It was announced yesterday that Spencer Davis had died of pneumonia at the age of 81. I thought it might be appropriate to remember him and his contribution to music in the mid-1960’s. Davis was born in Swansea in July 1939. He began learning to play harmonica and accordion at the age of six. He attended Dynevor School and became proficient in languages. His early musical influences were skiffle, jazz and blues. By the time he was 16, Davis was hooked on the guitar and the American rhythm and blues music making its way across the Atlantic. With few opportunities to hear R&B in South Wales, Davis attended as many local gigs as practical. He formed a band called the Saints with Bill Perks (later known as Bill Wyman).
n 1963, Davis went to the Golden Eagle in Birmingham to see the Muff Wood Jazz band, a traditional jazz band featuring Muff and teenager Steve Winwood. Davis persuaded them to join him and drummer Pete York as the Rhythm and Blues Quartet. Davis performed on guitar, vocals and harmonica, Steve Winwood on guitar, organ and vocals, Muff Winwood on bass and Pete York on drums. They adopted the name the Spencer David Group because Davis was the only one who liked doing press interviews.
The group had No 1 hits in the UK with consecutive single releases in 1966, “Keep On Running” and “Somebody Help Me”. Steve Winwood sang lead vocals on all the Spencer Davis Group’s hits up to “I’m A Man” in 1967.
The Spencer Davis Group continued after Winwood left to form Traffic in April 1967. The group recorded two more albums before splitting in 1969. Another version of the group with Davis and York appeared in 1973 and disbanded in late 1974. Various incarnations of the band toured in later years under Davis’ direction.
After the group broke up, Davis moved to California and recorded an acoustic album with Peter Jameson, It’s Been So Long, for Mediarts in mid-1971. He followed it with a solo album,Mousetrap, for United Artists. Neither album sold well. Soon after, he moved back to the UK, formed a new Spencer Davis Group and signed with Vertigo. In addition, Davis was an executive at Island Records in the mid-1970s. Working as a promoter for Island Records, Davis worked with Bob Marley and Robert Palmer as well as promoting the solo career of former Spencer Davis Group member Steve Winwood.
They even starred in a movie called ‘The Ghost Goes Gear’ in 1966, with the legendary Nicholas Parsons. Although it not a brilliant film it did at least provide us with this excellent version of ‘Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out’.
