He started singing at the age of seven and became a member of the Southwark Cathedral choir at eleven[1] In early 1963, King joined his first group, The Vendettas, who were based in South London.
In the early summer of 1963 the group landed a residency at The Mitre, a pub in Greenwich, near the Blackwall Tunnel.
[2][3] Having already built up a good reputation and following locally, the group were booked to appear at the South London Beat Show on 24 November 1963 at Lewisham Town Hall, Catford, where they were on the bill together with the Cougars, Pete Budd & the Rebels and the Konrads, who included David Bowie in their line-up.
After the Druids split up in September 1965, King joined a group called the Meaning, who were based around Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
The Meaning were booked to play at a number of weekend shows held by Radio London at the Wimbledon Palais, and in May they paid for a session at Oak Studios in Morden, where they recorded cover versions of Barbara Lewis' "Hello Stranger" and The Temptations' "I Wanna Love I Can See", which were never released but the latter can now be found on YouTube.
After a short audition in the late summer of 1966, CBS offered King a recording contract for three single releases.
A ballad called "Keep It Coming", written by American Laurence Weiss, and a blues-rock number, "Out of my Depth", by the British duo of Billy Martin and Phil Coulter.