One of the original guitarists with the Dakotas, Mike Maxfield has died and now one of his former band members is to release a new single in his memory…
By Ian Woolley
The original 1961 lineup with Maxfield was drummer Tony Bookbinder, guitarist Robin MacDonald, bassist Ray Jones and singer Pete Maclaine. However, their manager Brian Epstein was persuaded by Lennon and McCartney to have them back singer Billy J. Kramer. As Maclaine left the group, the decision proved the right one. Chart hits like “Little Children”, “Bad To Me” and “Do You Want To Know A Secret”. As they both had separate recording contracts with Parlophone, they were billed as Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas.
The Dakotas
Now with the recent death of Maxfield, one of his former band members who played with him in the latter-day Dakotas is to release their single demo “The Crying Game” at the end of the year.
Originally a 1964 hit for Dave Berry, his friend Eddie Mooney released the following statement on social media.
“As some of you may know my friend and great musician Mike Maxfield passed away this week. I joined the band in the late 80s and Mike and me were very close friends. He had a major stroke in 2006 and had to retire from music. In recent years his health deteriorated and he passed away earlier this week.”
“Crying Game” was one of the last recordings Mike and I made and was chosen as we had played the song live with the original hitmaker, Dave Berry.”
“I thought it would be nice to work with Mike, in a virtual sense, for the very last time to make this record. I’m putting it out as an official release on 29th December.”
“This recording was based on a demo Mike and I did which had just acoustic guitar and my lead vocal. I used AI de-mixing technology to de-construct the original demo, then built up all the voices, bass guitar and percussion around it,”
“This is my tribute to Mike’s memory and dedicated to his wife Merle and their family.”
In 1965, Maxfield decided to leave the group to concentrate on songwriting (as did Kramer two years later). Some 20 years later, The original Dakotas’ reformed with Billy, Mike, Toni and recruited Eddie Mooney and toured in 1996. Although Billy J. Kramer went back to the US and Tony Mansfield left the band, Pete Hilton came in as the new drummer.
Meet The Dakotas EP
Eddie explains. “I was in the Dakotas with Mike for many years along with Pete Hilton and Toni Baker and that was the lineup we did the most stuff with at the time*. Mike had to retire in 2004 after suffering a stroke and I went round to see him but it was harrowing as it wasn’t just physical but mental deterioration.”
“Towards the end of his life, he also had dementia and it was sad which is why ironically I’ve done this record. I thought I’d dig this old demo out and do something with the song that we recorded back in the day.”
“Like Denny Laine, I have toured with him too and it’s like you’re looking over your shoulder who’s going to be the next.”
“Mike and I in the old days used to back a lot of artists like Billy, Dave Berry. Even for our own albums, we’d pick songs we liked and re-hash them but in a different way. “The Crying Game” was one of those with Mike playing acoustic guitar and me singing and I thought it would be a nice send-off for Mike.”The full obituary will appear in the January issue of the Beat magazine. Order your copy today.
THE CRYIN’ GAME by Mike Maxfield & Eddie Mooney. Released from December 29th, 2023, and will be available on all download sites.
Family, friends and anybody who knew him are invited to Mike Maxfield’s funeral which will be held at 10 am on Friday 22nd December at Rowan Chapel, Stockport. There will be a private service afterward.
*Including writing the theme and incidental music for Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights in 2001. Toni Baker was the composer for both, including the theme tune for the original series. The latter was sung by Tony Christie and co-written by Toni with Peter Kay.