David John & The Mood
During 1962 16-year-old David John Smith from Preston/ Lancashire (northern England) met Paul McCartney and saw the Beatles at a Cavern lunchtime session. He was so impressed by them that he wrote to the music press. To his surprise one of his letters was not only published, but also blown up with a page headline and photograph: The first national headline that the Beatles had.
Bo Diddley (Elias McDaniel) was a major influence on the band. David John remembers seeing him live in 1963: "Bo was amazing - he was using feedback, and had a great electric jungle sound" - that was the music he'd want to do. In Preston he approached a band called The Falcons, who shared his preferences and it all began to sound pretty good.
David John and the Mood were formed in the winter of 1963 and by mid-'64 the definite line-up had settled. Paul McCartney got to call Smith 'David John' and one of his managers suggested 'The Mood', to set the band apart of others:
"Beat as such is on the way out", proclaimed manager Derek Greenwood. "But we are hoping that David John's 'moody' sound is what the kids will want next - we have a lot of faith in these lads, which is why we are going all out to promote them in a big way."
Their first record was released when they were signed to the Rolling Stones manager who at the time was Eric Easton Associates. It did not sell, but was reference enough to play gigs in the prestigious London music-clubs like the Marquee, the Crawdaddy, the 100 Club and Eel Pie Island. They gained a reputation as live-act very soon and proceeded to the one-nighter circuit: They toured with the Stones, and appeared with Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker, the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann and P.J. Proby among others.
DJM also appeared on television, like Granada's 'Scene at 6.30', Harlech TV's 'Discs-a-gogo' from Bristol and the 'Lucky Stars summer spin' and had two fan-clubs: One was run by Beverly Witham of Whalley, Lancashire, the other was Kathy in Camberwell, South London. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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