Dave Dee discusses his comeback

17 September 2008

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich are back with the release of their greatest hits and after their formation over 40 years ago, the band spent more weeks in the UK Singles Chart than The Beatles! I caught up with the legendary Dave Dee to find out what he’s been up to since his departure from the band at the height of their success.

What have you been up to recently?

Like working you mean? The band and I have just finished a three month tour which saw us do 76 shows and now it’s back to one night stand shows. There’s still plenty to do as we’ve just finished this album that’s coming out; we went into the studio and recorded six new songs (well cover versions of other people’s songs) and the record company came and saw one of the shows when we were on tour and said “look, we’re putting out this Best Of… would you mind recording some of those extra tracks?”

What made you decide to make a comeback?

We’ve never gone away love. None of the band have stopped working since the sixties, just because we’re not on the front page of the newspapers every day doesn’t mean we’ve gone away. All the band were still working.

But didn’t you actually leave the band?

Oh yeah. I left the band and worked for a major record company and the band carried on by themselves.

So what made you decide to come back then?

Basically the my record label that I started in the early eighties didn’t work out so about 1983/1984 I decided to fold it all up and I made some calls and spoke to Tich and the band and the agent asked me to get back with the band. We still do work on our own though.

How did you decide which songs made it onto the album?

Basically it picked itself because if it’s a “best of” you do through the charts and put the ones which were made it into the Top 20 were put on; so that wasn’t very difficult really.

How are you coping with being back in the spotlight?

It’s better than it was before because there’s no pressure anymore. When you go and play in a theatre people aren’t coming out of curiosity, they’re coming because they know what they’re going to get. We don’t have to go one stage and prove ourselves anymore.

What do you hope to gain from this reunion?

I don’t know where it’s going to lead to because the record company were the ones who approached us and they had done some market research on some of the old artists and our name kept coming up and they asked us to do a Best Of and to go into the studio and record some bonus track that I know our fans wanted to buy but we had never recorded them.

Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

I’d like to still be alive my darling! But who knows, people ask me all the time What do you want to do?” but I just think that as long as there are audiences out there who want to come and see me then I’ll keep doing it and if no people turn up then I’ll get the message.

We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview....and Miranda Garrison, a judge from Dirty Dancing: The Time Of Your Life says; “My favourite quote is; ‘Barns burnt down, now I can see the moon’ How does this gem touch your life?”

Hum. I think to try and analyse the question she means she is shut inside a barn or a world where you can’t see anything, then if you take the barn away by the fire then you’re able to see a lot more and I suppose the moon would be part of that! I’m still not exactly sure what it means but whatever she’s on… I want some!