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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 17, 2016 0:24:31 GMT
There's a lot of TV footage in colour and black and white of this band and others in this programme, however you have to be annoyed when you look at this and know the guy has the rights to all the Ready Steady Go episodes and they have not come out as complete unedited episodes on a DVD. Is it some kind of Shakespearean revenge tragedy because they were never as good as The Beatles. 50 years is a long time to hold on to a grudge
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Post by paul carney on Dec 17, 2016 2:03:09 GMT
Dave Clark is to important musical tv history as is Kim Jun Un to democracy & world peace.
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 17, 2016 8:13:11 GMT
Dave Clark is to important musical tv history as is Kim Jun Un to democracy & world peace. TIME will tell  What blackmail material has he got on those stars that appeared saying they were greatest thing since sliced bread? Oh Elton haven't you heard of The Who, Small Faces, Hollies, Procul Harem, Pink Floyd, I could go on, all better than DC5 ever were. Laughable |
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Kev Hunter
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The only difference between a rut and a groove is the depth
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Post by Kev Hunter on Dec 17, 2016 11:22:58 GMT
I'd half-watched it the first time it was shown but I'd forgotten how tawdry this was. It came across as a parody of a rockdoc with its jumbled chronology, repeated musical clips and sycophantic interviewees.
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 17, 2016 13:16:26 GMT
I'd half-watched it the first time it was shown but I'd forgotten how tawdry this was. It came across as a parody of a rockdoc with its jumbled chronology, repeated musical clips and sycophantic interviewees. And those were just the good bits |
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Post by Patrick Coles on Dec 17, 2016 13:19:54 GMT
it was the usual Dave Clark mega ego fest of course - the other four guys were depicted as mere 'bit players' when Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, and Denis Payton at least were each very talented musicians and fine singers deserving of a better tribute more inclusive of them (I haven't forgotten Rick Huxley, but I don't know if he actually played bass that much for them)
Keyboardist Mike had that classic lead voice - Guitarist Lenny too had a great singing voice, and they plus Denis (saxes, harmonica, guitars, percussion, and occasional lead vocal) did alot of the surprisingly subtle vocal harmonies
despite all the hype here and allowing for Clark's skills as a shrewd businessman and self producing and managing his band, the fact is that on a musical level those other three guys really WERE the true band - no matter wherever they positioned DC's drumkit !
Clark has virtually 'airburshed out' The DC5 from music history, taking almost the entire back catalogue bar the hits off market for decades - and being assisted by some ever eager music critics - however back in the sixties the fact is that they WERE massive and they were much loved by the general public, whatever critics might choose to believe...
However before you dismiss them do bear this in mind;
The DC5 were the first British group to undertake a headline USA full tour, they did 15 editions of The Ed Sullivan Show, were a rare Non American band asked to play at The White House (for LBJ), did two Royal Command performances, made a successful film, had a successful UK TV special,...and had 14 consecutive USA chart hits, plus up to disbanding in 1970 they had 22 UK chart singles (as did Beatles and Hollies)
so while The Beatles were the pioneers, doing well remembered but 'one off' concert shows over 1964-66 ....The DC5 then did a vital job in opening up the USA to all the 'more important' UK bands that would go on to actually tour the USA thereafter...
The DC5, despite concentrating firmly on the USA, nevertheless actually still scored MORE UK chart placed official singles from 1963 up to 1970 than; The Rolling Stones, Who, Kinks, Manfred Mann, Small Faces, Animals, Searchers, Pretty Things, etc... in terms of sheer number of hits duly outscoring all of those other 'more important bands' back then IN the sixties
while despite no existing band after 1970 their Polydor compilation '25 Thumping Great Hits' sliced through punk in 1977 to make No.7 in the UK album charts too
they were never a proper 'albums band' tho' - cobbled together LP sets were gathered around hits, 'B' sides, EP tracks etc often compiled from a few years worth of recordings - tho' The Stones later did that too - but by the late sixties their not being a 'proper albums band' was seen as some sort of most heinous crime by many people...
remember DC had a 'free hand' over at Lansdowne recording studios producing his own records... while John Lennon was still wearing a tie at Abbey Road and the milk was locked away in the EMI fridges ! (per George Harrison) as The Beatles were produced by EMI Staff producer George Martin
DC was picking up 100% royalties when John & Paul were getting a pathetic 25% on theirs...
so whoever was 'best', 'most important', or (in truth) just 'your fav' group etc the fact is DC achieved a great deal as a ground breaking 'self sufficient' artist and band manager (thus was something of a true rebel telling the company - instead of the company telling him)
just a pity Clark's massive ego always ruins any rare DC5 retrospectives - while a proper full song clips show minus all the fawning platitudes towards Clark would concentrate much more on the musical talents of Mike, Lenny, and Denis and the memorable hits they made and the band's story should be told in an objective and correctly balanced manner giving due credit to the other group members and their contributions to the story, however the only real likelihood of that will be in the future when all are no longer with us I suspect...
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 17, 2016 15:49:06 GMT
You make some very good points, I'm not knocking their success and individual musical prowess but just pointing out that the programme does a great disservice to fans and band members themselves by this kind of thing and makes the whole thing laughable. I just can't understand how the guy doesn't have any self awareness of how this really looks. I had issues with The Beatles Anthology series too being strangely flat but that was because of the absence of a living Lennon to drive the thing, while in the DC5 Doc case it's DC's presence everywhere that's the problem. I don't know why it bothers me but maybe, it's because as it stands this music documentary (which must be the longest pop promo in history) is a kind of cultural fraud and one which so many reputations have conspired to sell to us. Symptomatic of our age? Thanks Dave Clark
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Post by Ronnie McDevitt on Dec 17, 2016 15:57:15 GMT
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 17, 2016 18:08:19 GMT
Fair enough. I'll round it off here then. I'm just imagining what John Lennon would have said if he'd been around to appear in it, ha ha ha ha.... |
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Post by robertreinstein on Dec 17, 2016 18:19:02 GMT
however you have to be annoyed when you look at this and know the guy has the rights to all the Ready Steady Go episodes and they have not come out as complete unedited episodes on a DVD. My understanding is that DC does not own the rights to RSG. Apparently someone was peddling around a compilation of RSG in the 80s and DC bought them to cash in on them. Supposedly he has no complete episodes, and has released whatever he has. This may totally be a rumor. |
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 18, 2016 0:07:03 GMT
however you have to be annoyed when you look at this and know the guy has the rights to all the Ready Steady Go episodes and they have not come out as complete unedited episodes on a DVD. My understanding is that DC does not own the rights to RSG. Apparently someone was peddling around a compilation of RSG in the 80s and DC bought them to cash in on them. Supposedly he has no complete episodes, and has released whatever he has. This may totally be a rumor. That's at the heart of a lot of these things that get people running round in circles because people aren't straight about these things, although if I heard him right DC did seem to say that he bought them up when Rediffusion was wound up as a company which would have been in late sixties. Also seen on wiki that he bought the rights to what was surviving, so maybe you are right but this show certainly deserves some kind of DVD issue along the lines of the box sets that for example the BBC did for their Out of the Unknown and Ghost Stories for Christmas, or part of a rediffusion TV boxset |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2016 13:31:10 GMT
He also ended up with Around The Beatles somehow, though by what labyrinthine route I know not.
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Post by ashleywood on Dec 18, 2016 23:08:29 GMT
....which he released as The Beatles Live. (in fairness it might have had more footage of the band performing than Ron Howard's movie, sadly.)
I cannot work out Dave Clark's approach to the DC5 back catalogue or his preserving of RSG for future generations.
Maybe when he dies RSG will pass to someone who gives a rats ass and is happy to pay the artists involved without them resorting to legal action or heaven forbid, having to appear in a DC5 documentary in order to get preferential rates on leasing RSG clips. Willing to bet a bootleg dvd that Sir Paul got the short straw on that one. Ringo probably told him to peace and love off.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2016 23:26:33 GMT
" happy to pay the artists involved"
I think you reached the nub of the matter there. He paid his band peanuts, what chance does an outsider get?
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Post by Stephen John Connett on Dec 19, 2016 11:24:54 GMT
The irony in all this is there's probably a good warts and all doc that could be made in this about this band and the management/ Band thing in the sixties. Dave Clark really should be in the category of the sixties band managers and their control over the finances of the bands rather than the musical driver of the DC5 as his doc portrays. Jonny Rogan produced an excellent a book on sixties band managers (Star makers and svengali's) I can't remember if DC or DC5 were included as it's been a few years since I read it, but DC certainly should have been in it. I think it's the impression that the doc gives, that other band members were just ever so grateful to be allowed to be a part of it all that makes me queasy about the whole thing
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What blackmail material has he got on those stars that appeared saying they were greatest thing since sliced bread? Oh Elton haven't you heard of The Who, Small Faces, Hollies, Procul Harem, Pink Floyd, I could go on, all better than DC5 ever were. Laughable 
