Louis Clark

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Louis Clark, 2017

Louis Clark (born February 27, 1947 in Kempston , Bedfordshire , England , † February 13, 2021 in Ohio ) was a British conductor , multi-instrumentalist and arranger .

Live and act

Clark attended Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire and took piano and viola lessons at the age of 14 . He later played bass with The Buccaneers , which in 1969 became The Raymond Froggatt Band . With this he recorded ten singles and two albums. At the age of 24 he enrolled as a student at the Leeds Conservatoire, where he studied flute , keyboards and composition for the next three years . While recording a musical at De Lane Lea Studios , he met Jeff Lynne , who was there with the Electric Light Orchestra-Album Eldorado worked; Lynne then engaged Clark for the string arrangement.

In 1979 the ELO record company enabled him to record a solo album. He played almost all of the instruments himself and was also responsible for composition and production. However, the album was not a commercial success. In 1981 he recorded the album Hooked on Classics as a conductor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra . The album was released in Germany under the name Classic Disco and reached the top position in the German album charts for a week in February 1982 . The single of the same name was released in the German album charts for 13 weeks and reached the top 20. The single was also very successful in Austria, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom; it even placed in the top 10 on the Billboard charts . At that time he performed with both ELO and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra as a conductor at the Royal Albert Hall .

Clark then worked on recordings by ELO co-founder Roy Wood and former ELO bassist Kelly Groucutt , followed by other recordings with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1983, Clark was made an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1989 he arranged the strings for Roy Orbison's tracks A Love So Beautiful and California Blue . In 1990 Bev Bevan signed him for the debut album of his new band ELO Part II , Clark later became a member of the band and also performed live with it. In the 2000s he was still on the road with other former ELO members under different band names.

Clark was a second marriage and had three children in total.

He died on February 13, 2021 at the age of 73 after months of illness.

Discography (excerpt)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Patrik Guttenbacher, Marc Haines, Alexander Von Petersdorff: Unexpected Messages - The Story Of The Electric Light Orchestra , Face The Music Germany 1996, ISBN 978-3-0000-0642-5
  2. ↑ Hooked On Classics , Official German Charts
  3. ↑ Hooked On Classics , Billboard (English)
  4. ^ The orchestra that cannot call itself the Electric Light Orchestra , Berliner Morgenpost
  5. ↑ Louis Clark, Who Orchestrated ELO and Later 'Hooked on Classics,' Dies. In: bestclassicbands.com. Retrieved February 14, 2021 .
  6. ↑ Kristina Baum: Conductor and ELO arranger Louis Clark is dead. In: RollingStone. February 15, 2021, accessed February 15, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Louis Clark Profile at the Grammy Awards (English)
personal data
SURNAME Clark, Louis
SHORT DESCRIPTION British keyboardist and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Kempston , Bedfordshire , England
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2021
Place of death Ohio