David Bowie is (part 3): 'Act Tall, Think Big'

Davie Jones (top) and the King Bees
(George Underwood, far right)

The first press release for
Davie Jones and the King Bees

In 1963 David Jones joined the King Bees as the singer. In January 1964, with the help of his father, he wrote a letter to John Bloom, an entrepeneur that sold washing machines, fridges and dishwashers. The letter contained the lines, 'If you can sell my group the way you sell washing machines, you'll be onto a winner' and 'Brian Epstein's got the Beatles and you should have us'. Bloom passed the letter on to Les Conn, who spent the next few years pushing David with his many contacts. The seventeen year-old David signed a management contract with Conn, who reciprocated with gigs in the West End of London and a recording session at Decca Records. He was also famously put to work whitewashing Conn's walls with another of his finds, Mark Feld, soon to become Marc Bolan.

The King Bees first recording, credited to 'Davie Jones and the King Bees' was a single, 'Liza Jane', backed with 'Louie Louie Go Home'. Both sides of the single seem relatively undistinguished today. Even Davie Jones, the best thing about the record, sounds like he is still finding his voice in an approximation of a John Lennon-style beat singing voice. It failed to get anywhere near the chart. In June 1964 the band did some gigs to promote the single and then made an appearance on Ready, Steady, Go! In July, David announced, "I've decided to break up the band - and I've found another band."



In July 1964, the seventeen year-old David Jones joined a new band, a six-piece called the Manish Boys. Jones had improved his microphone tecnnique, his stage presence and begun to write his own songs. He left his job and would often spend weeks at a time at various friends' houses in the style of his heroes Dylan and Jack Kerouac. After a series of gigs with the Manish Boys, Les Conn secured an audition with Mickie Most, a top independent producer, hot off the back of success with the Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun'. They then recorded with Most; David's vocals were flawless, but the backing vocals were out and their time ran out.

Then in November David Jones and Woolf Byrne, another Manish Boy, were in La Giocaonda, a favoured coffee shop of musicians in Denmark Street when a BBC researcher asked if anyone had had problems with their long hair. Sensing an opportunity they agreed and were rewarded with an appearance on Tonight with Cliff Michelmore, broadcast in 12 November 1964.



The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-Haired Men was, of course, a fiction, but his humour and wit was impeccable.

In December the band played a tour on a bill that consisted of Gene Pitney, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Kinks and Marianne Faithfull. One of the songs on the Manish Boys set-list was the Bobby Bland cover 'I Pity the Fool', which shortly afterwards was picked to be recorded as their first single, and was to include session musician and future Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page. It was released in March 1965.



The B-side, 'Take My Tip', a pastiche of Georgie Fame, was the first song written by David Jones to be released on record.



Once again the single failed to trouble the charts. Shortly afterwards the gigs began to dry up, they were short of money, the van broke down and by April they had split up.

Next time: new band, new single, new manager, new name.