Founding member of The Dave Clark Five;
Born: August 5, 1942; Died: February 11, 2013.
Rick Huxley, who has died aged 72, was a member of the original line-up of The Dave Clark Five, one of the most successful pop groups of the 1960s. The guitarist played on all the band's signature hits at a time when they rivalled The Beatles in popularity, particularly in the US. Their best-known songs were Bits And Pieces and Glad All Over.
Huxley was born in Dartford, the son of a publican, and left school at 16. He answered an advertisement to join a group led by Dave Clark and got the job. The group started touring dancehalls and had some moderate success. The original line-up was Clark, Huxley on bass, Mike Smith on keyboards, Lenny Davidson on lead guitar and Denis Payton on sax.
The group eventually signed to EMI but it wasn't until their sixth single, Glad All Over, released in December 1963, that they had a hit. It replaced I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles at number one and became famous for its foot-stomping rhythm. Later that year the band hit number two with Bits And Pieces.
In the three years that followed, the band found widespread success in the UK and US, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS in the States 18 times, but the success was not to last. By the late 1960s, music was moving on and the five-piece in blazers and nice haircuts seemed out of touch. In the early 1970s, they decided to disband. They had been together for 12 exuberant years. Huxley recalled: "Dave called us all to a meeting at his flat, and we mutually agreed to call it a day."
Huxley has said of his time in the band that he had as much fun as he could. "To us it was just a matter of enjoying ourselves," he said. "I think a lot of the other groups deliberately did outrageous things to get noticed, but we had the publicity anyway. We ate good food, had lots of fun and played the concerts: it was a good life."
Huxley continued to work in the music industry for a time after the break-up, but behind the scenes. He opened a music equipment store before moving into the electrical wholesale business.
The Dave Clark Five were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. He was predeceased by his wife Ann, who died last year.
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