Donovan
Donovan
Leitch was born in Glasgow in May 1946 and moved to Hartfield, England
when he was ten. By 1964 he was living in a seaside art studio in St
Ives, Cornwall, writing songs and waiting on tables in cafés and
occasionally traveling around England to perform at folk clubs with a
Kazoo player called Gypsy Dave.
Early in 1965, he attracted the attention of a few people who would
help shape his future. Firstly, Geoff Stephens and Peter Eden spotted
him performing in Southend and offered to manage him. At their
insistence he recorded some demo tracks at a Denmark Street studio
which came to the attention of a production staff member of the TV
show Ready Steady Go which resulted in slots on the show for
three consecutive weeks.
Despite widespread media comments about his similarity in style and
appearance to Bob Dylan (right down to the denim cap, harmonica rack
and guitar inscribed "This machine kills") Donovan's TV
appearances landed him a record deal with Pye. His debut single, Catch
The Wind, peaked at Number 4 on the UK Chart in April 1965 and
Donovan began performing at concerts with artists such as The
Beatles,
The Rolling Stones and Tom Jones.
In July of that year, Donovan made his debut appearances in the US,
including a set at the Newport Folk Festival, where (ironically) Bob Dylan
was booed by the crowd for performing an electric set. By
December, he had fired his managers, signed with Allen Klein in the US
and recorded Sunshine Superman with producer Mickie Most
- a move away from pure folk to pop. Sunshine Superman
hit Number 1 in the USA, earning Donovan his first gold record, and
much of 1966 was taken up with a tour of Europe.
December 1966 found Mellow Yellow (with
"whispering" vocal assistance from Paul
McCartney) at Number
2 in the USA - his second million seller, despite being banned in
Boston, MA for allegedly being abortion-themed (?!). The single peaked
at Number 8 in the UK. In the wake of The
Beatles visit to India, Donovan
flew to a Transcendental Meditation course there in 1968, meeting
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and becoming his disciple for a while.
The early 70s found Donovan living in Ireland and touring with an
electric backing band called Open Road. After recording with Cozy
Powell, Carole King and Peter Frampton he moved to California in 1974.
His career remained quiet throughout the 80's, with occasional low-key
tours and little in the way of recordings.
The 1990s provided Donovan with a second wind as he became
increasingly hip once more with a new wave of bands like the Happy
Mondays (not least because Donovan was father-in-law to the band's
vocalist Shaun Ryder), and he continued to tour and record into the
new millennium.
TRIVIA NOTE
In 1964 while in Manchester, England, to perform at a folk club,
Donovan was arrested on a charge of stealing 5,000 cigarettes and some
chocolates from a cinema. He spent two weeks on remand in Strangeways
Prison.
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