Mike Smith, lead vocalist with The Dave Clark Five, has died in hospital in Stoke Mandeville at the age of 64. He was suffering from pneumonia, the result of complications from a spinal cord injury Smith sustained back in 2003, leaving him paralysed from the waist down. Following several years in hospital, he was released last December to live in a nearby home with his wife. He was readmitted to hospital on Wednesday with a chest infection.
His US agent Margot Lewis is quoted as saying: "I am incredibly saddened to lose him, his energy and his humour. But I am comforted by the fact that he had the chance to spend his final months and days at home with his loving wife, Charlie, whom he adored, instead of in the hospital, and that he was able to attend a recent concert in London by his good friend, Bruce Springsteen".
The Dave Clark Five had 19 UK top 40 hits, of course, and were one of the few beat bands to come close to competing commercially with The Beatles. Part of the so-called British sixties 'invasion' of the US, the group are due to be inducted into the American Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame on 10 Mar this year. As previously reported, bandmate Denis Payton died in 2006 from cancer, but he is survived by the remaining three members of the group.