King George (5)

American singer, guitarist, bassist and songwriter. Initially based in New York, he moved and still lives in Sweden since the late 60s. Born 1941 in Hampton, Virginia King George Clemons started singing on the Chitlin' Circuit as well as in Harlem night clubs such as the Apollo. He occasionally worked with Don Covay & the Good times, and appeared as a backup singer on Covay's hit single "Mercy" in 1964. He was also involved with the King Curtis Band, where he became friends with a young Jimi Hendrix. In 1966 George's solo career took off with the single release "Drive On James", on which he was accompanied by part of the Ray Charles Band including Bernard "Pretty" Purdie on drums. In 1967 Clemons moved to Scandinavia to join the Harlem Kiddies (2), a group of American and Scandinavian musicians led by the Danish orchestra leader and drummer Grave Hansen. After suffering a couple of line-up changes, King George was invited to travel to Europe and become the group's new lead singer. The Harlem Kiddies arrived in Stockholm in 1966 for what was to be a three-month tour, but ended up touring around Scandinavia for two years. They were based in Scandinavia and almost all their recordings were recorded and released there. One of their concert highlights was to open for Jimi Hendrix in Copenhagen. After the Harlem Kiddies, Clemons formed the King George Discovery, which consisted of the musicians Lennart Bergman, Anders Nordh and Paul Sundlin. Discovery took their name from the Charles Lloyd album, but their music was mainly influenced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Discovery was a well-celebrated live band, and played Sweden's biggest festival of 1968 in Timros. They also released their self-titled LP in 1968, which was extremely well-received. King George Discovery eventually broke up in 1969 when the guitarist Nordh left to join a pop band called Blond. King George continued as a solo artist and began to play the bass. In the early 1970s he made a number of recordings mostly with his backing group Red White & Blues (American Vietnam deserters). Over the years, he has worked with countless musicians both in Europe and America, while still recording either as the King George Band or the King George Bluesolog.