Glad All Over: The Dave Clark Five and Beyond is a documentary film which premiered in 2014. It was shown on British television (BBC) in 2015.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Produced and directed by Dave Clark
** Run time: 114 minutes
The Dave Clark Five, aka DC5, was a British band which was active for a decade, from around 1960 to 1970. The founder Dave Clark gave his name to the band which had five members:
** Dave Clark (born 1942) - drums
** Lenny Davidson (born 1944) - lead guitar
** Rick Huxley (1940-2013) - bass guitar
** Denis Payton (1943-2006) - saxophone
** Mike Smith (1943-2008) - keyboards
Part one
As the title says, this film is the story of the band and what happened afterwards. The band produced several albums and had several hits. In 2008, when it was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, US actor Tom Hanks gave the induction speech.
In this film, we have some of the major hits. There are also excerpts from a movie about the band which was released in 1965: Catch Us If You Can. The title of this movie is borrowed from one of their hits.
What do reviewers say about this film?
The response is mixed:
On IMDb it has a rating of 71 per cent, which corresponds to 3.6 stars on Amazon, but this average rating covers a combination of positive and negative reviews.
On Amazon there are at the moment 225 ratings of this product; 181 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.3 stars which corresponds to a rating of 86 percent.
Here are the details:
5 stars = 72 percent
4 stars = 6 percent
3 stars = 9 percent
2 stars = 11 percent
1 star = 3 percent
As you can see, the majority is positive: 78 percent offer four or five stars. But a hard minority is negative: 14 percent offer only one or two stars.
Lawrence Devoe reviewed the film for Blue Ray Definition on 31 May 2015. He is impressed. He likes it. He gives it 4 out of 5 stars (80 percent).
Brian Orndorf reviewed the film for BlueRay.com on 16 May 2014. He is not impressed. He does not like it, which is clear from his concluding statement:
“It’s certainly engaging, with the tremendous songs powering the presentation. It simply lacks depth and bravery, threatening to slip into infomercial mode at any moment.”
I understand the mixed response.
There is something to like here, and if you focus on this element, you may offer a high rating.
But there is also something to complain about, and if you focus on this element, you must offer a low rating.
If you ask me, it is impossible to ignore the flaws of this film, because they are numerous and serious.
Here are some examples:
Part two
# 1. The band had five members, but we only get to meet two of them: Dave Clark, the founder of the band as well as the man behind this film, plus Mike Smith.
The interview with Mike must be several years old, because he died in a tragic accident in 2008. But clips which show Dave must also be several years old, because in recent photos from 2015 he looks completely different!
What about the other three members of the band? Denis and Rick had both passed away when the film was made, but Lenny was still alive, and he is still alive today.
If he is excluded, it is not because he is dead. If Dave could use old footage to present Mike, he might as well have used old footage to present Denis and Rick.
Perhaps the reason is that this film is all about Dave. Perhaps the other members of the band do not really matter. Since Dave is the producer as well as the director, he can decide what is included and what is excluded.
# 2. Who wrote the songs? There is not one word about this topic, which is rather strange.
When you talk about a famous band, you will usually explain who wrote the songs.
But for some reason this topic is never explored in this film, even though it runs for more than one hundred minutes. At least a few minutes could and should have been devoted to this aspect.
# 3. What happened to the members of the band after it was dissolved in 1970?
We only hear what happened to the founder of the band. He became a businessman. According to the film, a very successful businessman. But again, we have to ask: what about the other members of the band?
There is no information about them. We are not even told that three of them had passed away in 2014 when the film was first released to the public.
# 4. The same short clips are used over and over, for instance the title song Glad All Over and Do You Love Me? But we never get the whole song.
We are told many times that the band recorded many albums and had many hits, but if this is really true, why are we not allowed to hear some of these other songs?
Tom Hanks gave the induction speech when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. His speech is cut up in small clips which are used at regular intervals.
I found the first clip funny and impressive, but the second clip was more of the same. When we got to clips # 7 and 8, it was not funny any longer. In fact, it was getting embarrassing.
Did Tom Hanks really stand on the podium and give this awful speech when he had to explain why this band deserved this prestigious honour?
# 5. There is no history, no chronology. When the same short clips of Glad All Over and Do You Love Me? are repeated over and over, it is obvious that there cannot be any history, there cannot be any chronology.
It is a shame.
Would it really be so hard to say the band began to perform around 1960 and continued until 1970?
Would it really be so hard to play a song from the early years to illustrate this moment in time and to play a song from the later years to illustrate this moment in time?
Perhaps the reason is that the band never had a history, perhaps there never was any chronology, because the band never evolved.
The music from the early years sounds exactly like the music from the later years. Musically, the members never developed, even though they played together for a decade. They had a style and that was it. The style never changed.
Perhaps it was a good idea that they stopped when they did. Perhaps they were running out of ideas.
# 6. The importance of the band is wildly exaggerated by the people who appear in the film: Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and a few others.
I cannot believe how Dave got these people to say what they do in this film.
I remember the 1960s. The Dave Clark Five was a famous and popular band, but it never had the same standing as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.
They were always in the second row with bands like the Hollies, the Searchers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and so on.
Again, we can see that the man who is in charge of the film can control the message of the film:
According to him, the Dave Clark Five was a fantastic band, better than the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and in that band one man - the drummer and the founder - was better than the other members. Only this man should be presented and praised.
Part three
As stated above, the film runs for 114 minutes. I think old fans of the Dave Clark Five can enjoy the first 80 minutes or so. I know I did.
But after this, the subject changes. And for more than 30 minutes we hear about Dave Clark the businessman and Dave Clark the man behind the musical Time.
All of this fits with the words and Beyond in the title, but the title is still misleading, because there is no information about what happened to the other four members of the band.
The title of this film should be something like My Life in the Dave Clark Five and What I Did Later.
This film is one long ego-trip. At first you do not really notice, but once you do, it gets a bit annoying, and once you get to the section about the musical Time, you are probably ready to stop watching.
I resisted the temptation to stop. I continued all the way to the end. I was hoping it might get better.
Perhaps something better might pop up if I just gave it another five minutes? But it never happened!
Dave Clark was not only the founder of the band; he was also the manager and he owned the copyright to all their songs. He controlled what was released and when it was released. For more than a decade – from 1978 until 1993 – he refused to release anything.
The old vinyl records were worn out and the fans wanted to have the music on CD, but he would not let them have it. He was holding back. Why? Because he was waiting for the price to go up.
He was a businessman. It was not about the music and not about the fans. What really mattered was how much money he assumed he could make if he held back for one more year.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are some flaws.
The rating on IMDb is too high. The rating on Amazon is too generous. I cannot offer four or five stars, just because I hear a short clip from Glad All Over.
On the other hand, I cannot go all the way to the bottom, as some reviewers have done, because they wish to punish him.
I see some value in this film: the old footage from the 1960s is interesting; it has historical value.
This is why I think this product deserves a rating of two stars (40 percent).
*****
The Dave Clark Five
Catch Us If You Can
A movie about the band
which was released in 1965
*****
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