An Interview With Dave Dee

If you can say the band's name without twisting your tongue, then you probably remember listening to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in the 1960s.

Between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the singles chart than the Beatles, with top five hits such as Hold Tight!, Bend It, Save Me, Okay!, Zabadak and The Legend of Xanadu. They stood out for their colourful outfits and quirky sound effects.

Dave Dee is in Staffordshire on 10th August for the Burntwood Sixties Summer Festival. Now aged 66, he has known many of the other acts on the bill for 40 years. Though there's currently a resurgence in the popularity of 1960s music, most of the groups have never stopped working.

Dave looks forward to performing live, and says it's easy to remain enthusiastic when there are so many fans.

"People still want to come to concerts and hear the stuff. I've just done a three month tour with Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich around the UK and it's one of the best subscribed tours that I've been on in years. We played the major theatres all over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. That's 45 years after the event."

Things have changed however since the days when excited fans ripped off the group's clothes.

"There's no screaming girls, let's put it that way! We get a mixed bag. There are the 60s fans who have been fans from day one. Then we get a younger age group that has been influenced by their brothers or sisters or parents or whatever."

"Then we get the younger ones, a lot of whom were disenchanted with their own generation's music. They started listening to the Gold radio stations and now they can go and see the artists that made the music."

Though Dave enjoys some modern music, he can see why sixties sounds have an enduring appeal.

"The music that we all started to make in the sixties was the first time it had ever been done. A lot of it has melody. Many 60s fans who are still fans don't want to go out and see Kaiser Chiefs or Razorlight or whatever. I like a lot of the stuff they do, but the problem with much of today's stuff is it's very disposable. There's nothing memorable. They just churn it out, have a hit and then you never hear of them again."

When Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich began as one of the early 60s bands, there was plenty of exciting music around.

"We were on the circuit with people like The Searchers, Gerry & The Pacemakers, all the Liverpool and Manchester bands, because we were all in Hamburg at the same time. Then in 1962 the Beatles took off like an express train, everyone else followed them and we got left at the starting gate really."

The band had to wait over three years to score a record deal and their first hit, despite their popularity with audiences.

"It was very frustrating, because we were working virtually every night of the week on the dancehall circuit. We were wowing audiences but we just couldn't get a record deal, because a lot of what we did was visual and obviously that side of it didn't transfer onto disc. That was where our problem was originally but once we got over that then it all changed."

The band always wanted to offer a performance as opposed to just standing up and playing.

"We were always entertainers and that's where it came from. Yeah we were a band as well, but we liked to entertain people. We used to do ballrooms with a hit artist top of the bill and they'd go on in the middle so we'd have to play nearly an hour before and an hour after. No-one would dance, they'd just stand and watch it."

Once the hits came, the band's sense of the dramatic helped them fashion a unique stage presence.

"We started to design our own clothes which was quite outrageous. We were probably the most colourful band in the 60s."

The group also stood out for incorporating world music sounds into their style.

"A lot of the other 60s bands do sound similar with the style of music they were playing. Like the clothes, we were just trying to be different. We got our influences from various countries around the world. Xanadu was Mexican or South American and the title was taken from a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Kubla Khan because it's an imaginary place."

What Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich were going to do for the next single was plotted by the band and two managers.

"By the end of the meeting we would come out with a direction, whether it be Greek or Russian. Our hit song called Okay! is very Russian influenced."

Since single sales were more important than the album charts until the late 60s early 70s, the band had to keep the hits coming.

"The LP market hadn't really kicked off so everything revolved around hit singles. We were releasing four singles a year. As soon as one was on its way down the charts we'd have another one out. That's the way it worked."

When their single Bend It was released in the USA, the band had to re-record it because the Americans deemed the lyrics too suggestive.

"It depends on the way your mind works! There's a lot of innuendo in there, and of course the Americans picked up on it. They were very conservative, so we had to convince them that the Bend was a dance. We changed the lyrics and actually did a video to show them how to do this dance called the Bend. So we got round it that way."

Dave doesn't seem to feel the move damaged the band's 'artistic integrity'.

"It made no difference to us, if you want a hit then you've got to do what it takes haven't you! It got to top 30 in America eventually."

In 1969 Dave left the band, though he occasionally recorded material with Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

"I wanted to do some acting and other things and obviously in the confines of a band where you've got five other members to consider it was very difficult to do anything else. The only way you can do that is if you're on your own, so that was what prompted me to go solo. It was not that I didn't like the boys anymore or anything else, it was just a career move really for me."

Various things have filled Dave's career, including 10 years working for a record company, and having his own record label. He beat prostate cancer in 2000.

"Basically I've always done everything I wanted to do. Some I've been successful at and some I've failed at, but at least I've tried. You only get one life."

Dave was a Justice of the Peace for 12 years, but resigned at the end of last year.

"There's so many more laws and advisory committees and all this coming in that I found it was taking up much more time. By being a JP you're putting a bit back into the community where you live. Obviously you don't get paid for it. When it starts to encroach on your personal life too much then some people can take it and some can't. It was all getting a bit too much. As I get older time's precious."

He is still fundraising for the charity Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, as he has been for 35 years.

"It's therapy through music. We started off treating mentally and physically disabled kids, and now we work with adults as well, because there's no boundaries to music. It works on anyone."

Spending time with his family is also important to Dave. He goes along with the adage that you're only as young as you feel.

"Try and stay as young as possible in your head because the rest follows. If your head's young then everything else, your body and all that, will follow. I look at some of my contemporaries now and they really are old men, because their heads are old. But the music keeps me young."

"Also I've got grandchildren and a 10 year old daughter and that keeps me young. That's what you get for being a naughty boy!"

By Cherry Butler

Web Links

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich's official website: www.dddbmt.com

Summer Sixties Festival: www.burntwoodwakes.co.uk

What's your favourite Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich song? Have you ever seen the group live? You can leave a comment below or visit the 50connect forum.

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