Dave Clark on Steve Wright discusses RSG and doc

[John Green]

You all keep on about Dave Clark being an RSG,but won't let us in on what the letters stand for.I've made a few guesses...

[John Smith]

Glad it wasn't just me that turned it off, mind you i think he holds more than just RSG from the AR stuff as i think (will need to check) that he also has the 'A Boy Called Donovan' special too judging by the brief clip i think i saw last night

[Simon B Kelly]

Feb 15, 2015 15:17:29 GMT John Green said:

You all keep on about Dave Clark being an RSG,but won't let us in on what the letters stand for.I've made a few guesses...

Maybe we need a list of abbreviations for this thread?

DC5 = Dave Clark Five (British pop band 1958-1970)
RSG = Ready Steady Go! (British pop programme 1963-1966)
AR = Associated-Redifusion (British tv company for London and surrounding areas 1955-1968)

[markboulton]

I think most people seem to be summing him up as a Right S*dding G*t, which is where the confusion seems to arise.

[John Green]

Feb 15, 2015 17:21:50 GMT markboulton said:

I think most people seem to be summing him up as a Right S*dding G*t, which is where the confusion seems to arise.

In theory,we we should be placatory,not wishing to upset him.but after 50-odd years...

[John W King]

I watched most of the Dave Clarke documentary on BBC2 last night and found it bizarrely humorous. Like others, I have found Clarke himself comes across as smug and ego centric. I lived through the 60s and actually remember it! The documentary portrayed DC5 as some kind of all world conquering superband just a mere footstep behind the Beatles (who like many other giants of the 60s ) were barely mentioned. There were some stunning clips of DC5 and as a band they did come across well. There were also some terrific clips from RSG. However, what reduced it to substandard Rutles was no recent footage of band members especially Clarke himself! And the talking heads - Twiggy, Springsteen, Kiss, tried hard to big up DC5. Even Elton and particularly McCartney looked like they hard tongues in cheeeks. It was all rather curious.
My recollection of the 60s was DC5 hit it big with Glad All Over and Bits and Pieces and then began to fade into also rans. Even their film, Catch us if You Can (in the documentary appeared a brilliant ground breaking spectacular) in reality, died with out a trace. By 67 they were not visible.
and then we move onto post DC5 and the musical Time which I actally saw. Some great songs in a vacuous flabby musical. I struggled to stay wake. I'd love to have a CD to re-evaluate it.
All this hides the treasure trove that Clarke holds RSG. I still have the compilations he did release on Video with Beatles performances and it is trrrific. Judging by the additional clips shown last night he is sitting on some truly astonishing material. So why won't he release it?
If the man is such a genius why doesn't he let us all share in it?
(Are there other Dave Clarkes out there say on equally amazing material that they keep to them selves? A Dr Who Dave Clarke.......?)

[John Green]

I suppose some younger folks might have considered it as real as 'The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon'.

[richardwoods]

No doubt there are video recordings of the RSG repeats in the 80's doing the rounds.

[Kev Hunter]

As others have mentioned, why is he sitting on however much he's got of RSG yet not doing anything with it apart from dangling morsels of it in front of our noses? Come on, Dave ffs*.. none of us are getting any younger, even you (is that a brow-lift, incidentally?) and we're not going to be around forever. What is he waiting for?

*(Google it if you're not familiar with this abbreviation. Other search engines are available).

[Ronnie McDevitt]

The Dave Clark Five were a decent band who released a couple of decent tunes - no more than that.
The documentary seemed to be trying to rewrite history by vastly overplaying the DC5s part in the British Invasion. Surprise, surprise the programme was produced and directed by non other than Clark himself.
This reminded me of watching one of the Classic Albums series on Band on the Run only to have my enjoyment tempered when I learned from the end credits that the executive producer was Sir Paul - talk about blowing your own trumpet!
Clark clearly approached a number of celebrity fans to talk up his band (what on earth was Tom Hanks on?) and their contribution.
I recall the 1980s reruns of RSG where every single edition was reedited to include a performance from - you guessed it.
All that said DC does come accross as pretty down to earth when interviewed but surely the biggest giveaway to his ego was the name of the band.
And did you realise they actually appeared on the Ed Sullivan show no less than eighteen times - well I thought you just might have missed that statistic!

[Paul Rumbol]

Did this really deserve a sprawling 2 hour slot? Even megastars aren't afforded this length of time by the BBC. I suspect canny Clark gave BBC commissioner Mark Cooper an ultimatum that he wasn't prepared to accept edits (it's all or nothing) and Cooper caved in. Consequently his re-edit of an obviously old documentary morphed into one blatant self-indulgent ego-trip. Plus at 2 hours that's double-bubble for Clark! A good day's work if you can get it.

Though skilfully edited i found the first hour and half intensely annoying.There were at most 4 good songs in their entire repertoire (if you really can call Bits n Pieces good!) and we had to suffer 'Glad All Over' being played over and over on a seemingly endless loop every ten minutes so Clark could squeeze in yet more eulogies from his abject interviewees. They individually described DC5 as rock gods, legendary.. a force sent by God! A looming face pic of Clark appeared at one point to a vocal chorus of 'Hallalujah'. Yuk! There's no modesty with this man. It was all just too much.
The interviews looked scripted and off-the-cuff remarks half hearted and contrived. And something else too which many here are aware of. He's notorious for meddling and constantly re-editing his own footage to achieve a spectacular effect. Like a magpie he will borrow footage of 'screaming audiences' randomly from other sources to embellish his own edits. Ive seen him extend songs by repeating verses so he can cram in more stock footage of screaming girls and shuffle his placing in a bill so it looks like the Beatles are supporting the DC5. He knows and uses every trick in the book.

[Simon B Kelly]

Feb 14, 2015 23:57:06 GMT ashleywood said:

so i'm watching the doc again on bbc and they're saying wow he was such an incredible genius for keeping his masters wow how amazing.
where can i buy the dc5 albums ?

Well, between 2008 and 2012 Dave Clark has mastered and released 28 albums, which include "Time" Act 1 and "Time" Act 2, plus "If Somebody Loves You" (with the original artwork!) and 3 new albums of unreleased tracks. They're available around the world (I checked the UK, US and Australian stores):

itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/the-dave-clark-five/id128622259

So the entire back catalogue of DC5 is readily available. It's just the RSG archive that need releasing a.s.a.p.

[Alan Turrell]

I haven't watched it yet and reading the comments on here i won't be.

[Kev Hunter]

Alan - it's probably worth watching at least 20 mins or so because it really is like some kind of spoof rockumentary. The interviewees do seem to be somewhat bemused. Maybe we've all missed the joke?

[Alan Scott]

I can only concur with previous comments.

Apart from the late Mike Smith, there are no interviews with the other band members who are barely mentioned throughout.

We were told on more than one occasion that the DC5 were, along with The Beatles and The Stones, the biggest of the British Invasion band in America. Herman's Hermits had more top 10 hits than the DC5 in the USA.

The best bits were the Ready Steady Go clips.