Dave Sinclair
David Sinclair (born 24 November 1947) is a British keyboardist (organ, piano, harpsichord, electric piano, Mellotron, Davolisint, etc.) associated with the psychedelia/progressive rock Canterbury Scene since the late 1960s. He became famous with the band Caravan 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, England. Having started his musical career 1966–67 with the Wilde Flowers, he founded Caravan in 1968 with his cousin Richard Sinclair (bass/vocals), Pye Hastings (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 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" (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, harpsichord and Mellotron. On his return to Caravan 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 (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, Japan in 2005. Since 2016, he lives in Yuge Island of Kamijima in the Seto Inland Sea. 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 Caravan Camel Robert Wyatt Matching Mole Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams Polite Force