Dave Clark Five "Facts"

Hah. My knowledge of DC5 doesn't extend beyond the singles... I've never investigated the old records, since the word I've always heard is that there's tons of filler.

 

Lots of filler, but a surprising amount of inventive, quality stuff featuring the always quality vocals of Mike Smith. About 15 years ago, when it became clear that Dave wasn't putting out the catalog on CD, I bought a gray market set of two-fer needledrops from somewhere in Europe. I then loaded them on to iTunes on my computer, listened to them all and put the good stuff on a two hour MP3. Very nice to play in my car on trips.

 

Mike Smith WAS the DC5. And Lenny was in the band. If Dave didn't give them some credits (even though he also added his name to the credits) he might be without a band. Much different than just being a songwriter who is all but invisible to the screaming girls and record-buying public.

Your failure to acknowledge any of Clark's shortcomings and outright lies is just as bad as the accusations you are leveling at others in this thread. Take a hard look in the mirror. Perhaps you will see Mr. Spock eyebrows staring back at you!

 

Apologies - you're correct, they appeared many times on Ready Steady Go.

 

Firmly on my Top 10 "Missed Tour Regrets" list is Mike Smith's Rock Engine in 2002-2003. His accident was so tragic coming just as he was beginning to get late-in-life recognition, not to mention his death 11 days before induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He'll always be one of my favorite singers. There are more clips on YouTube like this one worth checking out.

 

Mike Smith recorded a duet album in the mid-70s with Mike d'Abo, of Manfred Mann and Handbags and Gladrags composer fame, that unfortunately stiffed. Recorded for British CBS, it surprisingly was never released by Columbia in the U.S., but provides a hint of what might have been from a solo Smith career. What a voice!

 

The ONLY fact about Clark is that he is sitting on Ready! Steady! Go! tapes that really do need to be released sooner rather than later!

 

Yes indeed, the album's titled Smith & d'Abo and I see it's on Spotify.

 

This tapes was already resold to UMG (?). Besides there’s barely any unseen material that wasn’t broadcasted in 80s repeats

 

REally? How disappointing......

 

So the credit on the original release was Ryan only, and Clark added himself to the credits for the DC5 version?

 

Looks like almost the entire series is missing:

TV Archive

 

2. Did Clark actively produce all of their music?

If not Clark, who? Who engineered the records? (The engineer is often the uncredited "producer"). Did Mike Smith produce at all?

 

Even Dave Clark credits Adrian Kerridge for much of their recording sound:
https://www.mixonline.com/recording/classic-track-glad-all-over-dave-clark-five-424148

 

"Doo Dah" was credited to 'Clark-Ryan' when it was released in the U.K. in the summer of 1963.

If Clark subsequently devised a plan to steal writing credits from Ron Ryan, he wouldn't have been able to delete Ryan from the credit of "Doo Dah" because it had already been submitted to his publisher with Ryan's name on it.

 

Very interesting. Makes it pretty clear that Kerridge and Clark were the co-producers on all the early stuff.

 

The links above say you are correct. Ryan believed Clark (who was a close friend) would treat him right. When the money nor credit appeared he soon found out different. He did not sue, because he was friends with the other members of the band and did not want to hurt their success.

 

Clark tells the same story in the booklet for "History"

 

In terms of DC5's success in America predating the Beatles, of course we know that's not true - but it's also true that the DC5 were the second British beat band to break in America. Before the DC5, there was no "British invasion" - just a Beatles invasion of America.

 

I have a screenshot of a posting, since deleted, that lays out the whole Ryan story. I dont know how to post it. If someone does, if you send me your email address,i will send it to you to post here.
Whew!

 

I don't think they were ever taken too seriously in the UK, sure they had hits so did other bands, but to sit at home and listen to an LP was unthought off.
A bit like Herman's Hermits or Freddy and the Dreamers fun at parties but something that was not important. How America made them special is beyond me.

 

I'm going to don my Kevlar before diving into this, although I've shared this opinion both here (I think) and in other forums about Mr. Clark.

None of us know with complete, undisputed, metaphysical certitude what happened. Period.

Ron Ryan and Bobby Graham said some things. IMO they have been taken at face value, without question, as gospel, because there's almost an immediate knee-jerk animus toward Dave Clark because (a.) he's a businessman first, a musician second, and those types always rub the bohemian-natured musical crowd the wrong way (it's nothing new, Glenn Miller caught the same crap 80 years ago); (b.) he's a control freak who did wrong by his bandmates; (c.) he's sitting on all those Ready Steady Go shows that people want to see; (d.) he's been a total buffoon on handling the DC-5 on CD (someone must have found a hidden cache of "The History of the Dave Clark 5" sets, BTW, a bunch of them are floating around really cheap right now, I got one for $20 shipped on eBay recently and I'm absolutely sure it's legit); (e.) he comes across as a horse's ass; (f.) the plastic surgery hasn't made his face any less punchable.

 

FWIW, Bobby Graham said in one of the interviews on his website that sometimes (not often, but it happened occasionally) the band would finish a session, leave, then the session guys would be brought in afterwards. Unlike the usual thing where a band member would know he was being replaced as it was recorded. I wonder if your example above is a similar type of situation.

 

They were popular longer in the UK though, still having hits in 1970.

 

Yes true but still not taken seriously.