Artist's Bio

Gordon Michael Clark

Born In Nelson, BC on February 25th, 1964, Gordon Michael Clark became a resident of Cranbrook, BC shortly after and it has remained his home for most of his life. Piano lessons and road hockey consumed most of Gord's childhood until at age 12 he started writing songs imitating the likes of his idols; Elton John, Billy Joel, Dennis DeYoung from Styx and Lennon & McCartney of the Beatles. By 1978, he had written dozens of songs and had recorded a few cassette tapes of his original music, thus beginning what he has been doing ever since.

"Gordrock" was already playing the drums, guitar, bass, trombone and baritone when he joined his first professional group, 'Baker Street', in 1980, which became a popular and regular fixture in the clubs and halls in the Kootenays over the next few years. At his high school graduation in June 1982, he performed an original song dedicated to his class, receiving a standing ovation from the 4,000 in attendence, something he still looks back on and can't help but smile from ear to ear when thinking about making all of his teachers cry.

In January 1983, he joined a group out of Kelowna called 'Rival' and ventured into the world of rock'n'roll and road life to which few musicians ever return the same. In 1985, he moved to Vancouver with childhood friend and fellow musician, David Kershaw, (before getting signed to Nettwerk Records with "Waterwalk", joining Sarah McLaughlin's band and most recently, producer of "Wild Strawberrys"). Gord performed in a few groups including "Various Artists", "Teenage Zombies" and later as a single in clubs until joining a show band out of Denver, Colorado, creatively named 'Colorado'.

In the Summer of 1986 Gord officially moved to Denver and was recruited into the Mid West US top rock bar band, 'Electric Playground', the group he started and ended his US stay with. Tom Murray, Electric Playground's veteran drummer, later borrowed Gord and the band's bass player, Rick (Gary) Ottum, for a recording project in Minneapolis. In 1991 he was hired to play keyboards on a reunion album for the Minneapolis home-grown group 'The Litter' (Tom Murray's former band) which sprouted a 1967 Billboard top 25 hit, “Action Woman”, and was back together for a recording project produced by Bad Finger's Joey Mulland (played guitar on John Lennon's "Imagine"). The experience was priceless as it enabled him to watch the creation of a record from start to finish and see exactly how songs are built and the attention to detail in a professional production that most musicians never get a chance to see first hand. When Gord left "Playground" in 1992, for the sake of continuity between future live performances and the album recording, he was replaced by keyboardist Bob Hood. His parts on the album were replaced as well. The album "Re-Emerge" was finally released in 1998 through Erik Lindgren's Arf!Arf! record label to the satisfaction of hardcore "Litter" fans, achieving decent sales in the US.

The mid to late 80's were good for Gord as he wrote and recorded the BC Summer Games theme for 1986 (recorded in the US with a group of American musicians), the new Sam Steele Sweetheart song for the 25th Anniversary pageant, and in 1989, a two song recording project with Duane Scott, engineer and occasional producer for many of Dan Fogelberg's and Chicago's albums. The publishing contracts needed by Scott to shop the recordings around LA were never signed by Gord because two of the band members were fired without compensation for their financial contributions to the recordings and he refused to give Scott his permission unless they were paid back. By 1989, CBS (Sony) Records caught up with him in Keystone, Colorado, and after hearing his songs he was encouraged to submit more of them. Sadly, due to the unpredictable and often disastrous lifestyle of this particular musician at the time, no more recordings were ever submitted.

In January 1993 Gord returned to the Great White North in search of a much needed break from the music industry. However, not being able to turn down an opportunity to play music, a month later he made an appearance, along side the late Jim Fraser, in the 2nd Anniversary birthday show for Cranbrook's Key City Theatre performing one of the original songs previously recorded with Duane Scott.

During the next hand full of years Gord continued to write and record as well as producing and performing in various projects including "Boomers: The Nouveau-riche Neanderthals", a brilliant and brave effort written by Nelson native, Richard Murphy. This album was translated into Russian and re-recorded for release in the former Soviet Union, a project that took over two years to record, English and Russian versions combined.

After taking on the roll of house engineer at Cranbrook's first recording studio in 1996, Catfish Jam: Hook, Line and Sinker hit the market giving him regular airplay with “I'll be there for you”, his sixth song to appear on the local radio station's play list since 1986. The highlights of 1996-97 also included the "classic" Kimberley Credit Union Jingle, Larry Mackenzie's Club LaRue CD "In Our Eyes", Fraser Armstrong's CD "Cranium", piano on Shelley Lynch's "Walk Through Life" (a top 10 hit in Europe), as well as a visit from Richard Murphy to add the final track to the "Boomers" album, officially completing the project.

From 1980 to 1997, Gord made a decent living playing jazz, R & B, heavy metal, classic rock, punk rock, alternative, dance, pop, country and easy listening. From the long hair, spandex, leather and limos to short, bleached-white hair, jeans, t-shirts, bar fights and bicycles; from a high energy show band, choreographed by the late James Brown's grandson, to the recording studio working with Platinum and Gold selling artists, the journey from Canada to the US and back again has been a very interesting and entertaining one. His studio wall is covered with pictures of the various hair styles he's worn through the years, something he calls his "Wall of Laughs". Having never played in an unsuccessful or musically incompetent band or project, Gord considered himself to be very blessed and indeed he was...and still is.

In the Fall of 1997 Gord traded one keyboard for another and moved into the world of web design and built many well known websites including TheDriveNews.ca and the controversial AidsChannel.com which gained international attention following a spot on NBC's Today show in August 2000 and numerous articles in the National Post. From 2001 to 2005, he designed many more sites under the alias, My Ion Design, which included KootenayICE.net, SamSteeleDays.org, KootenayEntertainment.com, Cyberlink.ca, TheDriveFM.ca and B104.ca, just to name a few.

In the summer of 2000 Gord was brought in to coach local band, Lillix, a year before being signed to Madonna's now defunct Maverick Records label (Warner Brothers). What he tried to teach them, he later said after seeing their performance at the first CD release party in 2003, made absolutely no difference whatsoever. As a side note, in 2002 while the band was having "drummer issues", he was asked to play drums for a song in one of their demo recording sessions, proving once and for all why Gord should never be a drummer in a rock band. Needless to say, he didn't quit his day job.

Although his appearances in the area's club scene are now few and far between, Gord has been seen occasionally plunking the piano keys and crooning songs from Elton John and Billy Joel as well as sitting in the recording studio behind the console helping others to realize their dreams in music.

In January 2008, Debbie Duncan (Hemming) asked Gord to create a website to support the efforts of her friend, Don Michalsky, for the sake of his daughter Tammy, who was killed in the previous December. The result was www.tammy911.com. In February, Debbie passed him a few pages of lyrics Don had written and was encouraged to put them to music. After a few weeks of taking what Don wrote, with some rewording, rephrasing and some of his own additions, the result was an original composition performed and recorded by Gord in March 2008 titled "What Went Wrong?".

When not doing graphic design, website development and video and music production, Gord spends most of his time enjoying his simple and uncomplicated life, caring for his aging father and assembling his own music for a forthcoming anthology album, due out later this year. Recently, Gord started performing live again and is thoroughly enjoying getting back to his musical roots.

The opportunities the entire Tammy911.com project has created involves every one of Gord's giftings and even though the circumstances that brought this work about are not pleasent, he enjoys being able to contribute in ways that Don isn't able to.

Receiving the thank-you from Don and Betty Michalsky, whom he didn't actually meet until after the song was recorded, has been and will continue to be 'payment in full', regardless of how this journey ends.

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