Clive Colin Brooks (28 December 1949 – 5 May 2017) was a drummer, best known for his work in the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

Biography

Uriel/Egg

Clive Colin Brooks was born in Bow, East London. Answering a ''Melody Maker'' ad in early 1968, he joined

Uriel Uriel or Auriel ( he, אוּרִיאֵל ''ʾŪrīʾēl'', " El/God is my flame"; el, Οὐριήλ ''Oúriēl''; cop, ⲟⲩⲣⲓⲏⲗ ''Ouriēl''; it, Uriele; Geʽez and Amharic: or ) is the name of one of the archangels who is mentio ...

, a blues-rock group formed by City of London School pupils Dave Stewart (keyboards),

Mont Campbell Hugo Martin Montgomery "Dirk" Campbell (born 30 December 1950, previously known as Mont Campbell) is a British multi-instrumentalist, composer and energy company executive. Campbell was born in the British military hospital in Ismailia, Egypt, ...

(bass and lead vocals) and

Steve Hillage Stephen Simpson Hillage (born 2 August 1951) is an English musician, best known as a guitarist. He is associated with the Canterbury scene and has worked in experimental domains since the late 1960s. Besides his solo sound recording and reprodu ...

(guitar and vocals). (The band re-grouped later under the name Arzachel and released one album in 1969.) With Hillage's departure in mid-1968, the remaining three continued as a trio and became

in January 1969. The band signed with

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

and released two albums on the label, splitting up in July 1972 (although they came back together to record a final album, ''

The Civil Surface ''The Civil Surface'' is the third and final studio album by the English progressive rock band Egg, originally released in 1974 on Caroline Records. The band had broken up in 1972, leaving some of their favourite stage pieces unrecorded. At org ...

'' in 1974). Egg's members first played together in Uriel, a

Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

/ blues / psychedelic group formed by school friends Steve Hillage (guitar), Mont Campbell and Dave Stewart. The line-up was completed when Clive Brooks answered their 'drummer wanted' ad in ''Melody Maker''. Uriel began gigging in 1968 and in the summer of that year decamped to the Isle of Wight to play a club residency. Events from this trip were later immortalised in Egg's anthemic "A Visit To Newport Hospital". At the end of the Isle of Wight stay Steve Hillage left the group to pursue his academic studies, later rising to fame as a '70s guitar hero. Uriel continued as an organ trio and fell in with a management company who forced a name change of 'The Egg' on the band. After signing with Decca in mid-1969 the band evolved into a hard-working live unit who won many fans on their travels round the UK. Under the musical leadership of Mont Campbell, short songs began to give way to long complex instrumentals influenced as much by

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

as by the odd time signatures of

Soft Machine Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–196 ...

. Psychedelia continued to loom large in Egg's consciousness, and when the group were let loose in a recording studio for the first time they revelled in the new sonic possibilities it offered, creating the deranged soundscape "Boilk"' on their first eponymous LP. Egg and Decca parted company after the release of their second album ''The Polite Force'', considered by many to be one of the finest prog albums ever recorded. Combining musical ingenuity, instrumental dexterity and super-tight performances, ''The Polite Force'' (produced by Neil Slaven) featured the much-loved "A Visit To Newport Hospital" (whose opening fuzz organ riff is often mistaken for heavy metal guitar), the thoroughly mad "Contrasong"' and the intricacies of "Long Piece no. 3", an extended instrumental piece in four movements. Accompanying these compositions is the nine-minute "Boilk II", a multi-layered sound collage with psychedelic overtones. Egg battled on for another couple of years before disbanding in 1972. A 1974 studio reunion enabled the trio to record several of Mont Campbell's compositions which otherwise would have been lost to posterity. Entitled ''The Civil Surface'', this album was to be Egg's last for 33 years.

Groundhogs and Liar

After the demise of Egg, Clive Brooks joined

The Groundhogs Groundhogs are an English blues and rock band founded in late 1963, that toured extensively in the 1960s, achieved prominence in the early 1970s, and continued sporadically into the 21st century. Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals) is the sole co ...

after Ken Pustlenik left, recording two albums, '' Hogwash'' (1972) and ''Solid'' (1974). In 1977, Clive Brooks joined the UK band Liar recording two albums, ''Straight From the Hip'' and ''Set the World on Fire''. A third album was recorded in Los Angeles but never released.

Drum technician and later years

Brooks then became a regular drum technician for

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, working with the band through to 1994. On 13 June 1981, the opening night of the last leg of

The Wall Tour ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, Clive Brooks filled in for drummer Willie Wilson who had been taken ill. Brooks was re-united with Stewart in 2000 for the recording of a cover version of Soft Machine's "As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still" eventually released on

Jakko Jakszyk Michael "Jakko" Jakszyk (born Michael Lee Curran, 8 June 1958) is an English musician, record producer, and actor. He has released several solo albums as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist and has been the lead singer for King Crims ...

's ''The Bruised Romantic Glee Club'' (2006). He also worked as a drum technician for bands such as Toto,

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, and achieved commercial success after launching a solo career in 1996. His debut stud ...

Jeff Wayne Jeffry Wayne (born 1 July 1943) is an American-British composer, musician and lyricist. In 1978, he released ''Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'', his musical adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel ''The War of ...

's ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'' 2007 tour, the Pink Floyd covers band, The

Australian Pink Floyd Show The Australian Pink Floyd Show, more frequently referred to as the Australian Pink Floyd, is a Pink Floyd tribute band formed in 1988 in Adelaide, South Australia. Their live shows attempt to recreate the look, feel, and sound of Pink Floyd' ...

, and in 2008 as the touring backline drum tech for

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

. Brooks died on 5 May 2017.

References

External links

Calyx website on Egg

Egg Archive

Liar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Clive 1949 births 2017 deaths English rock drummers People from Bow, London The Groundhogs members Uriel (band) members