Label: Spark
Year of Release: 1975
Yes, I know. We all want this to be a cover version of "Angela Jones" performed by ex-Radio One DJ Dave Lee Travis. You do, I do… everyone wants to get stuck in to the absurdity of that particular scenario. Sadly, though, that's not who this record is by. Rather, Dave Travis was (is?) a versatile British guitarist and singer who has sessioned for a wide variety of rockabilly artists including Charlie Feathers and Buddy Knox.
Despite the lack of novelty factor, this version of "Angela Jones" is OK, taking a lot of its cues from the Joe Meek produced minor sixties hit for Michael Cox and adding little new apart from Travis's much more confident, deeper and more rounded vocal. Why it was seen as a cover version which might be ripe for the mid-seventies market is anyone's guess, but clearly it wasn't as it totally failed to chart despite the forest of naffness that surrounded it in the British music scene at that time.
Dave Travis released a few other singles on Spark and continued to gig and play and release albums until well into the late eighties. A popular live draw on the rockabilly revival circuit at that time, unfortunately his present whereabouts aren't clear to me - but it wouldn't surprise me at all to be informed that he's still going strong.
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