Vale Clive Shakespeare

[sherb]

Farewell to Clive Shakepeare, who passed away last night at the age of 62, after a long battle with cancer.

Clive founded Sherbet, one of Australia's biggest bands in the 70s. He was lead guitarist and also wrote/co-wrote most of the band's hits up until his departure in early 1976.

His last recording with Sherbet was Child's Play. Ironically, the band he founded saw its greatest success after he left, with the Howzat album and single coming out months later.

He last performed with the band in 2006 at the Countdown Spectacular:

L-R: Clive Shakespeare, Garth Porter, Daryl Braithwaite, Harvey James (RIP), Tony Mitchell, Alan Sandow

Link

 

[HARKER]

It looks as though you may have had a soft spot for The Sherbs, if your username has any connection.

I wouldn't have picked Shakespeare to have left before their success, as his name is as synonymous with Sherbet, as is Brathwaite's, to me.

R.I.P. Clive.

 

[MOONEY 21]

Up there with my dad, writing new songs ;o)

RIP Clive.

 

[Maggie Greg]

RIP Clive, say hello to Harvey.

 

[sherb]

It looks as though you may have had a soft spot for The Sherbs, if your username has any connection.

I wouldn't have picked Shakespeare to have left before their success, as his name is as synonymous with Sherbet, as is Brathwaite's, to me.

R.I.P. Clive.

They were immensely successful when he left, the success just went to another level (ie overseas) afterwards. In fact, the success and pressure was one of the main reasons Clive left.

For whatever people may think of Sherbet's music, they were incredibly hard working. They'd put out an album a year, and tour extensively - all over the country, to all sorts of out of the way places. No major act would think about doing that these days.

In 1976 for instance, they did the Around Australia in 80 Days tour, which was exactly that. They did probably 70 gigs on that tour, travelling by bus from town to town. That typified their attitude to touring.

They would never pull out of shows either. I remember in Launceston in 1975 they were due to play at the Albert Hall. They attended the King of Pop taping in Melbourne that day and then were due to fly over to Launceston. They got fogged in at Melbourne or fogged out or Launceston (can't remember) for hours. Instead of cancelling the show, they finally made it to Launceston and got onto the stage at 12.20 am, finishing at 2.00 am. The support act played - and played - and played - up until then.

And they had no privacy in their own homes. The teenage girls would track down where they lived and virtually camp out the front when they were at home.

They were mad times and I think Clive had enough of it in the end. He ended up setting up his own recording studio here in Sydney. It was good that he was able to reunite with Sherbet further on down the track.

 

[Fossie 32]

Rip

 

[Dale Gribble]

They were immensely successful when he left, the success just went to another level (ie overseas) afterwards. In fact, the success and pressure was one of the main reasons Clive left.

For whatever people may think of Sherbet's music, they were incredibly hard working. They'd put out an album a year, and tour extensively - all over the country, to all sorts of out of the way places. No major act would think about doing that these days.

In 1976 for instance, they did the Around Australia in 80 Days tour, which was exactly that. They did probably 70 gigs on that tour, travelling by bus from town to town. That typified their attitude to touring.

They would never pull out of shows either. I remember in Launceston in 1975 they were due to play at the Albert Hall. They attended the King of Pop taping in Melbourne that day and then were due to fly over to Launceston. They got fogged in at Melbourne or fogged out or Launceston (can't remember) for hours. Instead of cancelling the show, they finally made it to Launceston and got onto the stage at 12.20 am, finishing at 2.00 am. The support act played - and played - and played - up until then.

And they had no privacy in their own homes. The teenage girls would track down where they lived and virtually camp out the front when they were at home.

They were mad times and I think Clive had enough of it in the end. He ended up setting up his own recording studio here in Sydney. It was good that he was able to reunite with Sherbet further on down the track.

I really believe Sherbet come of age when they changed to The Sherbs. They modified their pop sound to a Adult Oriented Rock style that Daryl carried on as a solo artist. They released their finest music with The Skill and Defying Gravity. The Sherbs were actually writing and performing better material during this era than in their 1970s. The Australian public turned their backs on them while they had minor success in America. They had almost complete lack of chart action in Australia as Molly Meldrum was too busy flapping his gums to crappy artist in the 80.

 

[sherb]

I really believe Sherbet come of age when they changed to The Sherbs. They modified their pop sound to a Adult Oriented Rock style that Daryl carried on as a solo artist. They released their finest music with The Skill and Defying Gravity. The Sherbs were actually writing and performing better material during this era than in their 1970s. The Australian public turned their backs on them while they had minor success in America. They had almost complete lack of chart action in Australia as Molly Meldrum was too busy flapping his gums to crappy artist in the 80.

Agreed.

Their last album as Sherbet in 1978 was their most sophisticated effort and easily my favourite. But by then other music forms and artists were taking over and it didn't take too long after that for their popularity to be on the wane.

So it took a lot of guts to go down the Sherbs route. The Skill and Defying Gravity were fantastic albums. As you said though, they were treated by the media and the public as if they had had their time in the sun and didn't deserve a second chance.

Pity they never went to America to promote the two albums, they could have really built on the interest that they created.

By the time they released their final album (Shaping Up), you could tell their time was coming to an end. I liked it, but it wasn't highly regarded by many (including Garth Porter, who described it as "the worst album we ever recorded", or similar).