About Me
NOTE: All of these songs sound best LOUD!! OK, I may be obsessed...or perhaps possessed? ..well, a bit nutty I suppose, and as my friend Long John Baldry used to say, "There are more out than in".... I've been playing guitar since I was a little kid. I was born and raised in London, England, heard blues guitar at age 9..and that did it. I talked my older brother Pete into getting me a guitar, and began frantically practicing my Joe Brown and Bert Weedon licks!!!...by age 18 I was already on the road all over England, with soul bands like Freddie Mac's Extravaganza, featuring semi-naked go-go dancers and singers like Carl Douglas, (writer and singer of Kung Fu fighting-you may laugh but he retired off that one song)!! One of the local London bands I played with during that period, "The Shades of Midnight" featured a phenomenal singer named Les Charles, later gaining popularity as Billy Ocean. My obsession led to a profession, and the first album I recorded, way back when Heavy Metal was a baby, has become something of a cult classic. That album was "Orang Utan" released on Bell records around 1971 and re-released several times since. None of us in that band ever got any credit for it, and never made a penny from it, thanks to Adrian Miller.... Anyone know his whereabouts? I wound up playing with many different bands and artists, most notably The Who's John Entwistle, Jeff Beck & Chuck Berry. My first full time professional gig was with The Roy Young Band, and among others I worked for a while with Doris Troy, Hudson-Ford, and The Les Humphries Singers over in Germany. I recorded several albums with Les Humphries and Roy Young, writing many songs during this period, and also ended up on many other recording sessions where I had the privilege to work with artists such as Deep Purple's Jon Lord, Uriah Heep's John Lawton, my old friend the late great Alan Murphy, (Kate Bush, Level 42 etc.) and horn players Dick Parry, (Pink Floyd) Howie Casey (Paul McCartney) and Dave Caswell. One of the more memorable albums I worked on was for current Robin Trower vocalist Davey Pattison, which helped launch his career in the US with Ronnie Montrose' Gamma. I left England to follow a different dream and I've lived in the US for many years, but I never left my guitar. After I got to the US I played with the late great Long John Baldry in Canada and the USA for some years, playing on the Canadian Platinum album "Baldry's Out", which also featured my old friend Roy Young and the incredible blues singer Kathi McDonald, and produced the number one single, "Thrill's a Thrill". John also recorded one of my songs (Passing Glances) on his follow up album, "Rock with the Best". That song was also featured twice(!) on Baldry's "A Thrill's A Thrill-The Canadian Years" CD collection. Since then I became a father and concentrated on raising my two kids...but still I never left my guitar...I've been playing the whole time, with as many bands as I could fit into my life, and occasionally sitting in with friends as they come through town, including one very memorable evening with old pals Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre from the Average White Band, and a couple of stints once again with Davey Pattison. Now I decided to get back to doing a little songwriting, and here's a few tunes I just recorded. (c)2006 Mick Clarke ...They're not edited, but I hope you like 'em anyway!
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