Friday, February 29, 2008

In Memorium: Mike Smith



No. It's not comics-related, but it still made me sad. Some really great tunes came out of these guys!

Mike Smith (2nd from left in the photo), lead singer of the popular 1960s band The Dave Clark Five, has died. He was 64. Smith was admitted to a London hospital earlier in the week and passed away on Thursday, February 28, 2008, after contracting pneumonia. The illness is believed to have arisen after the singer suffered a chest infection, stemming from a previous [2003] spinal chord injury that left him paralyzed below the ribcage.

The Dave Clark Five were one of the popular British invasion groups in the 1960s and the band enjoyed successful runs on the US Billboard chart with singles such as Because, Can’t You See That She’s Mine, I Like it Like That, Glad All Over and Any Way You Want It. The band, originally from north London, were immortalized in the 1965 feature film Catch Us If You Can (directed by John Boorman), the plot of which centers around a glamorous young couple on the run.

The Dave Clark Five were eligible for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, receiving the fifth most votes, but they were denied induction by Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner (Up yours, dude!) in order to allow the induction of Grandmaster Flash because no rap group was inducted into the hall. So boo-frigging-who to Wenner for his slap in the face to the DC5. In addition to Smith, fellow bandmate Denis Payton died from cancer in December 2006. Both would have been present had the band actually been inducted in 2007.

The Dave Clark Five will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008.

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