Fact #101954
When:
Short story:
The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Mojos, Mark Wynter and The Kinks begin a UK tour at The Coventry Theatre, Coventry.
Full article:
Dave Davies (guitar, The Kinks] : We were quite a scruffy bunch. The big thing that happened was that Arthur Howes, the tour promoter, felt we were a bit scruffy and so, just before the tour started, they sent this guy called Hal Carter, lovely guy, very funny, who was a real help to us, but he also came from a different generation. He had worked with Marty Wilde and Billy Fury. He used to say, "Billy is an artist." and walk out the room, implying that we weren't.
The object of Hal being brought in was to turn us into show people, to teach us how to bow at the end of numbers and so on. We got as far as bowing out of sync with each other and then called it a day. But all the people in the business were from that era where the natural progression was to go from rock to cabaret. But we were relating to people like Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy and these weren't the kind of guys who'd get up and tap dance.
We didn't really like Dave Clark very much. He was a bit bossy and he thought he knew everything. The Hollies, who were already successful, immediately befriended us. They were fantastic to us. I remember Graham Nash was such a help to us on that tour, always making people laugh. There was no sense of competition between us, and I loved Bobby Elliott's drumming. They were good musicians, which we didn't think The Dave Clark Five were. The Hollies thought that Dave Clark was shit. We thought they were very contrived, like it was the fifties all over again. I thought Mike Smith was the most talented guy in that band, and a lovely guy, but even he had that fake Beatles haircut. And what were they doing with a saxophone in the band? It wasn't like an Otis Redding brass section, which would have had us salivating. It was corny kind of Palais vibe,and it was annoying to have them associated with what we were doing. It was so not right. They didn't get it at all. Whereas The Hollies were cool.
Stu Slater (vocalist, The Mojos) : That tour was promoted by Arthur Hayes. I remember we were at the bottom of the bill to start with, then we had the hit with Everything's Alright and we got moved up above The Kinks on the billing. They weren't too pleased about that. Ray very much kept himself to himself, and Dave was the outgoing one.
The bloke who really stuck out though was their manager, Robert Wace, because he was a very tall, thin, aristocratic-looking bloke strolling about in a beautiful pinstripe suit. Stuck out like a sore thumb.
Ray Davies : I remember the keyboard player of The Mojos, who were above us on our first tour, and they had a hit called Everything's All Right, and he said, I'm only going to stay in this business as long as we keep going up, because I don't think I can think handle the downs. And then they went down, and he's an accountant now, being very successful. But we went down several times, and I kept coming back.
Stu Slater : Dave Clark was a big, strong bloke. I remember that he fell out with The Hollies. He became convinced that they'd cut the leads to all his amps. He actually stopped the tour bus on the A23 coming out of Brighton and started ranting and raving. "If I catch whoever cut my leads
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The object of Hal being brought in was to turn us into show people, to teach us how to bow at the end of numbers and so on. We got as far as bowing out of sync with each other and then called it a day. But all the people in the business were from that era where the natural progression was to go from rock to cabaret. But we were relating to people like Muddy Waters and Big Bill Broonzy and these weren't the kind of guys who'd get up and tap dance.
We didn't really like Dave Clark very much. He was a bit bossy and he thought he knew everything. The Hollies, who were already successful, immediately befriended us. They were fantastic to us. I remember Graham Nash was such a help to us on that tour, always making people laugh. There was no sense of competition between us, and I loved Bobby Elliott's drumming. They were good musicians, which we didn't think The Dave Clark Five were. The Hollies thought that Dave Clark was shit. We thought they were very contrived, like it was the fifties all over again. I thought Mike Smith was the most talented guy in that band, and a lovely guy, but even he had that fake Beatles haircut. And what were they doing with a saxophone in the band? It wasn't like an Otis Redding brass section, which would have had us salivating. It was corny kind of Palais vibe,and it was annoying to have them associated with what we were doing. It was so not right. They didn't get it at all. Whereas The Hollies were cool.
Stu Slater (vocalist, The Mojos) : That tour was promoted by Arthur Hayes. I remember we were at the bottom of the bill to start with, then we had the hit with Everything's Alright and we got moved up above The Kinks on the billing. They weren't too pleased about that. Ray very much kept himself to himself, and Dave was the outgoing one.
The bloke who really stuck out though was their manager, Robert Wace, because he was a very tall, thin, aristocratic-looking bloke strolling about in a beautiful pinstripe suit. Stuck out like a sore thumb.
Ray Davies : I remember the keyboard player of The Mojos, who were above us on our first tour, and they had a hit called Everything's All Right, and he said, I'm only going to stay in this business as long as we keep going up, because I don't think I can think handle the downs. And then they went down, and he's an accountant now, being very successful. But we went down several times, and I kept coming back.
Stu Slater : Dave Clark was a big, strong bloke. I remember that he fell out with The Hollies. He became convinced that they'd cut the leads to all his amps. He actually stopped the tour bus on the A23 coming out of Brighton and started ranting and raving. "If I catch whoever cut my leads