Clint Warwick's Independent Obituary (Moody Bllues Bass Player)
Bill Schenley
Bassist with the original line-up of the Moody Blues on
their transatlantic hit 'Go Now'
Albert Clinton Eccles (Clint Warwick), bassist, singer and
carpenter: born Birmingham 25 June 1940; married (one son,
and one son deceased); died Birmingham 15 May 2004.
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Alongside the Beatles, the Moody Blues are the British band
who traveled the furthest from their early Sixties roots as
a crowd-pleasing outfit covering American rhythm'n'blues and
pop songs.
The bassist Clint Warwick was in the original Moody Blues
line-up which topped the UK charts and made the US Top Ten
in 1965 with "Go Now", the dramatic, melancholy song first
recorded by the American soul singer Bessie Banks. Also
comprising Denny Laine (vocals, guitar), Graeme Edge
(drums), Ray Thomas (flute, harmonica, vocals) and Mike
Pinder (keyboards), the first line-up struggled to repeat
this early success.
A married man torn between loyalty to the group and
commitments to his family, Warwick left the Moody Blues in
1966 and was soon followed by Denny Laine. The arrival of
the bassist John Lodge and the singer and guitarist Justin
Hayward transformed the Moody Blues into the pioneering
progressive group who scored a hit with "Nights In White
Satin" in 1968 and are still active today.
Warwick was born Albert Clinton Eccles in Birmingham in
1940, and was originally drawn to music during the skiffle
boom of the late Fifties. He joined Danny King and the Dukes
playing Birmingham pubs and venues like Butlins. Ray Thomas
and Mike Pinder had learned their chops in Hamburg with the
Krew Kats. They decided to form a Birmingham supergroup with
the addition of Laine, who had fronted the Diplomats, Edge,
who had been a member of Gerry Levene and the Avengers, and
Eccles.
Albert Eccles became Clint Warwick by putting together the
names of his favourite singer, Dionne Warwick, and his
favourite actor, Clint Walker, and the group took up the
name MB5 after receiving a sponsorship deal with a local
brewery, Mitchell and Butlers. "The brewery decided they
didn't like us so we improvised the name the Moody Blues. A
demo was sent to London and the producer Tony Secunda called
us down. It all seemed to happen very quickly," recalled
Warwick. He had just become a father, but moved into a
Chelsea flat with his bandmates.
The Moody Blues took over Manfred Mann's Monday residency at
the Marquee Club and signed to Decca Records, performing
their début single "Steal Your Heart Away"/"Lose Your Money
(But Don't Lose Your Mind)" on the ITV show Ready Steady Go
in August 1964. They supported Chuck Berry on a British tour
in January 1965 as their cover of "Go Now" raced to the top
of the UK charts.
By April 1965, the song was one of nine British singles in
the US Top Ten and the Moody Blues were touring with the
Kinks and the Beatles. However, their cover of the Drifters'
"I Don't Want to Go On Without You" and the Pinder-Laine
composition "From the Bottom of My Heart" struggled to reach
the Top Forty and, by the time they issued their début LP
The Magnificent Moodies that October, they looked like
one-hit wonders.
Tony Secunda dropped them to concentrate on their Birmingham
rivals the Move and the subsequent singles "Everyday" and
"Stop!" flopped. They appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in
the United States, but Warwick missed his family terribly
and decided to leave.
He went back to his trade as a carpenter, but began
recording again a couple of years ago with the Birmingham
musician Steve Lee for a bittersweet single entitled "My
Life, The Waltz".