Dave Clark RIP (UPDATED)
UPDATE: I have been notified by The Vinyl District that Dave Clark is still alive. It was lead singer Mike Smith that took the dirt nap last week, not Clark. Anyway, Clark won't live forever so let's just revisit this when he does die. And as a favor to me, if you see him, kill him on the spot.
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Dave Clark, drummer for the Dave Clark Five, died on February 28. The DC5 were a British Invasion group that briefly rivaled the Beatles here in America. As noted, Clark was the drummer of the group, but in fulfillment of every drummer's wet dream, he not only named the band after himself, but he also put his drum kit front and center and arranged the rest of the band around the sides and behind him.
The Dave Clark Five are best known for their two hits, "Glad All Over" (1963), and "Catch Us If You Can" (1965). After the success of the movie Hard Day's Night, the DC5 made Catch Us If You Can, which was directed by first timer John Boorman--Boorman later went on to direct some pretty good movies (Deliverance, Hope and Glory) as well as one infamous bomb (Exorcist II: The Heretic). Here's the band doing "Catch Us If You Can":
"Glad All Over" is pretty catchy as well. It also has the distinction of being the official song of the Crystal Palace Football Club. Crystal Palace plays in Croydon, in south London. I have a pal who did post-graduate work at Oxford in the mid-1990s and I went over to visit him while he was there. Being soccer fans, we arranged to go to a Premier League game while I was there. If Crystal Palace were in the NFL, they'd be the Detroit Lions--rarely successful, and never provoking any degree of love or hate because no one really gives a fuck about their miserable existence.
Anyway, because it was Palace, we were able to get tickets to see them play Newcastle United at their home stadium in Croydon. Now I'm aware that the name "Crystal Palace" conjures images of shiny glass and royalty, but the stadium was a fucking dump that smelled weird. On the train
there a whole shitload of Newcastle fans jumped on--they were all either enormously fat, or undernourished to the point where they looked like they had rickets. I thought to myself, these are the famous hooligans, I'm about to get glassed here. But nothing happened, other than one guy took a piss in the corner of the train car, creating a large puddle that everyone tried to avoid. And again, the stench of BO and halitosis was retch-inducing.
Anyway, we got to the stadium and watched the game. Palace lost 2-0 and I think they were relegated that season. It was raining and in the 40s. Really, the whole experience was sort of depressing.
But, to bring this post full circle, they did play "Glad All Over" as the Palace players ran onto the field. I think some of them tripped over the sideline as they ran out.
"Glad All Over":
Here's the most famous moment in Crystal Palace history: Eric Cantona of Manchester United launches a bad-ass karate kick into the chest of a Palace fan who'd talked shit to him:
Yahoo
4 comments:
Waitaminnit - Mike Smith died, not Dave Clark, right?
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080228/ten-uk-smith-3334b85.html
Dave Clark Five lead singer Mike Smith dead
Reuters - Thursday, February 28 10:28 pm
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mike Smith, the lead singer of British band the Dave Clark Five, died on Thursday of pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said.
Smith, 64, was admitted to a hospital outside London on Wednesday morning with a chest infection resulting from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement.
His death came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five -- one of the leading bands of the 1960s British invasion -- was due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The Dave Clark Five, whose hits included "Glad All Over" and "Bits and Pieces," were one of the first British bands to find major success in the United States after the Beatles.
Dude, you're absolutely right, I got the wrong man. I'll post a correction tonight.
I'll repost this when Dave Clark dies...anyone know what sort of health he's in right now?
I'm fine! Bugger off!
Jimbromski failed to mention how scared he was during the entire train ride and game. In fact, he changed his allegiance from NUFC to Crystal Palace when it became clear our seats were in the Palace supporters section. Jimbromski's capitulation to Palace was complete after he witnessed a hooligan slowly take a fry out of the container that was being held by another fan. It was pure alpha male behavior as the poor victim was stared down by the hooligan during the slow withdrawal of the fry from its protective cone. Oh yeah, we also won money on the game. Tough guy Jimbromski and I bet on Newcastle to win.
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