Dave Clark

David Clark (born 15 December 1939) is an English musician, songwriter, record producer and entrepreneur. Clark was the leader, drummer, and manager of the 1960s beat group the Dave Clark Five, the first British Invasion band to follow the Beatles to the United States in 1964. In 2008, Clark and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Clark was born in Tottenham, then lived in Middlesex. He left school without qualifications at the age of 15 and claims to have become a film stuntman, performing in over 40 films (although IMDB only gives him four pre-fame film credits). In the late 1950s he bought a set of drums, taught himself how to play them, and formed a skiffle band to raise funds so that his football team could travel to the Netherlands. The skiffle band grew into the Dave Clark Five, with Clark their leader, co-songwriter, manager, and producer.

The Dave Clark Five grew in popularity in the UK. They unseated the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from its number one spot in the UK singles charts in January 1964 with "Glad All Over". The British press, briefly, called them the Beatles' "most serious threat". The Dave Clark Five were the first British Invasion band to follow the Beatles to the United States in 1964, where they achieved 14 top 20 hits, eight of which were consecutive. They also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show more times than any other English group. Dave Clark became a popular name for babies in the 1960s.

Andrew Loog Oldham, former manager of the Rolling Stones, said of the band's early success as rivals to the Beatles: "If the Beatles ever looked over their shoulders, it was not the Stones they saw. They saw the Dave Clark 5 or Herman's Hermits."

The band broke up in 1970, and Clark stopped drumming in 1972 after he broke four knuckles in a tobogganing accident.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.