Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
L-R: Beaky, Mick, Dozy, Tich and Dave Dee c. 1967
Background information
Origin	Wiltshire, England
Genres	Pop rock, British Invasion
Years active	1964–present
Labels	UK: Fontana Records USA: Fontana, Imperial FRG: Star-Club Records
Associated acts	David Mason Tracker Dave & the Bulldogs The Boys Klaus & Klaus Jean Musy Marmalade
Website	www.dddbmt.com
Members	Ian Amey John Dymond John Hatchman
Past members	David John Harman Charles Clarke Trevor Ward-Davies Michael Wilson Pete Lucas Paul Bennett Anthony Stephen Carpenter

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich were a British pop/rock group of the 1960s. Two of their single releases sold in excess of one million copies each, and they reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with the second of them, "The Legend of Xanadu".

Five friends from Wiltshire, David John Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Leonard Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Frederick Stephen Amey (Tich), formed a group in 1961, originally called Dave Dee and the Bostons. They soon gave up their jobs (e.g. Dave Dee was a policeman) to make their living from music. Apart from performing in the UK, they also occasionally played in Hamburg (Star-Club, Top Ten Club) and in Cologne (Storyville). Ward-Davies had acquired his nickname when he unwrapped a chocolate bar before absent-mindedly discarding the bar and attempting to eat the wrapper.

Vocalist Dave Dee, the ex-policeman, was at the scene of the motoring accident that took the life of the American rock and roller Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent in April 1960.

In summer 1964, the British songwriters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley became interested in recording them. The band was set up in the studio to make recordings with Joe Meek. These recording sessions failed to get off the ground as an interview with Dave Dee stated that Meek "had very strange recording techniques. He wanted us to play the song at half speed and then he would speed it up and put all these little tricks on it. We said we couldn't do it that way. He exploded, threw coffee all over the studio and stormed up to his room. His assistant [Patrick Pink] came in and said, 'Mr Meek will not be doing any more recording today.' That was it. We lugged all our gear out and went back home". While these recording sessions proved unsuccessful they eventually gained a recording contract with Fontana Records.