The Dave Clark Five

VCR Alert ! (Well, it may be too late for that, so "Amazon.com Alert"!)

Last week, PBS showed a documentary about the Dave Clark Five on its "Great Performances" program. This was a 2-hour show, with NO commercials and (surprisingly) NO pledge breaks.

As a British Invasion fan who somehow missed the actual invasion by about 3 years (which pretty much coincided with the shelf life of the DC5), this program was of great interest to me. I had no idea it was on, until whatever show I was watching before it ended, and then I saw the "coming up next" teaser. Ugh! Not enough time to remember how to set up the VCR for recording it, because I know my son and my brother would enjoy seeing it too.

Unlike recent British Invasion DVD releases (Hollies, Hermans' Hermits, Gerry & the Pacemakers, and Small Faces), this show didn't include complete uncut performances, but it cut back and forth between performances, Tom Hanks' speech at the DC5's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2008, and interviews with band members Dave Clark and Mike Smith, as well as others (listed below).

The last half hour covered Dave Clark's post-DC5 activities, which included writing, directing, and producing a Broadway musical in the mid-1980s (which I knew nothing about) that starred Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Julian Lennon, and Sir Laurence Olivier, among others.

Surprisingly, there were no post-1960s interviews with DC5 guitarist Lenny Davidson, bassist Rick Huxley, or saxophonist Denis Payton. Payton had passed away in 2006, lead singer/keyboardist Mike Smith passed away in 2008, a few days before the band was inducted into the HOF, and Huxley just last year.

Interviewed:
Dave Clark
Mike Smith
Paul McCartney
Elton John
Stevie Wonder
Gene Simmons
Ozzie Osbourne
Bruce Springsteen
Steven Van Zandt
Max Weinberg
Dionne Warwick
Freddie Mercury
Cliff Richard
Julian Lennon

also:
Whoopi Goldberg
Sharon Osbourne
Tom Hanks (in R&R HOF footage)
Twiggy
Sir Laurence Olivier
Sir Ian McKellen
Priscilla Presley
various UK Dave Clark Five fans from back in the day


I watched this 3 times already. Once when it first broadcast on 4/8, again on 4/11 when I thought I was recording it (I wasn't), and again on 4/13 when I finally got it to record. I'm sure I'll be watching it at least 2 more times (with my son, and then with my brother as we reminisce together).

If you are even remotely interested in the Dave Clark Five, check this out. Now available for pre-order on Amazon.com with an additional 2 hours not shown on TV.