CommunityAd look back at the career of Herne Bay musician Dave Sinclair.
Dave Sinclair (first from right) as part of the band Caravan in 1974. Public Domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/
As the weather gets warmer and we get ever closer to summer it won’t be too long to wait until our favourite music festivals take centre stage. With this in mind, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the career of keyboardist, songwriter and founder of the rock band Caravan, Mr Dave Sinclair.
Born in Herne Bay on 24th November 1947, Dave was educated at the Simon Langton School and, despite taking some piano lessons at 8, is regarded as being mostly self-taught as a keyboard player. Sinclair started his music career with psychedelic semi-pro rock band The Wilde Flowers in 1966-67 who, despite not releasing any material during their three-year existence (1964-67), are considered to be the originators of the Canterbury scene. Almost every member of the early lineups of Soft Machine and Caravan passed through the ranks of The Wilde Flowers.
In 1968, Dave founded the rock band Caravan with his cousin Richard (bass/vocals). The band also boasted Pye Hastings (guitar/vocals) and Richard Coughlan (drums) and it was Dave’s brilliantly developed skills on the Hammond organ that featured heavily on what is arguably the band’s most celebrated album, In the Land of Grey and Pink.
From Caravan’s second album onwards, Dave added other keyboards to his musical range including piano, harpsichord and Mellotron and on his return to Caravan for their fifth album, Dave pioneered the Davolisint. As a songwriter, Dave created some of the band’s best-known tracks including For Richard, Nine Feet Underground, The Dabsong Conshirtoe and Proper Job/Back to Front.
With Caravan, Dave spent 28 years in between stints dating from 1968 to 2002. Those stints saw Dave work with other locally based bands such as Matching Mole and Hatfield and the North whilst also working with Surrey progressive rock band Camel.
In the early 2000s, Dave focused on a solo career and has produced 9 albums with his most recent being Hook, Line & Sinclair released in 2021. In 2005, Dave moved to Kyoto, Japan and since 2016, the musician has lived in Yuge Island, Kamijima.
‘Dave Sinclair… The Lost Interview’ was released in 2022 on Dave’s YouTube channel. The documentary mini-series is heavily built upon unreleased audio sessions recorded by Dave in 2021.