POP CULTURE
The Mysteries of The Dave Clark 5
The DC5 were once The Beatles' main rival. So what happened?
The Beatles had one main rival in 1963 and 1964: The Dave Clark 5.
Largely a pop footnote these days, the Dave Clark Five, or DC5, were one of the most successful pop bands of the early sixties.
They were even more successful in the US than in their home country with 17 top 40 US hits. They were the second British band to appear on the Ed Sullivan show (after The Beatles) and appeared no less than 18 times, more than any other British band.
And like The Beatles, they served a long apprenticeship playing in clubs, in the DC5 case, it was the Mecca circuit of dancehalls around the UK.
Yet, unlike The Beatles, by 1965 they were struggling to chart in the UK. And also unlike the Beatles, there are several mysteries surrounding the band.
The Mystery of the Tottenham Sound
As they are wont to do, the British press invented a rivalry between The Beatles and The DC5. Since the Beatles were the leaders of the ‘Merseybeat Sound’ (named after Liverpool’s river) the press invented the name the ‘Tottenham Sound’. The band came from Tottenham and surrounding areas of what is now North London.
The ‘Tottenham Sound’ was a drum-heavy stomping beat, a pumping sax riff and singer Mike Smith’s powerful vocals. This can be heard in their first UK №1, Glad All Over and their stomping follow-ups, Bits And Pieces, Can’t You See That She’s Mine, Over and Over, Do You Love Me and Anyway You Want It.
And yet, there was no such thing as a ‘Tottenham Sound’. Unlike Merseybeat, which could be heard in any number of Liverpool bands of the day, the DC5 were the only ones who had the Tottenham Sound.
But the DC5's sound was distinctive so where did it come from? Ron Ryan was a former guitarist with the band before they rose to fame and a former close friend of Dave Clark.
Ryan claims he invented the Tottenham Sound. He based it (he claims) on an artist called Doug Sheldon from Stepney in East London.
Was this the source of the so-called Tottenham Sound? Should it really have been the ‘Stepney Sound’? Or is this all sour grapes from Ryan as he missed out on the band’s success? Dave Clark has never commented.
We’ll probably never know. The mystery of the Tottenham Sound remains.
The mystery of the band’s leader, Dave Clark
It’s unusual for a band to be led by their drummer. It’s highly unusual for a member of the band to also be their manager. And it’s extremely unusual that he was their producer too.
Dave Clark took control of all the group’s business interests from the beginning, including ensuring joint song-writing credits. He set up his own publishing company and the rights to their TV appearances. He even purchased the rights to the UK’s premier pop music show of the ’60s, Ready Steady Go.
And he did all this from the age of 20.
When asked about the band’s mysterious financial and managerial arrangements many years later, former singer Mike Smith said. “No comment.”
The mystery of why the band’s music was not fully available until 2019
It was not possible to buy DC5 music in any format between 1978 to 1993 after Dave Clark withdrew global licencing rights.
In 1993, Dave Clark belatedly released a greatest hits compilation and it wasn’t until 2008 that another hits album was released followed by a limited selection of their songs becoming available on iTunes.
It was not until 2019 that the DC5’s entire back catalogue became available.
Why? No one knows and Dave Clark isn’t telling. The mystery remains.
The mystery of Dave Clark’s later work
After the demise of the DC5, Dave Clark began many new projects, some less well-known than others. He produced TV shows and documentaries and owns several companies.
He wrote and produced a successful stage musical, Time, in 1986 with many successful songs.
Clark asked Freddie Mercury to be part of the show but he declined. He did agree to record In My Defence for the soundtrack album. The song was written by Clark, David Soames and Jeff Daniels.
Dave Clark had become close friends with Freddie Mercury and was with him when he died. It was Clark who phoned Mercury’s parents to break the sad news of his passing.
They went back to the studio in 1986 to record another track, Time Waits For Nobody, another song written by Dave Clark along with Jeff Daniels.
It was a minor hit but an incredible piano version was released more recently by Dave Clark.
It appears that the DC5 were just Dave Clark’s first business venture of many.
The mystery of why the band failed to match The Beatles
By 1965, their time as The Beatles' rivals was gone.
The DC5 were unable to keep up with the rapidly shifting pop music scene and the emergence of other bands, such as the Kinks and Stones with their own new sounds. They were left trailing the pack with their dated ‘Tottenham Sound’ or they were releasing poor imitations of the new Beatles sound.
They still registered the occasional hit, such as the ballad Everybody Knows from 1967, but they were no longer the force they’d been. Their time was over, the mystery of their decline solved and Dave Clark moved on to his next set of business ventures.
You can access thousands of articles from hundreds of other writers and me by taking out Medium membership for just $5 a month.
By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, and it won’t cost you any more than going direct. Did you enjoy this article? Get my posts direct to your inbox. You can do that here.
More on 60s pop culture:
