Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Never Run A List About The Dave Clark Five

Dave Clark Five, one of the biggest of the British Invasion bands back in the 60's. They influenced a lot of the punk/rock bands of the 70's like the Ramones and Joan Jett to name a couple. Their driving drum sound (which sounded like two drums playing) was one of their siginature sounds.
But why the "Never Run a list about them" statement? Believe it or not this band which many today don't remember or know about causes more flame wars than a Lady Gaga vs every female singer war of words started by her fans, i know i ran a DC5 list a few years back.
I heard about the DC5 flame wars on IRC and bulletin boards way back when i started my list, then i saw it for myself on other DC5 lists. What was the fighting over?
Did Dave Clark ever play the drums or write any of the songs, that's it. Seems the anti-Dave crowd hate him with a passion and will believe and bring up every rumour about him, some was even homophobic bashing against him and i have no idea if Dave is Gay or not and neither do i care, it has nothing to with me or them. But the main slander against him is that he was an evil svengali just out for the money and robbed many of the credit for the music.
You know if anyone had a claim against him for money i would think they would have sued Dave. I've seen these people bring up "proof" usually from an old session player who's only claim to fame is working in the studio doing fill ins for many British bands at the time, this is not an unheard practice which was used from Beatles to the Monkees.
I could go on and on, there seems no end to evil attached to Dave and none proven. I think what ticks them off more is that Dave is a very rich man and has been since the group and he dosen't release the DC5 catalog to make more money (so the other 4 can't make any money).
These arguments popped up on every DC5 list and sadly mine too and the haters could never be civil about things and name calling and threats would start. I saw list after list infected and killed off. It's still a sore point to me that i had to kill my list because of these hate filled people.
They missed the point of the music, which we all loved and wanted to celebrate and couldn't because of a few people with an agenda.
I'll always love the Dave Clark 5 and sad that 2 of the 5 are gone now.
Just my Bits and Pieces about a sad part in the history of the DC5 on the internet.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, you're absolutely right. Well said. There seems to be a cadre of DC-haters that travel from site to sitke on the internet spewing their venom. I don't get it either,but it does seem to be organized by someone who has a grudge against DC.

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  2. I, too, love the Dave Clark Five. But for you to claim that their use of studio drummers "filling in" was no more than the Beatles is incredible, given the evidence to the contrary. It doesn't negate the fact that they made (wrote, sang, and for the most part played) some great music. Great band that influenced far beyond the 70's punk music makers; Gene Simmons and Eddie Van Halen being a couple of notables.

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  3. I personally don't care about Dave's personal life or whether he played drums on the records or not. What I do have a problem with is how he has placed the band into relative obscurity by not releasing the music on CDs for so many years. Because of this - the DC5 are hardly mentioned in the history of the British Invasion Music and are not as well known as bands like Herman's Hermits, which is a real shame. The other problem I have with Dave Clark is his failure to acknowledge the rest of the band that made them famous. If anyone watched the recent PBS documentary "The Dave Clark Five and Beyond", there are no contributions from the other band members with the exception of a few clips of Mike Smith. Dave Clark alone has pushed the band into obscurity when they should be regarded much higher for their contribution then they are. That's the real shame of Dave Clark and it's the other band members who paid for it. For Mike Smith - the man who was the voice of the DC5 and in my opinion - the true front man - to have died with ~216,000 pounds to his name and the general public not being aware of who he was and what he did with that band is unforgivable.

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