BIOGRAPHY – The Dogs D’Amour

For an all-too short time during the late 1980s, The Dogs D’Amour enjoyed moderate commercial success, although they would be criminally overlooked in most other countries outside of their native England. After several years struggling on the club scene, the band finally landed a break with their second album and a string of acclaimed singles, before eventually self destructing. Timothy Taylor, a Wolverhampton-born guitarist who had relocated to London, formed a group called The Bordello Boys with bassist Karl Watson, guitarist Nick Halls and drummer Bam, before recruiting American singer Ned Christie (born Robert Stoddard, later to work briefly with L.A. Guns) as their frontman. This would become the first incarnation of the group, who soon changed their name to The Dogs D’Amour, and their first gig took place at a pub in Kings Cross in April, 1983.

The group soon attracted the interest of an A&R representative from Japanese label Watanabe Records but, despite having signed a contract, when the man left the company the group found themselves without support and with only the £7,000 they had been paid as an advance. Using the money, they entered a studio based in an old church and recorded eleven tracks that would remain unreleased for almost four years. Over the next few months the band began to fall apart, with Christie and Taylor, who had since become known simply as Tyla, unable to work together. An offer soon came to perform in Finland, which forced Bam, whose daughter was due to be born, to leave the group, with Halls also leaving around the same time. With Christie gone, Tyla took over as lead singer and, whilst in Finland, struck up a deal with Kumibeat Records to record their official debut with Watson, Dave Kusworth on guitar and Paul Hornby (formerly of The Quireboys) on drums. The State We’re In was released in 1984 and spawned one single, How Do You Fall In Love Again?, but neither were able to attract attention from critics or fans.

As Tyla slowly reassembled the band, he recruited bassist Steve James and guitarist Jo Almeida, whilst Bam agreed to rejoin. Their luck began to change when they were signed to China Records, who also handled avant garde pop group Art of Noise. Their initial agreement with the label had stated that their earlier recordings would finally be released and so, in 1988, China released (Un)authorized Bootleg, which consisted of the songs Tyla and Bam had recorded at the church several years earlier. Their major label debut came the same year when the band entered the studio with producer Mark Dearnley, who had previously worked as an engineer on AC/DC‘s Highway To Hell, to record In the Dynamite Jet Saloon. With this album came three singles that would gain minor exposure on music channels – The Kid From Kensington (on the later reissue), I Don’t Want You To Go and How Comes It Never Rains. Both the album and the singles would also showcase Tyla’s artwork, portraying the band as drunken, rock ‘n’ roll pirates, which would become a staple of their subsequent releases (many of which would be picture discs).

Two weeks before Christmas, The Dogs D’Amour spent a drunken day in the studio recording thirteen acoustic tracks, eight of which were released several months later as A Graveyard of Empty Bottles. Dearnley would work with the band for a third time for their next full length album, Errol Flynn, which would be released in the United States under the alternative title King of the Thieves. This would yield their most successful single, Satellite Kid, which would see the group performing on Top of the Pops in August 1989. A second hit single, Trail of Tears, would soon follow, whilst the band enjoyed a successful tour of the UK. 1990 would mark the beginning of the end, with their highly anticipated fifth album, Straight??!!, seeing The Dogs D’Amour working with a different producer, Ric Browde (who had previously worked on the debut albums for Poison and Faster Pussycat). Whilst the appropriately-titled Victims of Success would enter the UK Top 40, the acoustic ballad Empty World and the rock track Back on the Juice would fail to chart.

Internal conflicts began to tear the band apart and, during a show in Los Angeles, fans witnessed the final straw when Tyla cut open his chest with a broken bottle whilst on stage. By the time that The Dogs D’Amour released their next album, 1993′s …More Unchartered Heights of Disgrace, the magic had obviously come to an end. With Almeida deciding not to return, Tyla brought in Darrell Bath (previously with UK Subs) as a replacement, whilst Henry Twinch also joined on piano. Although the album climbed to #30 in the charts, the accompanying singles failed to gain exposure, including a cover of the Small Faces classic All or Nothing. The same line-up would also record one more album together, The Life And Times Of A Ballad Monger, which would be credited as a solo album for Tyla, but soon afterwards The Dogs D’Amour split once again. Tyla continued to record as a solo artist, releasing overlooked albums such as Libertine and Gothic during the late 1990s, before The Dogs D’Amour reunited briefly in 2000, with Tyla being joined by Almeida, Bam and the latter’s wife Share Pedersen, who once played bass for all-girl glam band Vixen. Over recent years, Tyla has released two albums under The Dogs D’Amour banner, When Bastards Go To Hell and Let Sleeping Dogs…, as well as several solo albums.