Demo, October 1964

.....As a teen, David Robert Jones played in a succession of bands that played American influenced R&B, generally covers and some derivative originals. He played sax and aspired to singing. One of the earliest professionally gigging groups he was in was the Kon-Rads. They started as a four-piece with George Underwood (who brought childhood friend Jones in later) as vocalist and guitarists Nevill Wills and Alan Dodds. At some point before 1963, Roger Ferris replaced Underwood as vocalist and the drummer Dave Crook had been replaced by Dave Hadfield and bassist Rocky Shahan had been added. By the time they were able to book studio time at Decca (the Broadhurst Gardens studio) at the end of August, 1963, Ferris had dropped out and Jones was doubling as vocalist. Also during this period he signed himself as "Dave Jay", the first of many pseudonyms. Four(?) tracks were recorded at Decca and they remain unreleased as of this date. Frustrated that Decca declined to release a single from the session, David Jones left the Kon-Rads, who subsequently managed to release a single in 1965.

.....Even before the August date, Jones and Underwood (now on guitar) formed The Hooker Brothers, named after John Lee Hooker (which Jones wanted to call "Dave's Reds and Blues"-- the colors of stimulants and depressants, respectively, used by pill-popping mods). Their drummer (Viv Andrews) was dropped in favor of a full band that became the King Bees in November, 1963. David Jones is approaching his 17th birthday in January and already had his second alternate stage name, Davie Jones.

.....Unrelated to this at the time, Band Seven forms in January, 1964. They are:

• Johnny Flux.....................Guitar
• Johnny Watson................Vocals, Bass
• Bob Solly........................Organ
• Paul Rodriguez................Tenor Sax
• Woolf Byrne...................Baritone Sax
• Mick White.....................Drums

They played out enough to earn a residency at the Marquee and, as interest in beat groups began to build internationally, signed to a management contract with the Dick James Organization. The DJO handled bookings and publishing and by the end of the decade would become their own label as well. Band Seven were assigned Leslie Conn as their manager, who was also managing the King Bees. By May, the King Bees were recording a single for Decca's Vocalion Pop experiment (see previous two posts) and Band Seven auditioned for Joe Meek. The day after the King Bees' single was released, it was featured on BBC Television's "Juke Box Jury", whose celebrity judges voted it down, three to one. Performances on "Ready, Steady, Go!" (ITV, June 19th) and "The Beat Room" (BBC2, July 27th) couldn't help "Liza Jane" chart and nothing materialized for Band Seven with Meek. Conn proposed making Davie Jones the vocalist for Band Seven. To distance themselves from their recent failures, they followed Davie's suggestion to once again name the band after a blues song. After all, it seemed to have worked for the Rolling Stones. The 'new' band would be called the Mannish Boys (misspelled "Manish" whenever they printed it).

.....The first scheduled recording session came quickly, in October 6th at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street. Some sources report that the session scheduled for that day was cancelled and rescheduled for December, but neither Kenneth Pitt's nor Nicholas Pegg's books confirm that. Nothing came out of it in any event. At least three covers were recorded and neither Decca or the band thought they were 7" material.

• HELLO STRANGER (Barbara Lewis), a Barbara Lewis cover
• LOVE IS STRANGE (Mickey Baker, Sylvia Vanderpool, Ethel Smith), a Mikey and Sylvia cover
• DUKE OF EARL (Gene Chandler, Earl Edwards, Bernice Williams), a Gene Chandler cover

The session was purportedly produced by Mickie Most. The idea isn't completely preposterous, since Most did somehow come across George Underwood at this time. Six months later Underwood released a Most-produce single using the pseudonym "Calvin James" for the UK label Columbia (a division of EMI not related to the American label that is now a part of Sony). David got far more exposure from a juvenile publicity stunt promoting long hair for men, garnering two news spots. One was a London newspaper and one was a proper albeit brief television interview on November 12th.