What a sweet, sweet man. when my band was together, we were looking to play anywhere and everywhere. It didn't matter, we just wanted to play. We heard that Jeff was looking for a band to open his show at Mississippi Nights, we entered a tape and were called about a week before the show, saying that Jeff liked the "rawness" of our sound. We were pumped because he was the next "big" thing, a blind guitar player who played the axe on his lap. He had a hit song with "Angel Eyes" and we knew the place would be packed. It was more than packed.We played our ass off, because we knew that Jeff liked our stuff. After the set, while we were leaving the stage, he "looked" at me and said, "you better get back out there, they want more." I mumbled something about opening acts not getting encores and he said "mine do", so we played two more songs and got a standing ovation. If we all hadn't had day jobs, he would have taken us on the road with him. Look at the fingers in the picture, long and sleek. He had been fighting cancer since the age of one, it cost him his sight and ultimately his life. Dead at 41. A very sweet and kind musician. Done too soon.
Bittersweet times for the Dave Clark Five
Mike Smith was the lead singer for the Dave Clark Five. Dave played drums and left the singing to Mike. The Dave Clark Five were the second "British Invasion" band to have a top ten single in America. Mike passed away just days before the band was to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame this weekend. Mike was paralyzed a couple years ago following a freak accident when his trousers got caught on the top of his own wrought iron gate, while trying to climb over. On a day in which he must have wished he'd had been anywhere else... he landed on his head ... and died of complications of pnuemonia. He was 64.
Denis Payton, the sax player in the Dave Clark Five, died in December after a long struggle with cancer. He was 63.Payton appeared on all the group's records, and also played guitars, harmonica and sang backing vocals. The Dave Clark Five, whose "Tottenham Sound" was London's answer to the wave of hits pouring out of Liverpool in the 1960s, scored with hits including "Bits and Pieces," "Do You Love Me?" and "Glad All Over." "He was thrilled about our American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination and said, 'I know I won't be around but it was an amazing part of my life that I am very proud of,'" Clark said. 
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