Dave Sinclair

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Dave Sinclair (first from right) as part of the band Caravan in 1974 Caravan, 1974.jpg
Dave Sinclair (first from right) as part of the band Caravan in 1974

David Sinclair (born 24 November 1947) is a British keyboardist (organ, piano, harpsichord, electric piano, Mellotron, Davolisint, etc.) associated with the psychedelic/progressive rock Canterbury Scene since the late 1960s. He became famous with the band Caravan and was responsible as a songwriter for creating some of their best-known tracks: "For Richard", "Nine Feet Underground", "The Dabsong Conshirtoe", "Proper Job/Back to Front".

Contents

Biography

Sinclair was born in Herne Bay, Kent, England. Having started his musical career 1966–67 with the Wilde Flowers, he founded Caravan in 1968 with his cousin Richard Sinclair (bass/vocals), Pye Hastings (guitar/vocals), and Richard Coughlan (drums) and was in and out of the band for 35 years (so far 1968–71, 1973–75, 1979–82, 1990–2002). Over the course of Caravan's first three albums he developed his playing enormously on his favoured model of Hammond organ, the A-100 (similar in configuration and features to the B3 and C3 models, but slightly smaller in overall bulk), culminating in his soaring work on what is perhaps their most celebrated album, In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971).

Calyx, The Canterbury Website, compiled by the French music expert Aymeric Leroy, refers to him as "master of the typical Canterbury organ sound/playing". However, from the second album onwards, he also added other keyboards to his palette, including piano, harpsichord and Mellotron. On his return to Caravan for their fifth album, For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, he pioneered the Davolisint.

In between his stints with Caravan, he was a member of Matching Mole (1971–72), Hatfield and the North (1972–73), Polite Force (1976–77) and Camel (1978–1979).

In the early 2000s he released two solo albums, Full Circle and Into the Sun (both 2003). Since then, he has been engaged in a solo career, including concert appearances in Japan and England. A 30th anniversary re-release of his Moon Over Man album (originally issued on CD by Voiceprint in 1993) appeared in 2006. Like the earlier Voiceprint release, this consisted of demos for an unreleased solo album recorded 1976–77, featuring contributions from vocalists Tim Lynk and Gay Perez; however, the sound quality of the old analogue tapes was greatly improved and bonus tracks from the same sessions were added.

He moved to Kyoto, Japan in 2005. Since 2016, he lives in Yuge Island of Kamijima in the Seto Inland Sea. [1] [2]

Two solo albums, PianoWorks1 – Frozen in Time and Stream (the latter featuring several distinguished guest artists) were released in 2010 and 2011 respectively; licensing problems initially prevented Stream from being officially issued outside Japan until 2015.

The Little Things, intended as a follow-up to Stream, was released in 2013, the Japanese version being slightly different in packaging and content from the international version.

In May 2015 a series of well-received concert dates with saxophonist Jimmy Hastings took place in Japan. [3]

Dave Sinclair's most recent solo album, Out of Sinc, was released in June 2018. In 2021, he released a compilation album Hook, Line & Sinclair, containing unreleased demos, alternate versions and new material.

In October 2022, Dave released an episodic documentary mini-series, Dave Sinclair ... The Lost Interview, talking about his music career with Caravan, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North and Camel. Made for non-profit media, the first completed episodes are exclusively available via his YouTube channel. [4] [5]

52 years after the release of In the Land of Grey and Pink (1971), on April 8th 2023, Dave's son Nic Sinclair, launched a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo. The campaign revealed that the original Hammond A-100 organ that Dave used with Caravan, Matching Mole and Hatfield and the North, was in need of immediate rescue and with a restoration project to follow. [6] As of 2025, the organ restoration is ongoing with ambition to revive the original Caravan sound for new projects and live performance.

In May 2023, Dave listed his solo catalog on Bandcamp [7]

In February 2025, Dave released a new album via his Bandcamp store. Tears In His Eyes, is a digital only album containing a collection of previously unreleased reworked versions of classic Caravan and solo tracks. [8] [9]

Discography

Solo

Caravan

Camel/Mirage

Robert Wyatt

Matching Mole

Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams

Polite Force

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ FULL BIO English dsincs-music - Dave Sinclair
  2. ↑ BIO Japanese
  3. ↑ "The 'Canterbury Tales' Japan Tour 2015 | Dave Sinclair". Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "Dave Sinclair ... The Lost Interview - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "INTERVIEW". dsincs-music. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  6. ↑ "NEWS". dsincs-music. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  7. ↑ "Dave Sinclair". Dave Sinclair. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  8. ↑ "Tears In His Eyes, by Dave Sinclair". Dave Sinclair. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
  9. ↑ "NEWS". dsincs-music. Retrieved 3 February 2025.
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