Page 10 - June Issue 2021

SPENCER DAVIS: A Belated Requiem
By Rob Atkins
On the 19th of October, 2020, the world of rock music lost one of its many legends. At the age of 81, former British r’n’b singer/guitarist, Spencer Davis, died of pneumonia in an LA hospital. Although not as well-known to younger music fans of today as some of his contemporaries, he was, nonetheless, with his band, the famed Spencer Davis Group, instrumental in introducing the ethnic music of American blues to a wider audience. His band, along with similarly- minded British pioneers such as the Stones, Pretty Things, Them, and the Animals, were thus able to ‘re-import’ the black soul sounds of the ‘deep south’ and US city ghettos back to the land of it’s birth. Their subsequent contribution, in the mid-sixties, to the multi-racial, many-faceted, alloy of sub-genres and wide-ranging influences that has developed into modern rock ‘n’ roll, is immeasurable.
Spencer Davis was born on the 17th July, 1939, in the industrial city of Swansea, South Wales. On September 3rd of the same year, the Second World War broke out in Europe, and like many other British city kids, his earliest memories were of air raid sirens and bombing raids, and entire streets reduced to rubble overnight. As he grew older these ruins became his playground. His father was away fighting, and he was brought up by his mother and uncle. It was the latter, a musician, who nourished the young Spencer’s love of music, teaching him to play accordion, piano, and harmonica at the age of six.
At the cessation of hostilities, Davis began his schooling, and showed, as he grew older, promise as an assiduous learner -possessing a particular talent for foreign languages. Throughout this time he retained his interest in music, utilising his instrumental skills in the 1950’s skiffle craze, and, at a different level, singing in the school choir. (In an interview many years later, he dispelled the belief that all Welsh excelled at singing by disclosing the fact that a large number of his fellow choristers were tone deaf!) His tastes in music widened, he took up
guitar, became an avid admirer of Buddy Holly, and later, of the earthy blues music of artists such as Big Bill Broonzy and Lead Belly.
On leaving school, he moved to London, working as a Post Office clerk, and later with the Customs and Excise. A few years later he returned to Wales to finish his education at Swansea’s Dynevor School. He was appointed Head Boy, passed all his exams with flying colours, and in 1960, gained a place at Birmingham University to read German.
Birmingham has been called ‘England’s second city’, and it was here that the young Welshman settled down to academic study -and also to that other inevitable draw of student interest: the local night life. The city abounded with pubs and clubs -many of them live music venues. Davis took to the scene like a duck to water, imbibing the diverse and eclectic interpretations of black American blues being served up by white,
British bluesmen such as Long John Baldrey, Alexis Korner, John Martyn, and Davey Graham. Wanting a slice of the action himself, he began sitting in on guitar with some of the outfits, and musician friends from the university -including a young art student named Christine Perfect (later known as Christine McVie of FleetwoodMac).
One evening in 1963, he entered the bar of Birmingham’s Golden Eagle pub with Pete York, a friend and gifted drummer. They had come to check out a local combo, the Muff Woody Jazz Band. Sufficiently impressed by the bass player, Muff (Melvyn) Winwood, and knocked out by the musicianship of the exceptionally young-looking guy doubling on guitar and piano, Davis invited them to join a group he and York were forming. The offer was accepted, and he was surprised to learn that the younger musician was Muff’s brother, Steve -only fourteen years old, and still at school!
The new band -staidly named The Rhythm
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