David Clayton-Thomas

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David Clayton-Thomas (born David Henry Thomsett, 13 September 1941 in the county of Surrey, UK) is a musician and singer.

[edit] History

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Clayton-Thomas is the son of a decorated Canadian soldier of World War II who met his piano playing mother when she came to entertain the troops at a London hospital. When the war ended, the family moved to Willowdale, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto.

Growing up, he was taught music by his mother but had difficulties in the dysfunctional family and left home in his early teens. He idolized the music of John Lee Hooker and began playing guitar and singing, and by the time he was twenty one had his own band, "The Shays".

In February 1966, he joined a new band, The Bossmen, fronted by the child prodigy, pianist Tony Collacott, who had played with Sarah Vaughan at New York's Carnegie Hall at the age of fourteen. The group recorded a lone single, the jazz-rock "Brainwashed", which was a Canadian smash in June 1966 and gave an indication of his future work.

The band broke up soon afterwards and he travelled to New York. In October 1967, he joined forces with former members of the Toronto R&B outfit, Jon and Lee & The Checkmates and renamed them his new backing band, The Phoenix. The group started a residency at a New York club, Steve Paul's The Scene but he was soon deported for illegally working in the States.

In February 1968, Clayton-Thomas formed a new band in Toronto, the David Clayton-Thomas Combine with former Bossmen guitarist Jack Mowbrey, ex-Phoenix bass player Peter Hodgson and drummer Pat Little from Luke & The Apostles. The group recorded the original version of his classic hit, "Spinning Wheel" but the band broke up a few months later when Thomas was offered a more attractive offer from Bobby Colomby, drummer with Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Under the stage name, David Clayton-Thomas, he is best known as a vocalist with the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, whose first album with him as lead singer in 1969 produced three gold singles and three Grammy Awards including the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The album included his own composition "Spinning Wheel" which became a big single hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 2002, the album was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. Clayton-Thomas left the band twice, but he was still touring with a reconstituted Blood, Sweat & Tears through 2004.

David Clayton-Thomas was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

He lived in New York City for more than thirty years but, in 2004, he returned home to Toronto.