Sunday 20th August

Quintessentially English, twee sometimes, sentimental occasionally, a bit too Christian at times – but with the voice of an angel.  Clifford had  a huge hit with ‘Gaye’ in the early Seventies – and I have been a fan ever since.  He hearkened back to an earlier time, more gentle, almost pastoral.  But he wrote beautiful songs with clever melodies and words which seemed just perfect.  He never had any real hits after ‘Gaye’, but he carried on making lovely albums – and I bought them all.  They are now mostly unavailable, especially on CD, but I still occasionally scour ebay, with scant success.

In one song ‘Home thoughts from Abroad’ he ties in the Nineteenth Century poets with how he is feeling on tour in Europe. “How is Worcestershire? Do you still use television to send you fast asleep?  Does the cistern still leak – or have you found someone to mend it? Oh, and by the way, how’s your broken heart? Is that mended too – I miss you.”

He was diagnosed with MS in the late Seventies and as the disease progressed it took its toil.  But he still managed to crawl to his home studio and recorded songs, many released posthumously.  A sad death in 2001 for one so full of the joys of living.

Many will have forgotten him.  But I still play his songs.