Mike Smith of Sixties group The Dave Clark Five has died aged 64, it was announced last night.

He died yesterday from pneumonia at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, agent Margo Lewis said.

Smith, the band's lead singer and keyboardist, was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit on Wednesday with a chest infection.

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Mike Smith, pictured here on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, has died at the age of 64

The Dave Clark Five during their Sixties heyday. From left: Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley and Denis Payton

Mike Smith with his wife Charlie in 2003

He had been preparing to travel to New York to be inducted into the American Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame with his band mates on March 10.

Ms Lewis said tonight: "These last five years were extremely difficult for Mike.

"I am incredibly saddened to lose him, his energy and his humour, but I am comforted by the fact that he had the chance to spend his final months and days at home with his loving wife, Charlie, whom he adored, instead of in the hospital, and that he was able to attend a recent concert in London by his good friend, Bruce Springsteen.

"He was extremely excited and honoured to have been inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame and I am glad that he will be remembered as a 'Hall of Famer', because he was in so many ways."

The Dave Clark Five were second only to the Beatles in the "Great British Invasion" of the US.

The band sold over 100 million records and enjoyed 30 hit singles worldwide.

They topped the chart with Glad All Over in 1963 and recorded a total of 23 albums, many of them for the US market.

The Dave Clark Five broke up in the 1970s.