Quotes from Dave Clark

We were a very popular live band in London, packing in 6,000 people a night, and the record companies that came after us wanted us to be the flavor of the month.

You can't recreate the '60s.

Classical music is for listening but rock and roll is to have fun with.

If you're starting a group, don't think about being a star or you're in for heartbreak. It you enjoy singing, that's enough.

I never professed to be a great drummer but I was a very heavy drummer.

Early CDs, I found, flattened out the sound - it took away all the highs.

One of the reasons I wanted a sax in the band was that I loved Fats Domino's 'Blueberry Hill.'

I believe you have to be honest with yourself. If you believe that the direction you want to go is the right direction, then you should do it.

I wanted to stop while we were still getting big hits. The only thing I miss is the actual performing.

Rick was a real gentleman. He was very kind and had an amazing sense of humour - he was the funny one in the group, and a very talented musician.

When you're touring, you only see the auditorium and the hotel room. You can't go out because you get mobbed. You're tired, edgy and under pressure. The fun had gone out of it, so we decided to walk away from it all.

After two world tours where we played every state but Greenland, I only saw the inside of a hotel. I wouldn't have missed it for the world, but it did get tiring.

There will never be another Freddie Mercury, one of the greatest rock and roll singers.

Nobody thought that the music boom of the Sixties was going to last.

We'd play the American bases and found all these wonderful records by Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke. Without American music, there would not have been a British Invasion.

It was always the singer that was the front man, but Mike stood there and played piano and keyboards. He had a great voice and he was the Sixties' Rod Stewart, and he contributed a tremendous amount to the Dave Clark Five.

I was at a party in Alexandra Palace tobogganing on the ski slope, got whiplashed at 40mph, put my hands out to balance myself, and three fingers got caught in the artificial snow. I broke four knuckles. I have not drummed since.

Freddie Mercury said years later that he got the idea for 'We Will Rock You' from 'Bits and Pieces.' I never knew that.

You hear many things, take a little from each experience, and tune your imagination to create believable characters and situations.

They say if you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Well I remember the '60s, I was there and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

That was the ultimate high, playing live. You feel like the Pied Piper, or a conductor, knowing how to take an audience up or bring them down.

I love the music business, but I have no ambition to keep on playing.

You've got two sets of teenagers in England - the mods and the rockers. The rockers are motorcycle addicts. The mods dress like we do. We wear four-button jackets, cuban heel boots, shirts of our own design, with high collars and a tab underneath the collar.

Success doesn't scare us. I think we have staying power.