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Wednesday 10 November 2010

Web Page 888




First Picture:
Dave Dee and the Bostons








Second Picture:
A picture from Steve Timms. Taken in Second Avenue Farlington these budding racers are David Tribe, Roger Tribe, Dave Offer and Raymond ? with the plank.

Dave Dee


A former policeman from Salisbury, Dave Dee, led his group until 1969 when he broke away to go solo, the group then disbanded the following year. He later became an A&R man for WEA Records, launched his own record label in the early 1980s, and helped to raise millions of pounds for a music charity that helps severely-disadvantaged children. He became a magistrate, presided over a failed hotel venture, and later reformed his old band, albeit with a slightly-changed line-up. In 2000 he was diagnosed with cancer.

He was born David John Harman on December 17 1941 in Salisbury, the son of a joiner. In 1946 he arrived home from school to find a man in a kilt talking to his mother. It was his father, whom he had never seen, and who had just returned from the war having served in the Black Watch. As a boy, he boarded at the Adcroft School of Building, formerly the Hammersmith School of Arts and Crafts which had been evacuated during the war to an old army camp at Trowbridge. Having been warned off the building trade by his father, he dabbled in plumbing and in his spare time became interested in music, initially the sort that accompanied Morris dancing. At 13 he joined a skiffle group and later sang in a Salvation Army choir.

On leaving school he joined Swindon police and as a Police Cadet in April 1960, he attended the wreckage of the car crash on the A4 at Chippenham in which Eddie Cochran had been killed at the age of 21. Having helped to recover Eddie Cochran's Gretsch guitar, he later admitted trying it out while it awaited collection at the police station.

Deciding that policing was not for him he turned to the pop music scene and joined four friends in a group called Ronnie Blonde and the Beatniks. By 1962 they had become Dave Dee and the Bostons and were appearing at clubs in Hamburg and Hanover with several other aspiring British groups following in the steps of The Beatles. It is as Dave Dee and the Bostons that I first saw them in the Drayton Institute.
They obtained a recording contract with Fontana, and changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, which was a mixture of their real names and nicknames. The group's first single ‘No Time’ appeared in 1965, and they engineered an appearance on ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ by setting up their equipment in the foyer of Rediffusion House and performing a couple of songs on the spot.

When their first two records flopped, Dave Dee was on the point of rejoining the police, but he and the others were dissuaded. In March 1966 they had their first chart hit with ‘Hold Tight’, based on a football chant, which reached number four. It was the first of several numbers that became hits, including ‘Bend It’ (1966), ‘Zabadak!’ (1967) and, their biggest success ‘The Legend of Xanadu’ (1968), featuring the bull whip.

Dave Dee left the group for a short-lived solo career, after which he became head of A & R for WEA Records, signing among others AC/DC, Boney M and Gary Numan.
In the 1970s he became a founder committee member of the charity Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy, the largest charitable provider of music therapy in the country. For more than 30 years, he actively involved himself in fund-raising and increasing the charity's profile.

He returned to performing in the 1980s, touring Europe with a successful solo act which included many of the band's hits. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich were reformed in the 1990s with Dave Dee as lead vocalist again. He performed his last gig in Eisenburg, Germany, in September 2008.

In 1996 he bought a Queen Anne mansion in the Cheshire countryside and turned it into a luxury guesthouse. But when the business failed after two years, he sold the property to pay off his debts. At the suggestion of his second wife, hearing him complain of some injustice, he applied to become a magistrate and sat as a Justice of the Peace, first in Brent, north London, and later at Macclesfield, Cheshire.
After contracting and fighting cancer for six years he died on 8th January 2009. He was survived by his second wife Joanne, and their daughter Olivia, as well as his twin sons from his first marriage to Carole, by Lesley, his partner for the last two years, and his mother.

A real link to my past as the group was often at the Institute and I was always in the audience.

Stay in touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com



You Write:


Martin Writes:-


Indeed as the others confirm the library at Court Lane was located...........if you stood in the corridor facing the assembly / hall it was to the left..........I remember it well as Pandy Ellis's big sister was a librarian I think..........anyway Carol was the main reason I would spend time at the library...........As I recall there were two grocer shops on Knowsley Road..............One was right on the corner of Knowsley and Cosham High Street........I believe their name was "Elite Grocers" or something like that.....Leslie and Carol Chapman lived a few doors down from the place on Knowsley Road.....then at the other end of Knowsley............I think as you would turn right onto Rosebury Avenue there was another small but full service.......grocer....cannot remember his name........I do recall one of the illustrious scallywags of Court Lane..........David Mosley worked there for quite sometime............

Tell Anida we did have a Windebank at school........Her first name was Adrienne......as I recall reddish hair and quite delight full to look at.............

The Gosport ferry boat picture stirred up a very distant memory.........One rainy November day my father took my sister (Francine) and I to visit an aunt who lived in Gosport...........on the ferry trip back in the rain and cold this rather inebriated sailor tried to engage my dad into an argument.....fortunately the drunkie had a friend and he tried to intervene....but to no avail.....finally the drunk says to my dad you are one big shaggy shag bag..........with that dear old dad turned around and decked the fellow.......Francine and I were amazed....finally one of the ferry crew came over and escorted us to a place of refuge........the drunkie's companion (both in uniform HMS Vernon) apologized and handed us two kids a Mars Bar to share........Never thought the old man had that in him......... What a fun trip that was.........Tell Paul the name of the street was Magdala Avenue.....


Fran Writes:-


Thought I'd drop a line re the Library at Court Lane. In third form ( 3A1 ) our form teacher Colin Ramsay whom incidentally I have never heard mentioned over the years , maybe he was not a staff member very long but an excellent teacher, well he was in charge of English, Drama and the library I believe. He invited to be a junior School Librarian. Classes had a weekly Library Lesson when we could borrow books. My job along with other pupils that were librarians was to look after the pupils while they chose their books ,stamp their books etc. They usually came in groups of about 8.Each pupil had a library card which we recorded details of books they borrowed . I missed a few other lessons such as RI and Music while I was librarian for looking after other library classes. That was a bonus ! We were rostered on each term. The library was open before and after school as well and maybe dinner time for half an hour if I remember correctly. We also worked in the school holidays mending,covering cataloguing etc. as well as many hours before and after school. Pupil John Sansom was Head Librarian and Terry Gray Senior Librarian. In 4th Form I was then a Senior Librarian. Mr Ramsay had left and Bill Greer was in charge. I cannot remember names of other pupils doing this - Beverly Hatch comes to mind ? It was great fun when the new books came in as we read them first if we wished. I really enjoyed my 2 years in that little room. I think these were the years of 1958 -59. As you can see it's half a century ago so the memory is faded a little ! I wonder if there are others who worked with me in the library out there reading this ?

Ok Peter that's all from me for a while other than to say thanks again for all the time and energy you put into this ,yes folks are certainly reading what you write,probably from around the world.

News and Views


Mary Malcolm, postwar BBC television announcer, has died aged 92. Together with Sylvia Peters and McDonald Hobley, Mary Malcolm made up the trinity of announcers who nursed us into becoming a nation of television watchers.
October 2010)

On this day 14th November 1960-1965

On 14/11/1960 the number one single was It's Now Or Never - Elvis Presley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Bootsie & Snudge (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/11/1961 the number one single was Little Sister/His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Another Black & White Minstrell Show - George Mitchell Minstrels. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.
On 14/11/1962 the number one single was Lovesick Blues - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Out of the Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/11/1963 the number one single was You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry & the Pacemakers and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/11/1964 the number one single was (There's) Always Something There to Remind Me - Sandy Shaw and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Tower of Pisa in danger of collapse.

On 14/11/1965 the number one single was Get Off Of My Cloud - Rolling Stones and the number one album was The Sound of Music Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was The Royal Variety Performance (ATV) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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