If there’s a blueprint for finding success as a rock star, Dave Clark didn’t follow it. He didn’t learn an instrument from a young age. He found the public lifestyle exhausting and difficult. His band, Dave Clark Five, didn’t really adapt their music to suit changing audience tastes. Yet in his day, Clark was nothing short of a musical superstar.
One of the first British bands to conquer the USA, Dave Clark Five played sold-out shows throughout the world in the 1960s. It’s been an eclectic career for Clark, one spanning musical success, The West End, TV show ownership, tobogganing, entrepreneurship, acting and pretty much everything else the showbiz world has to offer.
British Invasion beginnings
It all started in the early 1950s. A young Clark dropped out of school at 15 to pursue a career as a stuntman. After appearing in more than 40fc films, Clark began to learn the drums in the most unlikely of circumstances; his soccer team needed money for an overseas trip, and the business-savvy Clark thought forming a band would help to raise funds. That band, after a few iterations and lineup changes, became Dave Clark Five.
The group first found success in 1964 with their debut album, Glad All Over. Audiences loved the contrast between DC5’s clean-cut look and unprecedentedly hard sound; lead singer Mike Smith’s raspy vocal style predated Roger Daltrey and Mick Jagger, while Clark’s insistent drumming style paved the way for countless others since.
In fact, the band became so popular as to usurp The Beatles’ ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ at the top of the UK singles chart in 1964. But it was their first foray into international touring that proved Dave Clark Five could stick it to their British contemporaries. Among their crowning achievements in America: appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show more times than any other English act (thirteen), selling out 12 shows at Carnegie Hall in three days and reaching #1 on the charts on Christmas Day 1965 with their hit, ‘Over and Over’.
Listen: ‘Over and Over’
Ironically, it was Dave Clark Five’s reputation for consistency that ended up undoing them. Unlike many of their contemporaries, DC5 refused to graduate from their status as teen idols into more serious songwriting. With a string of impressive, if monochromatic, hits to their name, Dave Clark Five disbanded in 1970.
In 1972, Clark stopped drumming after breaking four knuckles in a tobogganing accent.
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Life post-Dave Clark Five
Where the disbanding of their group spells the end for some musicians, it was here that Dave Clark the entrepreneur and creative truly began life. As the band’s leader, producer and manager, Clark made the wise decision to acquire the rights to all of their songs during the band’s career. Interestingly, Clark was also able to secure higher royalty payments for his band than many contemporaries were.
Having built a nest egg for himself, Clark began to focus on TV production and directing. Most notably, he bought the broadcasting rights to the trailblazing British music show, Ready Steady Go!, in 1989.
The 1980s were a time of varied career interests for Clark. Most hilariously, he makes a cameo as a diner customer in the horror film trainwreck, The Being. It was also during this time that Clark co-wrote the book and lyrics to the sci-fi musical, Time.
Debuting on the West End in 1986, the musical quickly became a fan favourite. Clark also spearheaded the recording of a concept album featuring songs from the musical.
The album features the likes of Stevie Wonder, Cliff Richard, Dionne Warwick and Freddie Mercury, the latter having been a friend of Clark’s since the 1970s. Mercury’s take on the musical’s title song is a standout, and an underrated gem from the late singer’s back catalogue.
Present Day
As a member of Dave Clark Five, Clark was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, some 50 years after the band formed. These days, Clark runs a publishing company that owns the rights to media assets and songs produced by 1960s bands. He tends to prefer the quiet life.
Access to Clark’s music had been somewhat elusive for the years since the band’s breakup. This is no doubt partly due to Clark’s decision to withhold the American rights to remaster his music until the 1990s. He had hoped that this would make the eventual deal more lucrative. The 1990s remaster is no longer in circulation, as the band had been somewhat forgotten by the American market by that point.
But now in 2020, a remastered greatest hits compilation has been released – the appropriately titled All The Hits. For the first time, the greatest hits of Dave Clark Five are available to buy and stream on all platforms. Years on, the album serves as a nostalgic reminder of the path Dave Clark Five carved out for the thousands of British bands since.
