Louis or Lou Clark was born on February 27 , 1947 and sadly departed on February 13 , 2021. He was a remarkable English music arranger and keyboard player who also happened to be a dear friend. His legacy is most prominently associated with his contributions to ELO and his work on Hooked on Classics. Throughout his career, he collaborated with a diverse array of artistes, including luminaries like Roy Orbison, Ozzy Osbourne, Roy Wood, and the renowned band America. Although working on the ELO album Eldorado wasn’t exactly my favourite gig, it did introduce me to Lou Clark. During the mid to late 70s and into the early 80s, Lou and I collaborated as partners on numerous music projects. It was during this time that I introduced Lou to my close friend and manager, Stuart Taylor. Remarkably, Stuart and Lou immediately formed a strong relationship. Stuart, a maestro at pitching creative concepts to record companies, came up with a ground-breaking idea: Lou would craft arrangements of ABBA songs for a 100- piece orchestra paired with a rock" rhythm section. The envisioned album was supposed to bear the title ABBAPHONIC. Unfortunately, despite Stuart's determined efforts, finding a record company that shared his enthusiasm for this innovative project proved elusive. In no time, Stuart came up with an alternative concept: to reinterpret Status Quo songs aptly naming the new project Quophonoic. He managed to secure sufficient funding from Quo's management and publishers to record a couple of tracks, which he intended to use as a persuasive tool when approaching record companies. The hope was that these recordings would demonstrate the album's sales potential. Lou diligently set to work on composing the arrangements and an impressive orchestra and rhythm section, featuring two drummers, were booked for EMI’s Studio One at Abbey Road. Just as the first run-through of the music had commenced, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt from Status Quo walked into the control room. Lou's brilliant arrangements had seamlessly melded the sounds of ELO and Status Quo with a massive rock orchestra, creating something truly astonishing. As the final chord reverberated, Francis was so impressed that he exclaimed, “Jesus, did I fucking write that?” Despite the exceptional quality of the recordings, Stuart's efforts to interest major record companies, once again, led to disappointment. We could only surmise that any reluctance stemmed from concerns about the high recording costs and uncertainty regarding potential sales. It's worth noting that Lou eventually brought this unique project to fruition, albeit some years later after achieving success with Hooked on Classics. By 1978, Lou became increasingly disheartened with the music industry. This became evident during my next meeting with him. I gave him a call, informing him of my upcoming album project which I really needed his arrangement skills for, so we arranged for me to visit him. I arrived at his home in Birmingham and pretty soon Lou opened up to me about his grievances with how Jeff Lynne was treating him and the rest of the band. It appeared that Jeff was claiming credit for everything on ELO singles and albums. Over lunch, we discussed my forthcoming album project. He agreed to work on the project and I was pleased to hand him a cheque in advance, which he greatly appreciated. It was evident that he was facing financial difficulties, he had even mentioned the possibility of returning to teaching.
