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Born in 1947, Rod Clements was an only child brought up in North
Shields, North Tyneside. At 12 he was sent to boarding school
in Durham, and found an escape from its rigorous regime in the
guitar-based pop music of the time. Hammering out Duane Eddy and
Ventures tunes on borrowed guitars, Rod soon formed his own group
(to the horror of the school authorities, who confiscated his
first guitar when he was caught playing it during a study period).
By the time he left school in 1965, his group the Downtown Faction
were playing R&B standards at local dances and parties.
Back home
in North Shields, Rod teamed up with local musicians to form a
blues band (also called the Downtown Faction), whilst moonlighting
as bassist with a show band backing strippers and comedians on
the notorious Tyneside club circuit.
Rod's growing
interest in country blues and slide guitar, and his early attempts
at songwriting, led him to the folk clubs where he and a stripped-down
version of the Downtown Faction, now known as Brethren, played
Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly songs alongside their own embryonic
efforts.
The Tyneside
folk clubs of the late 60's were a thriving scene which brought
Rod into contact with some of the leading names of the day like
Billy Connolly, Gerry Rafferty, Ralph McTell, Al Stewart, Rab
Noakes and many more. Most significantly for Rod and his mates,
they fell in with a Newcastle singer/songwriter called Alan Hull
with whom they went on to form the classic folk-rock band Lindisfarne.
Though Alan
was Lindisfarne's principal songwriter, it was Rod who provided
the band with its first hit in 'Meet Me On The Corner' which reached
the top 5 in March 1972, won Rod a Certificate of Honour at the
Ivor Novello awards and paved the way for the band's chart-topping
'Fog On The Tyne' album. Over thirty years on, 'Meet Me On The
Corner' still gets regular radio play, and instantly evokes its
time, as when it was recently used by the makers of the BBC-TV
drama 'Life On Mars.'
During Lindisfarne's
long career, Rod gave the band many much-loved album tracks and
stage favourites like 'Road To Kingdom Come' and 'Train in G Major.'
Following Alan Hull's untimely death in 1995 Rod became the band's
main songwriter who, in partnership with producer & co-writer
Nigel Stonier, provided the bulk of the material for Lindisfarne's
two last critically acclaimed albums 'Here Comes The Neighbourhood'
and 'Promenade.' Rod's contributions to the band's distinctive
sound ranged from full-time bass player (a role he relinquished
in 1990) to fiddle, mandolin, dobro and electric slide guitar,
and - increasingly in later years - vocals.
Rod was also
a founding member of Jack The Lad, the Lindisfarne spin-off band,
in whose debut album 'It's Jack The Lad' he played a significant
role as multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
Rod's instrumental
skills have been in demand from early in his career and he has
contributed to the work of some of the greatest names in folk
& roots music. In 1974 he played bass on one the British folk
scene's biggest hits and best-loved classics, Ralph McTell's 'Streets
Of London', which topped the charts at Christmas that year. Rod
went on to tour and record several albums with Ralph.
The McTell
connection led directly to Rod's involvement with one of his guitar
heroes and arguably the most influential guitarist of his generation,
Bert Jansch. Rod and Bert worked closely through 1975-6, sharing
a house in North London, touring Britain and Europe and recording
Bert's comeback album 'A Rare Conundrum' (produced by Rod) for
the Charisma label.
Bert and Rod
worked together occasionally throughout the 80s. The recording
in Newcastle of a Woody Guthrie tribute album (Woody Lives! Black
Crow Records) led to the jointly credited 'Leather Launderette'
(Bert Jansch & Rod Clements) and two nationwide tours, which
saw Bert & Rod returning to their folk-club roots. Bert, in
turn, recruited Rod into a reformed Pentangle, with whom - stepping
into John Renbourn's shoes - he toured Britain, Europe and the
U.S.A. and recorded an album, 'So Early In The Spring.'
Rod has also
toured and recorded extensively with such seminal figures as Michael
Chapman and Rab Noakes, and contributed to albums by Peter Hammill
(ex-Van Der Graaf Generator), Wizz Jones and celebrated Northumbrian
piper Kathryn Tickell amongst many others. He has supplied bass,
dobro and guitar parts to albums by highly-rated singer-songwriter
Thea Gilmore, who has returned the favour by providing vocals
on Rod's recent solo albums.
Rod's songs
have been covered by artists as diverse as Melanie and Joe Brown
and a Clements/Stonier composition, 'Can't Do Right For Doing
Wrong', was a much-played top 40 hit for Erin Rocha at Christmas
2003.
In recent
years Rod has broken cover as a solo artist. Surprising many who
previously knew him only as a background figure in Lindisfarne,
Rod released his 'Stamping Ground' album in 2000. Combining quality
new songs in a broad rootsy style, Rod's vocal and guitar skills
fronted a band including ex-Lindisfarne colleagues Dave Hull-Denholm
and Ian Thomson, former Long Ryder Sid Griffin, ex-10cc drummer
Paul Burgess and Thea Gilmore on vocals. The result won widespread
critical acclaim.
Rod's latest
solo album 'Odd Man Out' was released in June 2006 to wide acclaim
and has been described by BBC Radio Two as "lyrically adept
rock-blues, dark balladry and European noir from the ex-Lindisfarne
and Jack the Lad founding member with an illustrious folk-roots
back history."
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