# Pop Quiz - Name the drummer for the Dave Clark Five...



## Guest (Aug 31, 2018)

You probably confidently answered "Dave Clark" but if you did so - you were wrong... I didn't answer "Dave Clark" confidently or otherwise (I'm lying) because I knew better (again I'm lying...) - The actual answer is really quite surprising (except to me... and yes, once again I'm lying...).

I came across this while researching a new thread -

"Although *Bobby Graham* was not a household name, his claim that he had played on 15,000 records was substantially correct. During the 1960s, he was one of the UK's leading session musicians, going from one London recording studio to another."

"Graham moved into session work for the major labels, sometimes playing three three-hour sessions in a day. He would receive £9 a session, plus £1 porterage for the drums. He rarely knew the artists in advance and often Graham would replace a drummer in a beat group, such as on the *Kinks*' No 1, "_You Really Got Me_"."

""The idea was to record four titles in three hours, and only experienced session men could do it easily," he said. "*Jimmy Page*, Jim Sullivan and myself were booked for a session at Decca with the Irish band, *Them*. Their lead vocalist, *Van Morrison*, was really hostile as he didn't want session men on his recordings. I remember the MD, Arthur Greenslade, telling him that we were only there to help. He calmed down but he didn't like it." Whatever Morrison's reservations, they worked well together and Graham's frenzied drumming at the end of "_Gloria_" is one of rock's great moments."






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"Even at the time, it was suggested that *Dave Clark* was not playing on his records. Clark has never acknowledged this but Graham told me, "Dave wanted to produce and he couldn't be up in the box and down in the studio at the same time. *Mike Smith* had written '_Glad All Over_' with him and they weren't too sure what they wanted from the drums. I was playing how I would normally play with the hi-hat, snare and bass and Dave asked, 'Bobby, can you make that simpler please?' He didn't want complicated fill-ins he couldn't play himself on live dates as that would have given the game away. In the end, I did this four-to-the-bar feel, a flam beat, and he said, 'That's lovely.' I was on a lot of the hits but Dave did play on album tracks. The journalists wanted to catch him out. I got a call from the News Of The World who said, 'We've just spoken to Dave Clark and he has told us that you're drumming on his records.' I said, 'Not me.' I was paid to do a job and I didn't see why I should be exposing him."

"Graham happened to be at Fontana Records when the producer, Jack Baverstock, was suffering with an ulcer. Baverstock asked him to take over for the *Pretty Things* and as it worked well, he continued producing. Graham discovered *Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich *and the band which became *Slade*. He produced the British blues performer Victor Brox and the jazz organist Alan Haven and spent some years in France working for Disques Barclay."

"Forty-five years ago in September 1964, *the Kinks*' "You Really Got Me" stormed to the top of British charts and would soon accomplish the same on Billboard's American rankings. The raucous guitar and explosive drums declared a new era of pop and an aggressive voice for rock. Indeed, in that juxtaposition of angry instruments and whining voice can be heard the beginnings of punk. With this recording and many others, Bobby Graham offers the example of a musician many have heard, but too few have heard of."

"The leader of the Kinks, *Ray Davies* remembers in his autobiography how he suddenly understood what rock drumming was all about when they hired Bobby Graham. He and producer Shel Talmy arranged to record "You Really Got Me" at a midnight session in London's IBC Studios with session musicians Graham and Arthur Greenslade (piano). They had made several attempts, but tonight when Graham played, he brought all the power and the authority to the session it had lacked. The drummer abandoned "the complicated introduction he had planned and just thumped one beat on the snare drum with as much power as he could muster, as if to say, 'OK, wimp, take that!' For the next three minutes he was one of us". Graham would continue providing the beat for the Kinks until around 1966 when he tried his hand producing records and serving as a music director; but drumming would always be his first love."






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"Bobby Graham may not have looked like a mod, but his drumming graced many of mid-sixties British hits, including those by the Dave Clark Five (especially those disks featuring horn sections such as "_You Got What It Takes_") and Them ("_Gloria_" and "_Baby, Please Don't Go_"). His association with the Dave Clark Five proved particularly problematic given that the bandleader WAS the drummer; moreover, Clark routinely declared that no other drummer played in the studio. However, a close listen to early recordings such as "_Do You Love Me_," "_Glad All Over_" and "_Bits and Pieces_" *reveals double-tracked drumming, suggesting that the drummer/producer had assistance from another musician*. Graham maintained to the end that he was that drummer (a claim supported by unofficial correspondence) and who could doubt Clark's good judgment at hiring the best. Indeed, many a British drummer cringed when they saw Graham at a session, knowing they had just been demoted to playing tambourine."

"According to an article by Kieron Tyler, in June of 1962 following a performance in Liverpool, Graham was asked by *Brian Epstein* if he might consider taking over *Pete Best*'s spot in the *Beatles* -- at the time, so he told Tyler, it didn't seem to make sense, giving up a steady, well-paying spot in the Bruvvers to join a band that was totally unknown outside of Liverpool." - (Pretty savvy move on Graham's part, eh? - :lol:

Sources: -

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...o-played-on-around-15000-records-1791653.html

https://blog.oup.com/2009/09/bobby-graham/

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/bobby-graham-mn0001596254/biography


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Nice to know that the UK had an equivalent to Hal Blaine heh heh.


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