David Sinclair (born 24 November 1947) is a British

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical ins ...

(organ, piano,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

, electric piano,

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. ...

, Davolisint, etc.) associated with the

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic dru ...

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. Initi ...

Canterbury Scene The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) was a musical scene centred on the town of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisational sty ...

since the late 1960s. He became famous with the band

Caravan Caravan or caravans may refer to: Transport and travel *Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together **Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop *Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals *Convoy, a group of veh ...

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".

Biography

Sinclair was born in

Herne Bay, Kent Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separa ...

. Having started his musical career 1966–67 with the

Wilde Flowers The Wilde Flowers were an English psychedelic rock band from Canterbury, Kent. Formed in 1964, the group originally featured lead vocalist Kevin Ayers, lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist Brian Hopper, rhythm guitarist and vocalist Richard Si ...

, he founded

in 1968 with his cousin Richard Sinclair (bass/vocals),

Pye Hastings Julian Frederick Gordon 'Pye' Hastings (born 21 January 1947 in Tomnavoulin, Banffshire, Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island o ...

(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 Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, the A100 (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 ''In the Land of Grey and Pink'' is the third album by English progressive rock band Caravan, released in April 1971 on Deram Records. It was produced by David Hitchcock and was the last album to feature the original lineup of Richard Coughl ...

'' (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 The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

and

. On his return to

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 A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. C ...

(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 Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the cit ...

, Japan in 2005. Since 2016, he lives in Yuge Island of Kamijima in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshū, Shikoku, and Kyūshū, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osak ...

.BIO Japanese
/ref> 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 have so far prevented ''Stream'' from being officially issued outside Japan, although it has recently become available in other territories. ''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. Dave Sinclair's most recent solo album, ''Out of Sinc'', was released in June 2018. He is currently working on a new album, to be released later in 2021.

Discography

Solo *1993 – Moon Over Man (Voiceprint VP119CD) *2003 – Full Circle (DSincs-Music 001) *2003 – Into the Sun (DSincs-Music 002) *2010 – Pianoworks I – Frozen in Time (CRSCNT 001) *2011 – Stream (CRSCNT 002) *2014 – The Little Things (DSincs-Music) *2018 – Out of Sinc (DSincs-Music) Caravan *1968 –

(Verve VLP 6011 now released on HTD Records as HTDCD 65) *1970 – If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You (Decca SKL-R 5052) *1971 –

(Deram SDL-R 1) *1973 – For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night (Deram SKL-R 12) *1974 – Caravan and the New Symphonia (Decca SKL-R 1110) *1975 – Cunning Stunts (Deram SKL-R 5210) *1980 – The Album (Kingdom KVL 9003) *1980 – The Best of Caravan Live (Kingdom 426002) *1982 – Back to Front (Kingdom KVL 5011) *1993 – Live (Demon Code90 NINETY 2 ) *1995 – The Battle of Hastings (HTD Records HTDCD 41) *1996 – All Over You (HTD Records HTDCD 57) *1997 – Live from the Astoria (HTD Records HTDCD 79) *1998 – Back on the Tracks (CoCaCamp act001) *1999 – All Over You Too (HTD Records HTDCD 102) *2004 – The Unauthorized Breakfast Item (on 2 tracks) (Eclectic Discs ECL 1001) Camel *1978 – Breathless (Deram 820 726-2) Robert Wyatt *1970 – The End of an Ear (CBS 64189) Matching Mole *1972 – Matching Mole (CBS 64850) Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams *1992 – Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams (HTD CD7) *1993 – An Evening of Magic (HTD CD 17) Polite Force *1997 – Canterbury Knights (Voiceprint VP187)

Filmography

* 2015: '' Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales'' (DVD)

References

Dave's homepage
a
Calyx, The Canterbury Websitewww.caravan-info.co.uk Caravan Information Service
– Official Caravan Website

External links

Collapso – Canterbury Music Family Tree
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, Dave Canterbury scene English pianists English keyboardists People from Herne Bay, Kent 1947 births Living people Caravan (band) members Camel (band) members Musicians from Kent Matching Mole members The Wilde Flowers members Hatfield and the North members Progressive rock keyboardists