The Dave Clark Five, Fifty Years After the British Invasion

Rare footage and star-studded interviews highlight this two-hour Great Performances special, Tuesday, April 8 at 8 p.m. on West Virgina PBS.

The Dave Clark Five and Beyond – Glad All Over features newly filmed interviews with Tom Hanks, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt of The E Street Band, Stevie Wonder, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons of Kiss, Whoopi Goldberg, Dionne Warwick, ’60s fashion icon Twiggy and Sir Ian McKellen, all sharing their memories of how the music of the 60s and the cultural revolution of 1964 changed their lives forever.

Included in the film are the DC5’s iconic performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” along with rare live concert footage and their countless appearances on television with American musical icons. Much of this material — much of it on 35mm film — has not been seen in decades, either on television or home video.

The film also features never-before-seen footage from Clark’s personal archives together with performances by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Dusty Springfield, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Freddie Mercury of Queen and Sir Laurence Olivier.  The DC5 were the first English group to tour America (in May 1964), thus spearheading the British Invasion.

They achieved a record-breaking 15 consecutive Top 20 U.S. hit singles within a two-year period — more than any other group in the world except the Beatles. They appeared a record-breaking 18 times on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” with its weekly audience of 70 million viewers — more than any other rock, pop or R&B artist. They took the world by storm and helped change the rock scene, blasting hit after hit over the world’s radio airwaves. 

The Dave Clark Five and Beyond features scenes from their feature film Catch Us If You Can (Having a Wild Weekend in the U.S.). The group is seen with Lucille Ball (on whose “Lucy in London” special they guest-starred), Dean Martin, and Richard Chamberlain.

The DC5, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were all war babies, born during the World War II. The film highlights the DC5’s working-class roots in war-torn England and tells in fascinating detail the story of how the five — Clark, Mike Smith (an underrated rock vocalist, as several of the luminaries in the film attest), Denis Payton, Rick Huxley and Lenny Davidson — met while training in the gym two nights a week in Tottenham and their rise to worldwide fame, selling more than 100 million records in the process. 

Clark, a fan of the legendary Buddy Rich, was the drummer and manager of the group; his drumming was a key influence on Springsteen, Max Weinberg, Van Zandt and others. Clark — whom Elton John praises in the film as a “stone-cold genius” — made sure they owned the masters of all their music and video appearances.