owns a £12 million house in West London. From the outset, Clark owned the rights to all the Dave Clark Five music masters. It is claimed that other songwriters in the band were required to give copyright ownership of their tunes to Clark, even if he did not co-write them. In the late 1960s, in addition to managing his band, Clark began directing and producing for television. In 1968 he made a television production, Hold On, It's the Dave Clark Five. In the 1980s he acquired the rights to the 1960s UK music show Ready Steady Go!. On the release of a (DC5) British hits album in the mid-1970s, Clark resided in the US for a year, thus avoiding paying UK taxes in Britain on the proceeds of that release. The British government challenged this but lost the case in court. In 1993, Clark released remastered versions of all the Dave Clark Five singles on a CD, Glad All Over Again. Companies House lists him as director of several companies. Personal life Clark was a close friend of Freddie Mercury, whom he had known since 1976. He was by Mercury's bedside when the Queen singer died on 24 November 1991. Honours and legacy In 2008, marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the band, the Dave Clark Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Clark, making a rare public appearance, and the two other surviving band members at the time accepted the award on behalf of the group. In 2014 Clark wrote, produced, appeared in, and partly presented, the 115-minute documentary The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over. References External links English rock drummers British male drummers English male singers English rock singers People from Tottenham Living people Year of birth uncertain The Dave Clark Five members 20th-century English musicians Musicians from London Beat musicians Age controversies 1939 births