A Stirrer Interview

WHITE GLOVES AND BULL WHIPS

29-05-2008

Yes, just another typical night out for Pete Millington who encounters '60s icon Dave Berry at Arden Hall, then gets the nod to head backstage.  Ooh er…

Once again every seat in Arden Hall was taken by a bottom as Castle Bromwich-based musical entrepreneur Chris Beebee (aka Ego Mongoose Productions) successfully brought yet another superb night of Sixties’ fun and nostalgia to this northerly corner of the West Midlands county.

And in an era when ‘tribute bands’ can command larger audiences than groups playing original material, there is something very special in being able to observe genuine British pop legends playing their own hits with as much energy and musical skill as they did forty years ago.

As remarkable as the ‘tribute band’ phenomenon can sometimes be … you just can not beat the real deal!

Tonight’s show featured Dave Berry and Dave Dee performing individual sets but each backed by a band known as The SJ’s who also perform as The Pacemakers – and yes I do mean the group who back a certain top Scouser who goes by the name of Gerry Marsden.

The SJ’s opened the evening’s show and, in the absence of Mr Marsden, avoided falling back on Pacemakers’ classics such as I Like It or Ferry to warm the audience up for the headlining stars.

Instead we were treated to some thumping good old Soul classics such as Marvin Gaye’s I heard it through the grapevine and Eddie Floyd’s Knock on Wood with a rip-roaring lead vocal from former Q-Tips bassist, Garth Watt-Roy (brother of former Blockhead, Norman Watt-Roy).

For a comparison think along the lines of the Trevor Burton Band meets the lead singer of The Commitments. A truly stirring set to get any real pace makers in the room beating dangerously.

For someone who has never seen either Dave Berry or Dave Dee live before, I was actually starting to think that they had better be damned good to beat the warm-up man, but my concerns were swiftly put to rest as the man with the white glove took to the stage and, oh boy, what a presence.

For those of us who thought that theatre was introduced into pop music with David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, here is the daddy to them all – the smooth and mesmerising Dave Berry.

Straight into the early 60s rhythm ‘n’ blues covers on which messrs. Berry and contemporaries like the Beatles and the Stones cut their teeth – no matter how much Hip Hop we have become accustomed to as the backdrop to contemporary culture – you just can not beat those opening strains of the guitar riff which precedes the line “…long distance information give me Memphis Tennessee”. 

A former teen idol of the swinging Sixties, 67 year old Berry still exudes style and sexiness, though this is a man who can also entertain his audience between songs with a wonderful sense of ironic humour about his age and continuing profession in the rock n roll industry.

A typical gag being the story of how he picked up a magazine in his hotel room recently, following a heavy night of alcohol consumption with fellow musicians and read with mounting horror an article about the dangers of binge drinking.

"I was so shocked by what I read" gasped Mr Berry "I made a vow there and then to give up ..reading". At another point he stared to the rear of the 'auditorium' and made the plea "rattle your zimmer frames at the back to show me you're enjoying yourselves".

But if anything, this self directed ageism only served to enforce the more subtle point to the relatively younger generations like myself (tongue firmly planted in cheek there) that musical ability doesn’t necessarily deteriorate with age.

We have only to think of John Lee Hooker or more locally to jazz man Andy Hamilton, even to the likes of our own home grown rocker, Steve Gibbons, who is possibly closer to Dave Berry’s age group than the others I mentioned, to be convinced that this is not just a nostalgia trip but that there continues to be serious talent alongside large helpings of cool factor here.

Dave Berry continued his act with sublime renditions of his best known hits like Little Things and the lovely Mama finishing on The Crying Game and an absolutely magical version of Dusty Springfield’s I think I’m going back as a solo encore, the original thin white duke alone in the spotlight.

Suddenly I felt I was discovering something new …the special sound of Dave Berry.

After a refreshment break and another couple of belters from the SJ’s, it was time for Dave Dee.

Having spent the break with my mate and photographer (by coincidence also named Dave) attempting to recall from memory the correct order of Dave Dee’s 60s band … Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich (which does become increasingly difficult relative to how much beer one drinks), here was the top man looking even more distinguished and self-confident as he did on those rare bits of footage that remain from Ready Steady Go! on YouTube.

Younger generations might be forgiven if the name of the band seems to have become merged into the mists of early British pop social memory alongside the likes of Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits and The Searchers.

Hits like Bend It are standards on 1960s Compilations with Manfred Mann and Cilla Black, but at their peak here was a group who beat the Beatles to Hamburg by 12 months and whom top designers in Carnaby Street followed around for the most up-to-the–moment fashion ideas.

There are of course also the urban myths, which in this case are actually true, such as Dave Dee as a rookie copper in London being first on the scene at the taxi crash which killed Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent.

But just as I was settling into the third musical treat of the evening, I received a whispered invitation from the Ego Mongoose to go and chat with Dave Berry backstage.

I am pleased that I had at least managed to catch a highly entertaining performance of the strangely worded 1967 hit Zabadak! .complete with faltering but highly amusing audience participation. Whilst I heard the rest of Dave Dee's set from the hospitality room backstage, I sadly missed the infamous bull whip routine. Perhaps another time.

But what a privilege to sit down for a personal audience with the charismatic Dave Berry, a warm and intelligent man with an endearing sense of modesty and humility who immediately put me at my ease having been introduced to him rather grandly as “the man from the press”.

Dave immediately looked me in the eye and knowingly said “you might be a little too young to have been into my music”. He was of course right and I felt grateful for the cue not to attempt  bullshitting anybody, least of all Dave, into believing that I was anything approaching an experienced old pop-hack with 25 years at NME or Rolling Stone under ma snakeskin belt.

On observing that I had also forgotten to bring a notepad or tape recorder he then remarked in a soft Sheffield voice “well I prefer to have a nice relaxed chat to an interview anyway”.

But my research had at least been sufficient to realise that Dave Berry or Dave Dee weren’t just old fogies from the 1960s trying to supplement their retirement pensions, even if that was an impression created by their own on-stage gags.

Dave Berry told me that music has been his whole life, with excursions into other media and he has toured and performed with some of the greatest names in the business.

As a big fan of Van Morrison, I was interested in Dave’s personal take on the gifted Ulsterman, well known for his wonderful music and his grumpy personality.

Learning that Dave has encountered Van the Man on several occasions I asked him “do you think Van is just very shy?” to which he replied “I think that might be putting it a bit too politely, but he certainly doesn’t suffer fools easily. He was always very courteous to me though, I think he knew I was straight with him and he respected me”.

I also asked Dave what he thinks of the modern music of today’s youth and he was very clear about the fact that he avoids criticising it, even when it doesn’t directly appeal to him:

"When you see young bands of today trying to make it, and I'm not talking about the Pop Idol industry, but the young kids loading their equipment into vans from the back doors of pubs at night time, and we came across some of this recently on the tour in places like Liverpool, you see that nothing much has changed since we were doing that in the early 1960s.

"These kids are struggling to make their dreams come true just like we were. Learning to play the guitar was a sure way to get the girls and that's exactly the same for the kids today. I wouldn't knock anyone attempting to play music".

I then asked Dave about his own stage act, the interesting mix of good old rock and roll with the added dimension of the white glove and the enigmatic movements and gestures:

"Well it's theatre really, back in the early 60s we used to play in all sorts of places to start off, music halls, pubs and clubs up north, so you had to have something in your act in addition to singing pop songs.

"I've always loved the theatre and have set out to combine the movement and drama of theatre with my music. I learnt a lot from strippers, in those early days the r&b band would often warm up for the main act which was the strip tease show, I learnt a lot from watching the theatre that went into strip tease".

So is it true that punk rock bands like the Sex Pistols claimed to have taken influence from Dave Berry?

"Yes that's true" he said, explaining to me some history of how he appeared around London in the years prior to the punk explosion of 1976 and 1977 and how the young punk rockers were intrigued by his unconventional stage presence. �

But what are Dave’s thoughts about the modern phenomenon of ‘tribute bands’?

"Well they have their place and some of them are quite remarkable, a lot of them sound better than the real thing! But the trouble is people will sometimes pay more money to go and see a tribute band than an original band.

"We got booked by a woman up north who saw a niche for Sixties groups like ourselves which really took off and before long she was working her way through all the old groups.

"But then one night she booked a tribute band and they pulled in a bigger audience than most of us did. From that moment on she stopped booking the genuine stuff and only booked tribute bands".

Once again Dave Berry smiled at another of the ironies of a life-time spent playing the Devil’s music.

If my one regret the other night was missing two thirds of Dave Dee’s set, I feel greatly privileged to have sat down for a ‘chat’ with one of popular music’s most charismatic performers and one of Britain’s finest ever rock and roll singers – Dave Berry.

Pete Millington blogs at http://www.spaghettigazetti.com/

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