Tymon Dogg was born as Stephen Murray in Formby, Lancashire, England in 1950. His musical career began at the age of 14, playing competent Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Donovan covers on self-taught harmonica and guitar regularly at the Peppermint Lounge in Liverpool, and the occasional gig at the legendary Cavern Club. His proud father turned up at every gig and was his son’s roadie by night. While still at school, he came up with the pseudonym of ‘Timon’ as a stage name in order to separate the fact he was both a performing musician and schoolboy. From a February 2007 email, Tymon explains his reasons for the alias:

“I was about fourteen and was playing down the Cavern [in Liverpool] – I wanted a pseudonym to create a sort of performing persona that was separate from being a schoolboy - which I was at the time! I got the name from the Shakespeare play Timon of Athens.”

Spencer Leigh (now a DJ on Radio Merseyside) first met Tymon in 1965 and asked him if he’d like to write some songs for a Crosby revue. To Tymon’s surprise, he found composing came quite naturally. One of his first compositions was a lively song called “In Out of The Rain”. The Crosby revue was followed up with a successful solo show that was then repeated at Liverpool’s Crane Theatre (now Neptune Theatre). Leigh would play an important part in encouraging the young musician’s song-writing and also became his local promoter-of-sorts, helping him get gigs and sending off demo tapes to various record companies. It was also around this time in Tymon’s life when he purchased his first violin. He bought the instrument for £2 from an old school mate named Raphael, and it had no strings. Because he knew of no one who could play a violin or teach him, Tymon never really tried to play it until later on when he was about 20. Tymon's sister, Rita Sumner would often sit and listen to her brother's music. Over night his prowess with the instrument took shape; his whole family of which by this time were all well aware of his learning to play the instrument in their thin-walled house...

One day in 1968, while working as a screen-printer in Southport, Tymon received a phone call from Spencer Leigh asking him if he could get the day off work to travel with him to visit Pye Records in London. Cyril Stapleton, band leader and part of Pye’s management, was interested in signing Tymon to the label after hearing a demo tape Leigh had sent his company. When Tymon got there, one of his great heroes, Ray Davies of The Kinks, was wandering around in the studios along with all sorts of musicians of note such as hit songwriter Tony Hatch, etc. Whilst there, Pye signed Tymon and give him an advance that was roughly the equivalent of a year's wages, in the hope of securing a hit single from him.

As a result of signing to Pye, Tymon soon left his home of Liverpool and moved to London where he began recording songs with Arranger and Producer Jerry Martin. Martin was a Canadian pop singer who was trying to make it as a producer in England. Tymon’s first single, THE BITTER THOUGHTS OF LITTLE JANE was released in January 1968 (under that of Timon), and featured a young Jimmy Page on Lead Guitar and John Paul Jones on Bass; both of whom of course would go on to form the classic UK Rock band Led Zeppelin. Shortly before the record was released, Pye sacked Martin and Tymon's record was given meagre promotion. Tymon was next assigned to Pye’s hit producer Tony Macaulay. Macaulay was ultimately disinterested in working with Tymon due to an already punishing schedule, though a session for Tymon’s latest song at the time, “You’d Better Not Say You Love Me Now”, was indeed recorded. Pye decided not to release the final cut, and instead arranged another session; this time with Frank Barber and Cyril Stapleton. The results were once again unsatisfactory, and Pye released no recordings.

It was around this time that Peter Asher (ex-Peter and Gordon) took interest in Tymon’s music. Asher was acting as a talent scout for The Beatles first Apple Records label, who, soon after signing American singer-songwriter James Taylor to the label, was on the lookout for other new and exciting talent. Paul McCartney had at some point heard Tymon’s THE BITTER THOUGHTS OF LITTLE JANE single and he wanted a go at producing a new version of the song. Tymon however declined, though would go on to record the three new originals - "Something New Every Day", "And Now She Says She’s Young" and "Who Needs a King" - with McCartney on piano, James Taylor on guitar, and Taylor’s backing band sitting in to for the rhythm section. The results however were not as good as they hoped - mainly due to Asher not knowing when to stop, adding brass instrumentation to "Something New Every Day" which ultimately sounded out of place - though "And Now She Says She’s Young" and "Who Needs a King?" were apparently worthy of release. McCartney was also interested in getting Tymon to record a Herman’s Hermits-type song he himself had written called “Miss Pringle”, to which Tymon again regretfully declined, assuring McCartney that it would better if he stuck to recording his own material instead.

During the midst of such frustrating sessions, Tymon went off and wrote a very commercial song he thought they would have liked called, “The Eye in the Pond”, but said he'd only do it if they would let him record a whole LP like they were then doing for Taylor. At that time, it was the norm to have some commercially successful singles out first and then graduate to an album, and so in the end, with both this matter and the fact that George Harrison apparently disliked the results of the initial session, such sessions simply fell through. Tymon says of the fallout-of-sorts (February 2007 email):

“If I'd have been in it just to make money I'd probably have gone around things differently. For me, music was, and is, the expression of my soul and I believed the great artists of that era had inspired this feeling in me.”

Tymon spent the next couple months playing various gigs in the London area with little success. He decided to try his hand busking in Europe for a while, and wound up living for a time in both Nice and Paris where he would play his music on the beaches there to scrape enough cash together for food and so forth. When he got back to England, BBC DJ Dave Symonds introduced him to The Moody Blues who had heard Tymon's songs and wanted to sign him to their own newly established record label, Threshold Records. The first signings to this label in October 1969 were both Tymon (signed as Timon) and the UK Rock band Trapeze. Tymon spent a lot of time rehearsing at the Clarendon Hotel on the Isle of Wight, and subsequently two months later, in December ‘69, both he and Trapeze supported the Moodies on their December 1969 UK Tour. Venues played on this tour included: the Royal Albert Hall, Odeon Theatre, Usher Hall, Colston Hall, Gaumont Theatre, and a Radio Concert for the BBC.

An excerpt from the Moody Blues December 1969 UK Tour.guide:

"TIMON" is a Liverpool lad who has been around for some time. He has some beautiful songs and we're giving him the chance to do what he wants - his way. Every time we have recorded him with a huge orchestra and an arrangement, it has swamped him. He hasn't really found himself yet. After all he's only about 18 now. He's trying to get a group together and find the place he should occupy. But at the same time he is playing music that desperately needs to be heard. Basically he's just a tramp-like person, wandering from place to place, occasionally playing with Fairfield Parlour and other groups."

After Threshold’s negligence regarding further recording sessions, Tymon soon went on to work with Muff Winwood at Island Records. However, no recordings were ever released by the label during his time with Island. Tymon’s management at the time got him few gigs and even fewer auditions…