First album soon from Dave Dee
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich's "You Make It Move" is No. 24 on “Crackerjack”
December 65
Working Men’s Clubs, South Wales
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
NME n°1042 (31/12/66):
“We’ve spent New Year in some very weird places,” continued Mick. “Last year at this time we were playing the working men’s clubs in South Wales. We used to play two numbers – one before and one after the Bingo session!”
Sun 26/12/65
The “New” Troggs’ first concert:
Reginald Ball (vo) and Ronnie Bullis (dr) are joined by two former Ten Feet Five: Pete Staples (bs) and Chris Britton (gt). They would stay together until they split in March 1969.
Their neighbours Dave Dee & Co. enjoy their first success this same month, and would split in July 1969.
Wed 29/12/65
NME n°989: You Make It Move by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich is #19
"You Make It Move" highest placing in any music paper
New Musical Express, dated Friday, displays a Top 30 dating from the previous Wednesday
Fri 31/12/65
California Ballroom, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, The Fenmen, The Nitepeople, Mike Sheridan’s Lot (adm. 10/6)
