Dave Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick and Tich

Just imagine it's March 15th 1968. The 15-year-old Val has had a ticket for her birthday to see a pop concert. It's at the Albert Hall, one of the most famous venues in the world. The intrepid teen makes her own way alone to the concert hall by train and bus (or it might have been tube) miles across London.

Top of the first half are The BeeGees. Great. I love them. Then in the second half we have Grapefruit singing, among other things, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. Finally, top of the bill, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. I ADORE Dave Dee.

Here is a picture of the interior of the hall from the end opposite the stage. My seat was in the little wing to the left of the stage, with just a low wooden wall (with a gate in it!) between me and Dave Dee! Girls were running onstage throughout to throw their arms round his neck and kiss him. Me? All I could think of was that my mini-dress would ride up and display my underwear to the thousands packing the hall.



("Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" - the upturned mushrooms in the dome probably gave rise to this line in The Beatles' A Day In The Life. They are there to improve the accoustics.)

The group released songs that came from all sorts of musical idioms from across the world. We had Mexican (Legend of Xanadu), Spanish (Don Juan), Greek (Bend It), Russian (Okay) styles, and their first record, Hold Tight, was in the rhythm of an English football chant. Dave Dee was sex on legs, cracking a whip in Legend of Xanadu, writhing suggestively and wriggling his hips, well, it was more than a girl could stand. The words of the songs were often suggestive, too, like Bend It (recently used NOT in its entirety by Weight Watchers in a TV ad):




It's nearly a year since Dave Dee died. He was 65 and had been battling cancer for three years. In recent years the group had reformed and was playing gigs in the UK and Germany.

Dave had done a lot of charity work in between times, and had been an hotelier and a magistrate. I guess the quiet respectability became too much for him.

A few weeks ago I bought a cd of some of their songs, and many are sexy enough to take a Vincent video. They certainly stand up well to repeated listening. I had hoped my vinyl-to-cd machine would allow me to digitise their singles and LPs. Oh well.

If anyone is feeling nostalgic, there are lots of videos on YT: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A201EDDB36A5A3CF