Alan Clayson

Alan Clayson (born 3 May 1951, Dover, Kent) is an English singer-songwriter, author and music journalist. He gained popularity in the late 1970s as leader of the band Clayson and the Argonauts. In addition to contributing to publications such as Record Collector, Mojo and Folk Roots, he subsequently established himself as a prolific writer of music biographies. Among his many books are Backbeat, which details the Beatles' early career in Germany, Ringo Starr: Straight Man or Joker?, and biographies of Jacques Brel, the Yardbirds, Serge Gainsbourg and Edgard Varèse.

According to Clayson, his first band was Ace and the Crescents, which he formed in the mid 1960s with fellow students from "a truly desperate grammar school for boys near Aldershot [in Hampshire]". He recalls visiting the Beatles' Apple Corps headquarters in 1968, in an unsuccessful attempt to have Apple publish his poetry. With beat music, psychedelia, chanson, mediaeval and modern classical among inspirations, he formed Clayson and the Argonauts in the late 1970s. The band received some highly favourable reviews in the UK music press, attaining what Melody Maker termed "a premier position on rock's Lunatic Fringe", yet only achieved minor commercial success in Northern Europe.

Following the disbandment of the Argonauts in 1986, Clayson continued as a recording artist and solo performer. The Village Voice described his act as "more than just a performance; an experience". Since 2011, he has also fronted a stage presentation entitled Clayson Sings Chanson. Clayson's songs have been covered by Dave Berry (in whose backing group Clayson played keyboards in the mid-1980s), Stairway and Jane Relf. He has also worked with the Portsmouth Sinfonia, Wreckless Eric, Jim McCarty, the Pretty Things and Screaming Lord Sutch, among others. Clayson and the Argonauts re-formed in 2005.

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