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?
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