David Essex

David Essex was born David Albert Cook in Plaistow, London. His father, Albert, was an East End docker and his mother, Olive (née Kemp), was a self-taught pianist and an Irish Traveller.

His first musical occupation was playing drums in his early teens for the Everons. Essex recalled to Circus: "Lots of people think I came into music from the theater, but I started in a blues band playing drums when I was 14. They were called The Everons, meaning 'never off' — shocking names they used then. then it was very flukey, because all I ever wanted to be was a jazz drummer and I used to get all these records by And Art Blakey and Joe Morello. Then all of a sudden the lead guitarist decided he couldn't play blues solos and sing at the same time, it was hurting his concentration. I used to smoke 50 a day when I was a kid and I had a bad throat, so they decided I sounded bad enough to sing."

Derek Bowman, then theatre critic for the Daily Express, was told about the Everons. He saw them at a pub in Leytonstone and was impressed buy their charismatic drummer. When Cook left the band, Bowman became his manager persuading the teenager to change his surname to Essex, one he felt was more suited to both music and the theatre.