 |
By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"
You mean Dagenham Dave?  "
Dagenham Dave
Dave was from outer town
Manchester's likely too
Had read De Sade to Marx
More read than me and you
Scaffolding pays good bread
It pays for drugs and kicks
Dave only had one love
Had no real need for chicks
Dave was so far ahead
But now he's dead
I'm not going to cry
I bet he hit that water high
I guess he lost control
And welcomed in the night
It was too much for him
What were his thoughts that night
The river Thames is cold
It keeps on flowing on
But it left Dave alone
It just kept flowing on
There's certainly sickness here
But now he's dead
"The first time I met Dagenham Dave was in the summer of 1976. At that time I was working in the Stranglers road crew. We were playing a pub called the golden Lion in Fulham and after the gig this guy came up to me while I was putting the gear away. "Fucking great gig man" he said. He was very d*unk so I just smiled and said yeah. I later saw him outside talking to the band. After that brief meeting I came to know Dagenham Dave very well.
That wasn't the first time he's seen the band Dave saw them first at a pub called the Pig & Whistle. After these two gigs Dave made a point of going to every gig wherever they were. Dave interested the band immediately because he was a character, and The Stranglers loved Characters. Hugh named him Dagenham Dave because Dave had once worked at Ford's Dagenham plant.
Dave in fact came from Manchester. The son of a coal miner, he had a tough working class upbringing which left him with a passionate dislike for all authority. He was an ardent socialist who did all kinds of jobs (mainly labouring ands scaffolding). He was a pretty big guy who definitely had 2 sides to his character (he confessed to have once been diagnosed by a doctor as a paranoid schizophrenic). He was normally a very happy, easy going guy but sometimes when he drank he became very heavy and obnoxious. He didn't care how many people he took on as along as there was a chair or a bottle handy! He would never remember the next morning what he had done the night before. He was a very intelligent person with an interest in books, politics and art, though music was his real love. He had a great knowledge of jazz and classical music, Charlie Parker being his hero.
He and his lady Brenda (nicknamed Bren Gun by Hugh) lived in a hotel in Sussex Gardens near Bayswater W1. Because they lived in a hotel they would go out every night to the theatre, cinema or to see a band. It was known for them to be at The Nashville watching The Stranglers one night and at the Festival Hall watching the London Philharmonic Orchestra the next.
At the time Dave met The Stranglers they were playing pub venues like The Nashville, the Red Cow and The Hope & Anchor and building up a large following of 2-3 regulars.
Dave saw their potential. He knew they were going to make it and always kept telling then so, But they were hard times for the band. they often had no money and often played for as little as £25. Dave would always be at the gig buying the band and road crew drinks, and often food as well. It was not unknown for Dave to spend as much as £50 in an evening and he never thought twice about putting up one of the band of they had nowhere to crash. As far as Dave was concerned, nothing was too much trouble for the band. He loved them dearly.
Dave was also an entertainer, telling us anecdotes of his past, always laughing and joking. His favourite trick was to take his teeth out! His two front teeth were false and he was always taking them out for a laugh. In fact it became obvious after a time that Dave felt obliged to do these things, to play the fool and entertain everybody because it was expected. The Stranglers started calling him their number one fan but Dave didn't like being put on a pedestal. He would spend hours worrying about them; whether they were going to get a record deal or not, where the next gig was going to come from - let alone the next penny! All their problems became his.
It was about this time in late 1976 that something new was happening on the music scene. Other bands like The Sex Pistols, Clash and the Damned were helping to change the sound of London music and a whole new audience started coming to see the Stranglers.
Dave liked New Wave (Punk) music but he couldn't really identify with the punters. It was about this time that The Stranglers befriended a group of punks in a Finchley pub called the Torrington, and they started to come regularly to gigs. Hugh named the the Finchley Freds, later to be known simply as the Finchley Boys.
This was the first time anyone had challenged Dave's position within the framework of the band. Suddenly, someone else was telling the jokes and playing the fool. Dave reacted immediately by picking a fight with them during the gig a gig a6 the 100 Club while the Stranglers performed onstage. Dave took on about seven Finchley Boys in a fight which nobody won, he broke two ribs and chipped a bone in the corner of his right eye, It was the beginning of the end.
It was now 1977 and the Stranglers had finally got their record deal with United Artists which was a great triumph for them and everyone who believed in them from the start. Dave was present during the recording of Rattus Norvegicus and didn't think twice about telling producer Martin Rushent the way he thought the Stranglers should sound. Brenda, his long suffering lady, could no longer take any more and she left Dave to live with her mother in Sussex. Dave begged her to come back but to avail.
So on the ninth of February 1977, Dave committed suicide by jumping off Tower Bridge into the icy cold water of the Thames.
Some people may think of Dave as a hero, but I knew that is not the way he would have wanted it. I thought Dave was a really great bloke and that's all that matters."
 |
