<P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> 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 . </P> <P> Ken Howard said that: "We changed their name to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, because they were their actual nicknames and because we wanted to stress their very distinct personalities in a climate which regarded bands as collectives ." The distinctive name, coupled with well produced and catchy songs by Howard and Blaikley, quickly caught the UK public's imagination and their records started to sell in abundance . Indeed, between 1965 and 1969, the group spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than the Beatles and made the odd tour' down under' to Australia and New Zealand, where they had also experienced some marked chart success during this period . </P>

Hold tight by dave dee dozy beaky mick & tich lyrics