John "Beaky" Dymond

John Dymond was born in 1944 and grew up in Salisbury, Wiltshire, where his parents ran a sweet shop in Fisherton Street. He lived at 25 Ashley Road, opposite Ian Amey at number 26, and the two became lifelong friends. "Me and Tich lived on the same road and we bought our first guitars as 13-year-old boys," he told the Salisbury Journal's history writer Frogg Moody. As children of seven or eight they discovered rock and roll on Radio Luxembourg, and they practised in Tich's front room, inspired by The Shadows. He remained proud of his Wiltshire heritage all his life.

Dymond and Ian Amey were schoolmates in Salisbury. The name of the school he attended has not been made public in the sources consulted. His real education in music came from the local band scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s, playing in groups such as the Big Boppers and the Beatnicks before the line-up that became Dave Dee and the Bostons came together.

Amey brought Dymond into the Beatnicks, alongside Trevor Davies (Dozy) and David Harman (Dave Dee). After drummer Michael Wilson (Mick) joined around Christmas 1961, they became Dave Dee and the Bostons, turned professional and played clubs in Hamburg and Cologne. Dymond said an early drummer, Stan, nicknamed him "the Beak" because of the size of his nose.

In 1964 songwriters and managers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley took the group on, a session with Joe Meek failed, and they signed to Fontana. Renamed Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, they released No Time in 1965, followed by You Make It Move. Then came a string of hits including Hold Tight!, Hideaway, Bend It!, Save Me, Okay!, Zabadak!, Last Night in Soho and the 1968 UK number one The Legend of Xanadu. Two singles sold over a million copies. Between 1965 and 1969 they spent more weeks in the UK charts than The Beatles. They toured with Gene Pitney and The Walker Brothers, and were big sellers in Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, where Zabadak! reached number one.

After Dave Dee left in September 1969, the band continued as D, B, M and T until 1973, releasing the album Fresh Ear. Dymond and Amey then formed Mason, reunited with the original five for the 1974 single She's My Lady, and played in Tracker with Davies and Pete Lucas. From 1976 the revived Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich had Dymond on drums; he sang lead on the 1979 single You've Got Me on the Run, and went back to guitar when John Hatchman took over drums in the early 1980s. In the late 1980s the band moved to Marbella and opened a sixties bar near Puerto Banus. Dymond stayed in Spain when the others returned to England, and was replaced by Paul Bennett and later Tony Carpenter.

In 2013 he rejoined the band. After Tich retired in 2014 and Dozy died in 2015, he was the last original member still performing, touring the UK sixties circuit, including the Sensational 60s Experience in 2024, and playing in Europe. In 2025, aged 80, he said they were playing to an average of 750 people a night.

Apart from his years in Spain, where he was known as a bar owner on the Costa del Sol and recalled a friendship with Cilla Black, Dymond lived in his home town of Salisbury, where he stayed until his death. His friendship with Ian "Tich" Amey lasted from early childhood to Amey's death in 2024; in their later years the two met for coffee in the Salisbury Market Place most mornings. Friends remembered a man who always had a joke saved for the dressing room and a million anecdotes about life as a pop star. Details of his marriages and children have not been confirmed in the reliable sources consulted.

Dymond spoke about music as a lifelong calling rather than a job. "You don't retire, music retires you in the end," he told the Henley Standard in 2024. He was wary of tabloid myth, recalling how the band's publicist once tried to stage a slap of Mick Jagger for the papers; when Jagger came in to congratulate them, Dymond could not do it. "Don't believe anything you read in the papers," he said. He also treasured the fans who kept coming to hear the sixties songs: "They love the memories, they keep coming back."

As Beaky, Dymond was part of one of the most commercially successful British pop groups of the 1960s, whose songs remain staples of oldies radio. Their music has found new audiences through film and television: Hold Tight! in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007), Bend It! in Futurama, and Last Night in Soho in Edgar Wright's 2021 film of the same name. For Salisbury he was a local boy whose talent shone on the world stage without ever forgetting his beginnings. His death left original drummer Michael Wilson as the band's only surviving founding member.

The band reached number one in the UK Singles Chart with The Legend of Xanadu in 1968, and two of their singles sold over a million copies. Dymond recalled the band winning a Golden Otto from the German magazine Bravo, whose readers voted them the most popular band. In 2008, marking 40 years since The Legend of Xanadu entered the charts, the Salisbury Civic Society placed a blue plaque honouring the group on City Hall in Malthouse Lane. The band were also considered for the Legends slot at Glastonbury Festival 2024.

Albums with the band include Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich (1966), If Music Be the Food of Love... Prepare for Indigestion (1966), If No-One Sang (1968), Together (1969) and, as D, B, M and T, Fresh Ear (1970). The group appeared regularly on Top of the Pops and on German television's Beat-Club, and made rare US TV appearances on Where the Action Is (1966) and Piccadilly Palace (1967). In later life Dymond gave many radio and magazine interviews about the sixties, including a 2020 Beat Magazine feature with Tich and a 2024 Henley Standard interview.

John "Beaky" Dymond died on 5 July 2026, aged 81, shortly before what would have been his 82nd birthday on 10 July. Beat Magazine broke the news that day. No cause of death was made public. He had lived in Salisbury until his death. Tributes came from fellow musicians, from The Equals, who said he had rejoined Dave Dee, Dozy and Tich, and from fans across Europe. The Telegraph published an obituary on 16 July 2026.