We were part of the world’s first boy band, says Denis King

To some, the name Denis King will make you think of the world’s very first boy band, The King Brothers.

Maybe to others, film and TV themes like The Sweeney movie, Black Beauty, Holiday On The Buses and Privates On Parade will spring to mind.

And for others of every generation, you’ll have heard Denis’s TV advertising jingles, for everything from Barclaycard to Crown Paints, Boots to British Leyland, Clarks Shoes to Quality Street and Marmite to Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

“I’ve had three careers in one,” admits the 75-year-old, who sounds about 25 on the phone from Suffolk, and still dives into the North Sea every morning to keep young.

“First, there was The King Brothers. Then I was involved in writing for TV and jingles, and thirdly, writing for theatre.

“It’s fair to say I’ve grown up right through the music business, for about 60 years.

“To me, it’s amazing what you can do now, on a computer. Making demos is much simpler. In my early days, just doing a short jingle cost a lot of money and time. Now you can knock it out in 10 minutes!”

Denis and his band weren’t just pre-Beatles they were pre-Eddie Cochran and Elvis, and he was just 13 when The King Brothers toured Europe, popping up on telly every week.

With two shows a night across Britain, he attended school in a different town or city every week, but somehow he survived it all!

“In the early 1950s, The King Brothers were the first boy band,” says Denis.

“I was 13 but I’m small and I looked about eight. We were three little kids, all smiling, dressed smartly with nice bowties.

“I was still at school in East London, getting the Tube in, after being on TV the night before. There I was, with my satchel on my knee, and this lady kept nudging the guy next to her, pointing at me.”

A more innocent age, then, but Denis did encounter one horrible moment in a career that has seen him become close friends with the likes of Michael Palin, Bill Oddie, Maureen Lipman and Alan Ayckbourn.

“This was about 20 years ago,” he says. “And I got into desperate trouble.

“Advertising agencies would say they wanted, say, My Fair Lady, but publishers would refuse. ‘We’re not having some twerp using the music to sell loo paper or whatever.’

“So they’d ask me to come up with something in that style.

“They wanted to do a commercial, and asked for a tune in the style of There’s Nothing Like A Dame, from South Pacific.

“The Rodgers and Hammerstein people had said no. These were big guns, so I wrote something but the agency said it wasn’t close enough.

“I tried again, they still weren’t satisfied, and I said we were treading on dangerous ground.

“Lawyers assured us it would be fine, we recorded it with a big orchestra, and as soon as it was shown, the phone calls and legal papers were flying.

“The judge found against us, my royalties were frozen, the agency was sued, and then they sued me!

“Worst of all, after losing 15 grand in legal fees, the story was published in a magazine that was the bible of the advertising world, and overnight, the calls dried up.”

Thankfully, Denis lived to tell the tale and continues to enjoy a career that’s had far more highs than lows.

His memoir, Key Changes, is out now, as an ebook, available via iTunes, Audible.com, Play.com, Google Play and similar.

Black Beauty And Other TV Themes, a CD, is also out now, and you can visit his hilarious site at www.deniskingmusic.com.