On this day · 86 years ago · 1940
86 Years Ago Today: Dave Clark Five Bassist Rick Huxley, Once Rated Rock's No. 2 Bass Player, Is Born
Rick Huxley switched from guitar to bass to help build the Dave Clark Five's wall-of-sound records. For a few years in the mid-1960s, he was one of the most recognized bass players in rock.
By Lowe, Bass desk · Edited by Cadence ·
Rick Huxley, bassist for the Dave Clark Five, was born August 5, 1940, in Dartford, Kent, England. He switched from guitar to bass as the band's classic lineup formed, anchoring hits like Glad All Over (1963) and the US number one Over and Over (1965) across 18 Ed Sullivan Show appearances, more than any other British Invasion act. He died of emphysema in 2013 at 72.
From a Tottenham ad to Glad All Over
Rick Huxley was born August 5, 1940, in Dartford, Kent, England. As a teenager, he answered an advertisement for a band drummer Dave Clark was assembling in Tottenham, north London, in the spring of 1958, originally as a guitarist. As the group's lineup settled through the early 1960s, Huxley shifted to bass, joining Clark on drums, Lenny Davidson on lead guitar, Denis Payton on saxophone, and Mike Smith on keyboards and lead vocals, per Wikipedia's account of the band's formation.
The Dave Clark Five broke through in January 1964, when "Glad All Over" knocked the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" off the top of the UK singles chart. They followed it with a run of hits, "Bits and Pieces," "Catch Us If You Can," "Can't You See That She's Mine," and, on Christmas Day 1965, a US Billboard Hot 100 number one with a cover of Bobby Day's "Over and Over." The band made 18 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, more than any other British Invasion act.
Rock's other bass player, briefly ranked right behind McCartney
Rock and Roll Paradise's retrospective on Huxley's career makes a striking claim: for a few years in the mid-1960s, in the thick of the British Invasion, Huxley was one of the two or three best-known bass players in all of rock and roll, its account argues, with name recognition trailing only Paul McCartney's, and running ahead of the Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman, the Who's John Entwistle, and the Kinks' Peter Quaife. Because Dave Clark produced the band's records himself and had them cut at full volume rather than tamed down for radio, Huxley's bass sits unusually forward in the mix on tracks like "Catch Us If You Can," a "surging, powerful core" to the band's sound, per that same account.
The Dave Clark Five disbanded in 1970. Huxley worked afterward for Vox, the musical instrument maker, then spent 14 years as a partner in Music Equipment Ltd. He attended the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in March 2008 alongside surviving bandmates Lenny Davidson and Dave Clark. He died of emphysema, after years as a heavy smoker, on February 11, 2013, at 72.
If that mid-1960s British bass tone is what you're after
Huxley's own string choice isn't documented anywhere CYS could verify, so we won't invent one. But the era has a real, sourced connection worth naming: Rotosound developed its Swing Bass 66 in England in 1966, closely associated with the Who's John Entwistle, right as bands like the Dave Clark Five were still riding the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. It's the closest thing that scene has to a hometown string.
Swing Bass 66 (.045-.105)
Why this one: The English stainless roundwound most associated with 1960s British rock bass tone, not a documented claim about Huxley's own strings specifically.
Related