Big Daisy, formed in Lichfield in Staffordshire in early 1978, is a very good example for a more or less prototypical New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band. Mervyn Spence (vocals, bass), Roger Fox (guitars) and Deg Newman (drums) produced one 7" single, played locally and then disbanded after a few years.
Even before the single was released in 1980, Big Daisy had already demoed tracks such as "U.F.O.", "Gypsy Queen", "Day of the Damned" and "Look to the East".
In 1980, Big Daisy decided to release the two numbers “Footprints on the Water” and “Fever” as a single via Ellie Jay Records. 1,000 copies were pressed and they all went within a single week.
Some time after the release of the Big Daisy single, the line up of the band changed. Guitarist Roger Fox left to be substituted by Tim Rowe. Around late 1981 the band's name was changed to Jury. Jury was the more or less direct follow up to Big Daisy. With "Don't go" they landed a spot on Ebony's "Metallic Storm" compilation, which was released in 1982.
Back then, the Jury number "Having a Party" was chosen to be the A-side of a possible single but the venture was never put into action.
Over the years, Merv Spence offered his vocal talents to a couple of bands, e.g. the reformed Black Country heroes Trapeze (the brainchild of one certain Glenn Hughes). Jury finally split up when he left for good to join Wishbone Ash.
Merv Spence himself never left the music business and he worked for big bands such as Trapeze, Phenomena and the mentioned Wishbone Ash …