Obscure Originators (42) Vandyke And The Bambis

The latest from my website's front page series about lesser known artists who performed the original versions of Australian or NZ records. 

See also: the full collection of over 40 Obscure Originators features. 

____________________

Daily Mirror 16 April 1964

Doin' The Mod was released by Melbourne band The Flies in June 1965 with soon-to-be-famous Ronnie Burns on guitar and vocals. Late in the previous year, from around September 1964, New Zealand's Ray Columbus And The Invaders had been on the Australian charts with their hit She's A Mod.

Both of those songs about the mods originated in Britain in an era of competing teenage subcultures, when bad feeling between crowds of mods and rockers could turn violent. The British papers were full of stories like this one from May 1964: Holiday 'spoilt for thousands' by 'Mods' and 'Rockers' - SEAFRONT GANGS FIGHT WITH DECKCHAIRS.

In that context, Vandyke And The Bambis' original version of Doin' The Mod (April 1964) is about more than just a trendy dance. As its lyrics go, Who's that man in that leather jacket down there? Man, he's so bad. He must be a rocker. Get him out of here!

Norwich Evening News 19 May 1964 

It could be unfair to call Doin' The Mod's writer and performer Les Vandyke an obscurity. He might not have been so obscure to anyone who read the tiny songwriter credits found in brackets on record labels although they often showed only (Vandyke) or (Van Dyke). His compositions included Adam Faith's What Do You Want? (#1 UK) and Poor Me (#1), Eden Kane's Well I Ask You (#1) and Forget Me Not (#3); and Applejack (#4 co-wr.Bridget De Mare) by ex-Shadows Jet Harris & Tony Meehan.

Sadly though, songwriters often went unnoticed except for some prominent artists who wrote their own material (The Beatles, Bob Dylan) and a select few whose names became better known (Jimmy Webb, Bacharach & David, Holland-Dozier-Holland). 

-

1962 #8 UK

 Many British pop fans would have also heard Les Vandyke singing, as Johnny Worth, on soundalike versions of current hits on the budget Embassy label. Sold only in Woolworths stores, Embassy's sales figures were off the grid as far as the charts were concerned, but they probably sold more than one might assume, possibly in the 100,000s. In a delicious twist, they included Johnny Worth covering his own compositions including What Do You Want? and Poor Me.

I'm guessing that The Bambis were a studio group employed by Les Vandyke. For a photo session they wore false joke-shop beards, and newspaper profiles of the day decline to name them.

When I wrote about them at the website, Les's son Dave emailed with a correction and the nice detail that the name of The Bambis came from his own childhood nickname.

For more about the song and Vandyke And The Bambis, see The Flies - Doin' The Mod

April 1964 [enhanced from original]

The Flies - Doin' The Mod (Australia 1965)

Vandyke And The Bambis - Doin' The Mod (UK 1964)

Adam Faith - What Do You Want (1959, wr. Les Vandyke)

Johnny Worth (= Les Vandyke) - What Do You Want (1959, budget cover version by the composer on Embassy)

Bonus Jimmy Justice - What Do You Want (1962, wr. Les Vandyke)

Introducing the N.Z. Hit Parade! (March 1966)

From 25 March 1966 New Zealand Listener magazine published a national Top 20 that is sometimes cited as the first “official” NZ chart. 

It was probably no more official than the "official Top 40" of Melbourne radio station 3UZ. However, it was a well-organised chart in a prominent and respected publication, and in spite of its flaws it seems to have become the de facto chart for New Zealand at the time.

The Listener chart was compiled using coupons mailed in by readers who had filled them out with their five current favourite songs.

The ad in the Listener on 18 March 1966 went like this:

INTRODUCING
THE N.Z. HIT PARADE
Based on a Nationwide Voting Poll
YOU CHOOSE THE HITS!
Complete the coupon below and you take part in choosing
New Zealand’s Top Twenty. 

That teaser included an unnumbered list of "leading discs of the moment" for inspiration, but the next edition on 25 March published the actual N.Z. Hit Parade. A Must To Avoid by Herman's Hermits topped the Top 20, leading a list of exclusively British and American records. (True, The Seekers at #3 were Australians but they recorded The Carnival Is Over in Britain, produced by its British composer Tom Springfield.) 

Seven weeks later, in the 13 May issue, The La De Das' How Is The Air Up There became the first New Zealand record on the Listener chart, entering at #13 and going on to peak at #4.

UK record, NZ issue, NZ hit (discogs.com)

I-cannot-say-whether the readers' poll was the only source for the Listener chart or whether there were any adjustments before publication. Whatever the truth, NZ chart compiler Dean Scapolo believes that it was “not a good indicator” of what was actually selling. From April 1970 the Listener did use sales figures, but its charts were retired with the coming of official music industry charts in May 1975.

Warwick Freeman, another compiler, outlines the NZ chart scene before March 1966 when the Listener chart appeared:
❝ [New Zealanders] relied on local radio stations, television, record stores and other sources who compiled their own charts. A few of these charts were published, and in many cases lost, but others were simply written down in scrapbooks by keen listeners as the countdown was played on the radio or TV.❞

Another often-cited chart from before March 1966 was the Lever Hit Parade, a Top 8 that was sponsored by a detergent company, compiled by an advertising agency, and used by NZ’s state-owned commercial radio stations. Although its methods are not known it was not based on sales figures and probably used some kind of polling. There was also a genuinely sales-based chart published in Playdate magazine but only for a couple of months in 1960.

All of these sources have been used in compiling books of historical New Zealand chart data. Dean Scapolo’s Complete New Zealand Music Charts 1966 to 1996 begins with the Listener charts in March 1966. Warwick Freeman in New Zealand Top 20 Singles of the Sixties has additionally used a variety of sources from before March 1966 to retrospectively compile chart listings for the whole decade. 

____________________________ 

Sources: 1. Flavour of New Zealand’s feature on NZ charts 2. Scapolo’s and Freeman’s chart books. 3. Listener archives at Papers Past (National Library of NZ).

Related: My post about retrospective Australian charts Toppermost of the poppermost: the charts.

---