Over 4 years since his paralysis (he fell from a ladder), Mike Smith died today of pneumonia. He was 64.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23395584/

He was hoping to travel to America for the DC5's induction into the R'n'R HOF in two weeks.

Terrible news. Besides being a hideously underrated singer, Mike seemed like such a nice guy and dealt with his terrible accident with remarkable good cheer.

I bitch about the Kinks being under-rated. DC5 is both under-rated and nearly forgotten. (Much due to themselves). At one time, one short time they were number 2 - right behind the Fab Four...they faded then came the Stones, Kinks, Who and a host of others.

This is bad news - at least he lived to know about the HOF induction.

Tomorrow I will listen to the DC% instead of FZ.

He was truly one of my childhood heroes, a great rock singer and talented musician. I am glad he was at least able to spend his remaining few months at home. I hope his family and loved ones will be comforted.There's more here
http://www2.rpa.net/theboltons/DC5main.htm

Rest In Peace.

This is sad news and it happened just before the Dave Clark Five's induction into the Rock Hall of Fame.

He'll be missed.

RIP Mike

Very sad news.

Hopefully, he got some joy about the band's impending induction in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Rest in peace, Mike.

A very underated singer. At least his suffering is now over. It would have been great if he could have made the hall inductions, even though it is just a creation of Jan Wenner and his cronies, but that's a different thread and topic. I will play my DC5 this weekend.

Here's more from Billboard:
Dave Clark Five's Mike Smith Dies At 64
February 29, 2008, 10:50 AM ET
Jill Serjeant, Reuters
Mike Smith, the lead singer of the veteran British band the Dave Clark Five, died yesterday (Feb. 28) pneumonia at an English hospital, his U.S. agent said.

Smith, 64, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday morning with a chest infection resulting from complications of a 2003 spinal cord injury that had left him paralyzed from the waist down, his New York agent, Margo Lewis, said in a statement.

His death at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, north of London, came just two weeks before the Dave Clark Five was due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York.

The Dave Clark Five, whose hits included "Glad All Over," "Bits and Pieces" and "Because," were one of the first British bands to find major success in the United States after the Beatles.

Despite a string of more than 10 other hits, the group disbanded in 1970. It had sold more than 50 million albums by the end of 2007.

Smith was hoping to attend the Rock Hall induction despite his injury. Smith, who was both lead singer and keyboard player with the quintet, had spent the years since his injury hospitalized until December 2007, when he moved into a specially prepared home with his wife, Arlene.

"These last five years were extremely difficult for Mike," Lewis said. "He was extremely excited and honored to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and I am glad that he will be remembered as a Hall of Famer, because he was in so many ways."

It would have been nice had they been inducted last year (when they received more votes than Grandmaster Flash) and Mike Smith could've seen it. Too bad Jan Wenner decided to deprive him of that honor.