He had a rich and varied career: following two years of
National Service (where he gained valuable experience working for the British
Forces Broadcasting Service) he worked as a bouncer in a coffee bar, an actor, a
photographic assistant, a builders’ labourer, a leaf-sweeper in Hyde Park, and a
vacuum cleaner salesman before, in 1964, landing a job with Radio Caroline,
becoming the first live voice heard on the pirate station in March of that
year.
He was not with Caroline for long. Dee was flamboyant and
stubborn, and refused to play certain records, despite the fact that Caroline (like
all of the pirate stations) relied heavily on the financial support of certain
record companies. He left Caroline in May 1965, but by then he had already begun
making the transition to television, presenting ATV’s flagship pop show Thank
Your Lucky Stars. In June he was signed by both the BBC and Radio
Luxembourg, but controversy followed Dee, and he was reprimanded by his bosses
at the newly-established Radio One when he insisted on playing Scott Walker’s
recording of the Jacques Brel song Jackie, despite it having the
distinction of being the first song banned by Radio One, blacklisted due to
references to homosexuality.
Luckily for him, the bosses over at BBC television decided
he was just the right man to front a new, twice-weekly chat show. Dee Time was
an instant hit and regularly pulled in audiences of 18 million viewers. The show
ran from 1967-69 and was broadcast live, which sadly means that only two complete
episodes still exist in the archives. However, success went to his head: he
became better known for his extravagant lifestyle than for his abilities as a
presenter, and a demand for more money from the BBC saw Head of Light
Entertainment Bill Cotton terminate Dee’s contract.
Dee’s broadcasting career was all but over: he landed the
occasional guest slot but his reputation for being difficult meant that no one would hire him long-term. Leaving showbiz behind him, he became a bus driver; ironically,
Matt Monro had been a bus driver before finding fame as a singer. In 1974 Dee served
28 days in Pentonville Prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea
home, and on another occasion, he was jailed for vandalising a lavatory seat that
had Petula Clark's face painted on it, as he thought that was disrespectful to
her. The magistrate who sentenced him was Bill Cotton. In 1981. Shortly after he
had been dropped by Radio Luxembourg after missing a recording session for the
first episode of a contracted series, he was arrested for assaulting a
policeman outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.
Dee died of cancer on 29 August 2009.
Like pretty much every other celebrity radio DJ of the era,
Dee was brought into the studio to record an obligatory pop single, issuing Julie
backed with Whatever Happened To Us on Les Reed’s recently established Chapter
One label in 1969. A pair of dreary ballads,
they do nothing to showcase his obvious star quality. Previously, in 1966, he had narrated a rather fun flexi-disc for Smiths Crisps, When It Comes To The Crunch (It's Smiths IT IS!), but as far as I am aware these two tracks were his only attempts at a pop career.
Judge for yourself: here are both sides of his sole single release,
Julie and Whatever Happened To Us.
Enjoy!
Download Julie HERE
Download Whatever HERE
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