p2pnet - rss feed: Dave Clarke Five’s Mike Smith dies
p2pnet news | Music:- Sad news.
Mike Smith, lead singer and keyboard player for 1960s UK group The Dave Clark Five, has died from pneumonia at the age of 64.
He was slated to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the rest of the group in less than two weeks.
He’d become paralysed from the waist down following a spinal cord injury in 2003.
“The band, which broke up in the 1970s, sold more than 100 million records and recorded 23 albums, many of them for the US market,” says the BBC.
“They were part of the so-called 1960s British invasion of the US, as the Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Animals stormed the American charts. The Dave Clark Five had US hits with Because, I Like it Like That and Glad All Over, and set a record among British acts after appearing on the Ed Sullivan show 13 times.”
The band’s Denis Payton, who played saxophone, harmonica and guitar, died of cancer in 2006.
The rest of the band were drummer Dave Clark, lead guitarist Lenny Davidson and Rick Huxley on bass, says the story.
In September 2003, “Mike Smith was involved in a falling accident in his home in Spain, which caused severe injury to his spinal cord, and he was permanently paralyzed from the waist down plus in his right arm, and with very little movement in his left arm,” says the Wikipedia.
“After his accident, Smith found tremendous support from his peers including Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven Van Zandt, and Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits, who helped defray his medical costs through donations and fundraisers,” says the band’s US page, going on:
“Long-time fan and ‘Late Show’ bandleader, Paul Shaffer, helped organize a benefit concert in New York in August 2005, which featured many of Smith’s fellow ‘British Invasion’ stars, including The Zombies and Peter & Gordon. A DVD of the benefit, Paul Shaffer and his British Invasion: A Tribute to Mike Smith will be released in March by VDI Entertainment.
“According to Smith’s agent, Margo Lewis of TCI in New York, ‘These last five years were extremely difficult for Mike. I am incredibly saddened to lose him, his energy and his humor, but I am comforted by the fact that he had the chance to spend his final months and days at home with his loving wife, Charlie, whom he adored, instead of in the hospital, and that he was able to attend a recent concert in London by his good friend, Bruce Springsteen. He was extremely excited and honored to have been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and I am glad that he will be remembered as a ‘Hall of Famer,’ because he was in so many ways.”
Also See:
BBC - Dave Clark Five singer Smith dies, February 29, 2008
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