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. 

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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. This was a few months after New Zealand's Ray Columbus And The Invaders had a hit with 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). 

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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)