Top 66 Quotes & Sayings by Dave Clark

You can't go on being a 19-year-old rock-and-roller all your life.

Anyone can look good if you have 500-flash bulbs exploding in your face.

I date fairly often, but my work is much more important.

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

We copied our hairstyle from Prince Charles, not the Beatles.

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

Ready, Steady, Go!' was the show of the '60s in London, where the Beatles, the Stones and the DC5, and every other major act started.

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.

The Dave Clark Five was basically a live band. During '63 we got the Gold Cup for being the best live band in Britain.

I always believed that the bubble could burst tomorrow. You're only as good as your last record.

I bought the rights to 'Ready, Steady, Go!' several years ago because I didn't want the segments to be chopped up and sold off. I thought the shows should be left intact.

Elvis Presley invited me to Las Vegas for one night but we got on so well that I stayed for three.

I miss physically going out on stage and performing. That's the ultimate high.

My big thrill in life is my Jaguar XKE.

I've always had a philosophy: it doesn't matter who you love or how you love, the most important thing in life is that you love.

When we first went to L.A., Howard Koch, who was the head of Paramount Pictures and later President of the Oscars, threw a welcome lunch for us at his house. There were all these stars there - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Lucille Ball, Natalie Wood, Henry Mancini.

I own a series called 'Ready, Steady, Go!' that I bought in the Seventies. I purposely didn't do anything with it, and wouldn't sell off any clips. My accountant went crazy when I said I wanted to wait until the 20-year cycle, then put it out so the new generation could experience it.

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.

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.

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.

We were the first group where the drummer was the front man.

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

I don't think you'd say we'd be rivals because we've got a completely different line-up to The Beatles.

We got our grounding by playing live. You had to fall flat on your face, pay your dues and grow.

People annoy me when they say, 'Oh, you made a fortune.'

I was raised Church of England but I love the Buddhist philosophy, it's very powerful, non-violent.

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

Who wants to be a 40-year-old rock and roller? You cannot live in the past.

People make assumptions when you're not married. I've been best man at five weddings and I said I'd never do it again 'cos everyone got divorced.

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.

I enjoyed every moment, but we'd been everywhere, done everything. I wanted to get back to being just Dave Clark, not Dave Clark Celebrity.

We couldn't get enough of American rock 'n' roll. We'd hear it when we played American air bases in the U.K.

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

The '60s were a time of great optimism and hope. There was a buzz - everybody could be successful.

I knew The Beatles before because we did our first television with them, 'Thank Your Lucky Stars.'

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.

What makes it all worth-while is what I've been able to do for my parents. They were poor and worked all their lives. Like all boys in London, I dreamed of winning the football pool and doing for them. Well, this is better than any football pool. Now they don't have to work. I've given them a nice home and a car. It's a good feeling.

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.

I was very, very lucky to spend my youth during the '60s.

I made records purely for fun - songs that made you feel good. I left the message songs to people like John Lennon.

The '80s have been so much doom and gloom. We've become very pessimistic.

We've got an electric organ, a sax, drums, guitar and bass guitar. We sound less like the Beatles than most of the groups.

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

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

Our band was different. We were still playing rock 'n' roll, but we had an entirely different sound: just one guitar, but an organ and a saxophone.

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.

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.

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.

We have our hair cut, but the idea is to look like we didn't.

To think I thought you could lose your place in history.

Not that we've got anything against America, mind. But let's face it, you make a lousy cup of tea over here.

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

I sort of disbanded the DC5 in 1970. I decided to call it a day when we were still selling records.

I never wanted to do a documentary or write a book.

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

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

What I couldn't have dreamed of is that the fame would last for the rest of our lives without me having to play another note.

I thought I should have a Rolls, for prestige, so I ordered one. But when it came, I realized that I didn't really need it.