Dave Clemo- Author!

I've had a few health issues over the last few years. However, I've just celebrated ten years of remission from leukaemia and marked the occasion by cutting off my rather bedraggled ponytail. 

My annual cough has laid me low for several months each year and my attention turned to something that didn't rely on my singing voice. 

As you can tell from this and all my other blogs I've written a few thousand words over the last twenty years and decided to turn a few of them into books. 

So now I'm an author! You can go into any branch of Waterstones and order a copy of my books. An eBook version is just a click away. It's been a bit of a learning curve but I'm getting the hang of it now. The first three titles cover my life in music in all its forms. A lot of the information was published on my blogs. 

I'm currently working on the follow up to Back Street Genius and hope to have it published in 2021. Then there's a book about the history of the part of town where I live. The history can be traced back at least 2,500 years. That's a bit before my time. After that? Who knows. What I do know is that I'll post odd snippets and discoveries on here if I think they are worth sharing.

In Print at Last!

I couple of years ago I decided to pull all my musical memories together and write a book. In the end there was so much material to choose from that it ran to three volumes- all of which are now in print.

Volume One tells my story from growing up in Cornwall in the 1950s, moving to West London in 1962 and ends when we relocated to Northampton in 1974. It's called 'Too Young for Rock & Roll'.
I was lucky to live in the epicentre of the late 60s counter culture/ underground music scene, and got to see a host of bands and singers before they went on to global stardom. The book also covers my earliest attempts to make music and is a vivid snapshot of the quest for a quality sound using cheap and clapped out kit. Much of the material for the book was drawn from these pages.
The second volume covers the ten years from 1974 to 1984 and is called 'Too Old for Punk'. My band Left Hand Drive played many of the West London pubs at the same time as the dawning of the punk revolution. That wasn't for me so I formed a pop harmony band to play the local clubs and pubs. The book chronicles the changes in pop music from 1977 to 1982 and my band's constant evolution in order to stay up to date. Both books are profusely illustrated. Someone said that there's a photographic record of every bad haircut I had!

The books are available from my publisher's bookshop, from myself, and can be ordered through any bookshop in the UK. You can also download the Kindle version.

https://bookshop.3ppublishing.co.uk/biography-and-autobiography?product_id=76
https://bookshop.3ppublishing.co.uk/biography-and-autobiography?product_id=84

Old guitars revisited

If you've been playing guitar for as long as I have (almost fifty years in my case)the there will be guitars that you've loved and others- well- let's just draw a line under those for now. It was 1974 and I'd just moved to Northampton. After a few months commuting back and forth to London I was able to look at joining a band and I've already written about Left Hand Drive. When we started both Jack and I were playing Fender Telecasters through H&H combos and we both decided we'd change to something different. Jack always wanted a Les Paul and so we both went down to London to see what was on offer. Despite being left handed, Jack was able to get a brand new DeLuxe goldtop with small pickups from one of the many music shops along Denmark Street. I was struggling, because my Telecaster wasn't worth enough on a trade in for a second hand guitar (i'd already ruled out buying a new guitar) Eventually I settled on a 1964 Epiphone Crestwood. I liked it because it was an unusual shape, about the same size and shape as a Gibson SG (as well as being built in the same factory) but with the small Epiphone pickups that Jack's Les Paul had. Left Hand Drive played a show at the County Rock in Northampton soon afterwards and We both showed off our new guitars

Pretty soon I realised that the tailpiece/tremolo unit made it impossible to change strings easily, so I took the guitar to a luthier in Northampton called Barry Ford, and he fitted a Gibson style tailpiece. Here's the guitar before the alteration

And afterwards

I left Left Hand Drive in 1976 and formed a band called Conspiracy. I used the Crestwood with my Marshall amplifier at first, but it was all too loud and distorted for the music we were playing. I swapped the Marshall for an Orange amplifier and then had the chance to acquire a blond Gibson Les Paul, so the Crestwood had to go. I took it down to Denmark Street and sold it for a pittance. And that was that. A few years ago, out of curiosity, I looked at the prices for 1960s Epiphone Crestwood guitars, and a good one- if any could be found- would be £5000 and upwards, so I resigned myself to knowing that I'd once owned one, even though I'd never have another. Or so I thought. In 2012 the company that owns the Epiphone name reissued a limited edition of 1962 guitars and at a very reasonable price, so I kept my eyes open and eventually one came up at the right price. So once again I was the proud owner of an iconic guitar. However, so things don't change and the guitar had the dreaded tremolo and tailpiece so I took the guitar back to my luthier- the same Barry Ford. He fitted the same tailpiece that he'd fitted on the earlier guitar almost 40 years before. Here it is.

And here's the dreaded tremolo

My Cornish Roots

I may have posted that I grew up in Cornwall and although I've not lived there for half a century I'm still very much a Cornishman.
My interest was rekindled when I started researching my family history and I've been writing songs on and off for most of my life. My early musical influences (after The Beatles) was Bob Dylan and the folk boom of the 60s. My first public performances were in folk music clubs and although I've played many different music genres down the years, I'm still a folkie at heart.
Last year I recorded an album called "Hard Times" and I've had reviews published in Folk Music magazines. I've been playing house concerts and listening venues as well. It seemed to me that the time was right to record an album of songs inspired by the land where I was born, so I recently began recording a new album.
Last year I played all the instruments on Hard Times and asked my son Chris to play cajon for me.  This time I've enlisted some help from the start.  The basic tracks were recorded with Rai Clews playing cajon, and Vince Gorman on cittern. Stevie Poole has also played accordion on some tracks. These musicians have also played in the Dave Clemo Band as my son Chris is taking some time away from music.

We're recording ten tracks, seven original songs, two traditional covers and an instrumental.  I've also been experimenting with video and here's Vince, Stevie and me playing a track from the forthcoming album at a recent house concert.
http://youtu.be/x54QPznmazw

This song, also from the new album was recorded and videod in our studio and I edited both videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzzyXs2kDPo

So the new album is well under way, and I'm editing video as well. Whodathoughtit eh?

A Trilogy of Albums

Following my diagnosis with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia in 2009 my music has undergone a change. A year of chemotherapy left my immune system shot to pieces. There were some physical changes, some as simple as after a lifetime of drinking coffee to suddenly disliking the taste and switching to tea, and the realisation that I was never going to have the levels of physical stamina I used to enjoy, and so I needed to change the way I sang.

 Prior to the diagnosis I'd taken part in two long tours, each about a month long, playing shows most nights. I was also driving the tour bus. I was playing bass and enjoying myself. Playing every night improved my playing no end. Then I was having chemotherapy and to pass the time I practised playing my stick bass. I later tried to play double bass, but the size and unwieldiness of the instrument put me off, so I've since picked up a fretless acoustic bass guitar. It doesn't quite give me the sound I'm looking for, but it's close.

 Towards the end of my treatment I was booked for a return tour with Nicki Gillis. It was clear that I couldn't drive, hump gear and play, so my son Chris drove the van and sorted the sound etc. Then in 2011 I toured with Nicki again. I was back at work part time but still very weak, so we had another friend roadie for us. It was on this tour that I got ill and ended up in hospital with a mystery illness that has subsequently been diagnosed as a type of Crohn's Disease. Reluctantly I had to admit that my touring days were over.

So what was I to do? I started going to local open mike sessions, singing a few songs. From that I was invited to rehearse with a band. This didn't last long (I'm glad to say). Then I started going to another open mike night a little nearer home where I met up with Dave Walker and Vince Gorman. I'd known Dave on and off for the last thirty or so years. He was a member of the 4Teens, and my band Conspiracy's drummer's sister was also a member. Karla later joined our band and stayed for a couple of years. I knew Vince from a few years earlier when a group of friends would meet on a Sunday afternoon in a pub in town. We'd sit around the table and play songs and chill out. Vince was a member of that group, along with Jay Jones who'd played with Chris on and off since they were teenagers and Kenny Nash, a local dj who was just getting into live music. The other week Vince and I, plus Ken and Jay played at a songwriters evening in Northampton. It's a small world.

But I digress.

 It was late in 2011. I was keeping my hand in at various open mike nights, playing a variety of self penned and cover versions I'd been singing in my own style for a while. Both Dave & Vince enjoyed the songs and would join in when I played them and it wasn't long before the thought of forming a band began to take shape. My wife and I bought our son Chris a cajon for Christmas, having seen and heard Rai Clews use it to great effect when playing with Stevie Jones and Mark Gill. I invited Chris to join the embryonic outfit and we rehearsed the songs we'd been jamming at the open mike evenings. Dave wanted to play the double bass rather than the electric bass he used in his other bands. I wanted to play acoustic guitar and mandolin, and I like to experiment with the song arrangements. Vince wanted to play his guitar, but also his cittern, and he could also play bodhran. It all worked. I liked the sound. It was different. Sort of country-ish, almost bluegrass, almost folk. We decided that it would be called 21st Century Skiffle. We played a few guest spots locally, including the inaugural Pot Belly Folk Festival and someone asked what we were called. Before I knew it, we were the Dave Clemo Band.

By the late Spring we had enough material (just) to play a full night at some local pubs. I asked Chris and Vince to join me at the Whitby Gospel Music Convention.  Our set brought a standing ovation and people began asking if they could buy a CD.

So during the summer of 2011 we began recording our first album. We made a lot of mistakes but managed to finish it and release it in time for our appearance at the 2012 Whitby Gospel Music Convention.

I then thought it was time we recorded an album featuring some of the songs that we played in our pub set.
Recording was easier but the post production took a lot of time, so it didn't get released until the Spring of 2013. 

Out of the blue I received an invite to play some concerts in Norway. I didn't respond at first, because of the logistics involved in getting the band to Norway, time off work, etc etc. However, I had another invite to play a gospel concert in a church near Goole, and only Chris was available to come with me. I'm glad we did because we made a great sound together, the audience enjoyed the evening, and it convinced me that the two of us could go to Norway and play the concerts.

One evening, while recording tracks for Vince's debut album, I had a call from Whitby. Could I come at short notice and take the place of an artist who been taken ill? Of course. So Sue and I went up for the weekend. I played a set of songs that they hadn't heard (from my early albums) and was encouraged to think about another gospel album in 2014.

Then out fo the blue I had a call from a publicist. I'd sent him the Gospel Album and the DCB Greatest Hits albums and he rang to say how much he enjoyed them. The upshot was that I was to record a new album and he would help promote it for me.

In July I went back into the studio with Chris and we recorded a dozen or so basic tracks which I then built up by multitracking the guitars, mandolins and adding some fretless bass. It still sounded like the previous two albums, so much so that I consider them to be a trilogy.

I've just released the "Hard Times" CD. You should be able to get it from me, on Ebay, and as a download.

I'll be hard at work promoting the album in 2014, but also finding time to record another couple of albums, or maybe three?

The Long Weekend 1978

In the summer of 1978 Conspiracy’s line-up was as follows
Myself on guitar, mandolin and vocals
Mark Bryan on drums and lead vocals
Andy Keightley on lead guitar and vocals
Phil Aitken (Andy’s brother in law) on bass and vocals
Dave Anderson on lead guitar, pedal steel guitar and vocals

Mark and Dave A had played together a few years earlier in Campbells Country, a professional country music band. The experience had scarred Mark somewhat and he’d had enough of playing “Jim Reeves and Johnny Cash” to grown adults dressed in cowboy suits. Dave was and still is a country music aficionado and somehow he persuaded us to be Jed Ford’s backing band for a couple of shows.

After a lot of nagging we eventually gave in and went of to Polebrook to meet Jed. He lived in a grand rectory with a grand snooker room complete with ranks of seating and a walk in dressing room for all his stage outfits. Very impressive. As far as I could tell he was from the North- probably Lancashire.

A few weeks later we turned up at a venue just outside Melton Mowbray. We opened the show with our Eagles styled set then played Jed’s intro music. Jed bounded onto the stage and began to sing in the worst fake American accent I’ve ever heard. He absolutely murdered every song. The chat between the songs was the height of insincerity. He couldn’t even count to four and would come in when he felt like- on the beat, off the beat, whatever. Our job was to try and make him sound good, and somehow we pulled it off. Audiences loved him but I hated playing for him, and so did Mark. A few weeks later we were asked to back Jed again. This time it was for a prestigious Sunday night show at the theatre in Cromer- the one on the end of the pier. He was top of the bill, we had bottom billing and Pete Sayers was also on the bill.

There was only one problem. My brother was getting married that weekend- in Glasgow! I was working for Superdrug and they took a very dim view to anyone taking a Saturday off, but I gave them months and months of notice and they consented. We had shows booked for the Friday and the Saturday as well as the show in Cromer on the Sunday. We managed to reschedule those. All I had to do was get to the wedding and back again in order to play the Sunday night show.

We (my wife Rosa and I) booked tickets on the overnight sleeper train to Glasgow which left Rugby at about 8.30 on Friday evening. We parked the van (an old Vauxhall Viva van) and when they train arrived settled down in the sleeper compartment.
It really is a great way to travel overnight. We pulled into Glasgow Central the next morning refreshed and ready for the day ahead. We tried to obtain details of the train that was to take us back that night but none was forthcoming.
We took a taxi to Pollockshaws and the flat where my brother was staying. His wedding wasn’t until 4 that afternoon so we had some time to kill. We went to the Glasgow Museum of Transport and spent an hour or two looking at old steam locomotives. Then it was off to the wedding followed by the reception. I couldn’t drink or get too caught up in the celebrations as we had a train to catch. At about 9.00 we said our farewells and a friend drove us to the station and the waiting train.

Only there was no waiting train. It seemed that contrary to what we’d been told, there was no overnight sleeper train on a Saturday night. What were we to do?

The answer was to take a train to Carstairs Junction and wait for a train from Edinburgh. We got off the train and waited on the deserted platform Was this a wild goose chase? What if this train wasn’t running? How would we get back from a station literally in the middle of nowhere?

Eventually a train appeared. It was a diesel hauling some tired old BR mark1 coaches. No buffet car, no sleeping car. And it was crowded. We climbed aboard, found some seats and settled down for an uncomfortable night’s travel.

The train stopped at every station. I woke up in the middle of the night wondering where we were. We were in Preston. We were a long time in Preston. We continued through the night, me, my wife and some squaddies, all trying to sleep and stay upright. Every bone in my body ached by the time we got off the train at Rugby. The trip from Glasgow had taken the best part of 11 hours in all.

We found the van and drove back to Northampton. I had just enough time for a shower and some breakfast when there was a knock on the door. Mark and Andy were outside in the van ready for the long drive to Cromer.

We arrived in Cromer early in the afternoon, parked up by the pierhead and walked down the pier to get a trolley for the kit. Although we were bottom of the bill all the acts would be using our PA so we loaded it in and set up. This was the first theatre I’d ever played so was looking forward to the evening with nervous excitement. The stage crew were helpful in a gay flappy way. Pete Sayers was grumpy. I’m sure he thought he should be top of the bill. He moaned about the PA constantly. We did suggest he get his own in the end.

We played our set. Two or three songs as I recall. The theatre at Cromer is quite small, about 400 seats and steeply banked so that the audience is very close. I loved the experience. It was to be 30 years before I played there again, when I played bass on a Patsy Cline Tribute Show. Pete Sayers played his set, followed by an interval. We opened the second half by playing one song then brought Jed out. It was extraordinary how he won the audience over. The man could hardly play or sing, but what a showman! He sang some of the worst songs I’ve ever had the misfortune to attempt to play, including one where I played mandolin and had to take the solo despite the fact that I’d never heard the song, didn’t know the chord sequence, and as the song progressed, realised that Jed didn’t know it either! At last the ordeal was over. We signed some autographs and loaded out.
On the way home two things happened. The first was when the van started overheating. We stopped on the road between Kings Lynn and Peterborough and somehow Andy managed to get an eyeful of scalding hot water when he opened the radiator cap to top it up. Then he realised that he’d left his guitar behind!
We arrived home at some ungodly hour. I staggered into bed and it seemed I’d only just closed my eyes before the alarm went and it was off to work. Since Friday evening I’d travelled to Glasgow, attended a wedding and reception, endured a slow and uncomfortable train journey back and driven to Cromer, played the biggest concert of my career to date and driven back. I went off to work, tired but happy.
Andy had to drive back to Cromer, stand outside the theatre waiting for someone to turn up and let him in.
His guitar was behind some curtains, exactly where he’s left it.

We backed Jed one more time I think. By then the damage was done. There was no way Conspiracy was ever going to be a country band. Speaking personally- I love country music. I just hate the way the British and Irish artists sing and play it.
I found this review of one of Jed’s albums. I think whoever reviewed it must agree with me.
http://thriftyvinyl.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/jed-ford-im-so-lonesome-i-could-cry-lus-3049-1970/

Snowy Tales- Conspiracy 1981

In the winter of 1980/1 I was living in Northampton, working for Superdrug by day and playing in a band called Conspiracy by night. The band had formed in 1975 when I’d tired of playing rock music for no reward with Left Hand Drive. I started looking around for musicians and met Derek Scarr and we decided to advertise for a drummer. Mark Bryan joined us soon afterwards. We began rehearsing in a wooden village hall in Cogenhoe and it soon became apparent that we needed a lead guitarist so we recruited Andy Keightley and began gigging soon afterwards. After a year or so Derek left when he was transferred to Torbay and Andy’s brother Phil joined on bass. As he’d never played bass before we decided to beef up the sound by adding another guitarist and Dave Anderson joined. After some months Andy and Phil left and moved to London to set up a business and we recruited Nick Evans on bass. Nick, Dave and Mark had all played together in Campbell’s Country a few years earlier and Dave tried to turn us into a country act. Mark didn’t want to know and so we decided on a change of strategy and recruited Mark’s sister Karla. We began rehearsing without telling Dave and he left after some heated words (not surprisingly!) The new band was Mark on drums and lead vocals, Nick on bass and vocals, Karla on vocals and keyboards, and myself on guitar, mandolin and vocals. Andy returned from London in late 1979 and Nick decided to leave the band and join Andy in a new group. We advertised and recruited Tony Harrison, who stayed with us for about 9 months. It was while Tony was with us that this tale I’m about to recount took place. The band had been booked to play the Woodbine Club in Raunds. We used to enjoy playing there and on this occasion it was snowing when I set off from my home in Abington, Northampton to drive to Earls Barton to meet Mark. I picked up Tony on the way and all three of us got in the van to drive up to Kettering to pick up Karla. By this time the snow was getting heavy and staring to drift but we drove from Kettering down the A6 and over the river. The A45 expressway hadn’t been built at that time so we drove through Stanwick and arrived at the venue in good time. The weather was looking very bad and the roads were becoming impassable but we unloaded and set up. There were no mobile phones at that time and information was patchy but after we played the first set to a sparse audience the entertainment secretary decided to curtail the evening and try and get everyone home. We’d heard that three of the four roads out of Raunds were blocked and the only way out was via Stanwick, but even that was uncertain. We loaded up and set off. It was about ten o’clock as we slipped and slid up Marshalls Road to head back home. The road to Stanwick was drifting but passable with care. We dropped down into the village and headed out towards Higham Ferrers. We rounded a bend to find a snowdrift completely blocking the road. It was about knee deep and extended for about fifty yards. We’d packed a couple of spades and so tried to dig our way through without any luck. There was just too much snow. We sat there in the darkness, unable to go forwards or back. Then out of the blue, a tractor with a bucket scoop appeared out of the darkness. At that time the County Council had arrangements in place with local farmers to keep the roads clear. He set to work and soon had a way clear. We followed behind him as he dug his way through the drifts out to the A6 just outside Higham. We set off up the hill only to come to a halt. Mark had stuffed some cardboard in the radiator grill in the mistaken belief that this would stop the engine from freezing. It had the opposite effect. The radiator was boiling. We stopped, knocked on a nearby door and persuaded the occupants to give us some water for the radiator. At last we were underway. We drove through Higham and out to the dual carriageway at Rushden lakes. From then it was fairly easy going back to Earls Barton. At about 1.30 Tony and I got into my mark3 Cortina for the drive along the A45 dual carriageway to Northampton. The roads were empty and the snow was about six inches deep and rutted where other vehicles had driven. I drove very slowly at first but eased the speed up as I wanted to get home. I was doing about 45-50 miles an hour when the wheels stuck in the snow tracks and I realised I’d lost control. I took my feet off the pedals and hope the car would slow down. As it did so it began to fishtail and spun around and off the carriageway, ending up backwards in a deep snow bank by the side of the Ecton Farm exit ramp. We got out and surveyed the scene. The car was hardly moving when we hit the snow and there was no damage so we pushed the car back onto the road, noting with relief that we’d missed all the Armco. I took it a lot slower as we drove to the Lumbertubs Way exit, and then crept along Lumbertubs Way. I dropped Tony off in Kettering Road and finally got home at around 2.30. After a few hours sleep I got into work at Superdrug in the Grosvenor Centre at about seven.