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 What kept the diversity in your songs going?
Dave Dee: We used to collaborate with Howard and Blakely, our managers and songwriters. They would give us a part of a tune and a lyric and we would take it away and tweak it in the studio. All our stuff was done in three hour sessions, A side and B side and then we'd go in the next morning and mix it.
Why did you decide to leave in 1969?
Dave Dee: I'd been with the boys for ten years and if you live in someone's pocket for that long it takes its toll on you and them. I started looking for other challenges. I wanted to act, I wanted to do cabaret and the easiest thing was to leave the band. Music had started to move on too. Bands like Led Zeppelin and Free had started to come in and I thought for our sort of music the writing was on the wall. In retrospect, I think we could have gone on and done some other things. Some of our B sides were nothing like the pop singles that we made. I think we may have been able to take them onto another level.
What did the other band members think at the time?
Dave Dee: Disappointed. Worried about what they were going to do. We managed to stay friends with each other. We all came from the same town, our parents knew each other. It was something I had to do. Whether, in retrospect it was the right thing to do, we'll never know.
What have you done since you left the band?
Dave Dee: I did a couple of films and a couple of things with Frankie Howard and Ned Sherrin. I did a lot of cabaret and television presenting in Germany. I presented The Beat Club which was a big show over there. I could never really handle theatre auditions and I basically blew them, apart from one when I had just decided to take another job as a label manager for a record company. I had gone along to an audition in Covent Garden for a musical and because I had accepted this other job I went in not giving a damn. That was the first time I'd gone to an audition and they'd loved it. It was for Grease. Bill Kenwright's never forgiven me for turning it down. They offered me the part of the second lead and Richard Gear got the main part. Anyway, I went off to Atlantic Records to be a label manager.
What are you doing now?
Dave Dee: I'm back on the road with the boys at the moment. We're on a seventy-day tour.
With all the original members?
Dave Dee: Not the original Beaky as he lives in Spain. We're having a lot of fun doing it. I do a lot of work for a music charity and I spend one day a week as a JP in court.
What have been your proudest moments throughout your career?
Dave Dee: Seeing my parents proud of me having thought I would never make anything out of the music business. When I was a kid I loved jukeboxes and I always wanted to walk into a coffee bar and for someone to put one of our records on. I walked into a transport cafe on the A3 and someone had put on 'Hold Tight'. That was a moment.
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