Clive Mitchell (Big Clive)

Clive Mitchell is a popular electronics YouTuber.

He has more than 1M subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘bigclivedotcom.’

Introduction-

Clive Mitchell was born on January 12, 1965 in East Kilbride, Scotland.

Later, he moved to Glasgow, Scotland and lived here for 25 years and then moved to the Isle of Man.

Clive’s brother, Ralfy Mitchell, is an embalmer and has a YouTube channel, ‘ralfydotcom.’

Love for lifts-

At a young age, Clive’s father took him on a tour to a place in Glasgow and there, he saw an elevator controller and became interested in it and decided to grow up to become a lift engineer.

During that time, he also loved riding in lifts.

Clive’s father suggested that he first become an electrician and then try to become a lift engineer.

Love for electronics-

Since a young age, Clive has been disassembling electronics.

Once his mother gave him a small torch bulb and demonstrated to him how to connect it to a 4.5-Volt battery and make it glow.

This sparked his love for electronics and later, Clive started working on electromechanical things like relays, lamps, solenoids and motors.

His passion for electronics established his career as an electrician.

At a young age, Clive used to build coin operated vending machines with Lego.

Initially, he learnt electronics by reading magazines like Practical Electronics Magazine, Everyday Electronics, Electronics Today International, Elektor Magazine, etc. and later, he started using the internet to learn electronics.

Education & career-

Clive did his schooling from Hunter High School, East Kilbride.

After completing his schooling in 1981, at 16, he joined E.J. Stiell & Company (Electrical Engineers) Limited for an apprenticeship.

Here, initially, Clive did apprenticeship in construction and steel works and then, moved to the electronics department before leaving the company.

He joined Motherwell Technical College to study for a City and Guilds 236 1,2 & C and graduated in 1984.

Clive worked at Forth Electrical Services (FES) for a while and then moved to Thomas Johnstone Shopfitters.

Later, he became self-employed and tried to start an electrical contracting company but dropped this idea after facing some setbacks.

Then, Clive started working as a freelance electrician and panel builder for Hussmann Refrigeration in Glasgow.

He manufactured lighting controllers and FX for the fairground industry and also freelanced for Northern Light: Stage & Theatre Lighting company.

During that time, Clive also started a business of manufacturing line controllers.

Later, he built control systems and worked for PRG, BBC and Disney.

Captivated by the electronic revolution-

While growing up, Clive was familiar with only electromechanics but later, the electronic revolution happened which interested him to a great extent.

In the initial stages, he used to get alarmed with electronics because they used to accidentally go up in flames and were expensive, but this couldn’t affect his interest in electronics.

CMOS cookbook was Clive’s favourite book.

Love for programming-

At a young age, Clive developed a passion for programming.

He got his first computer, a ZX81, in 1981 and immediately started programming on it.

Clive also learned programming on a Heathkit system and evolved into microcontroller programming and Assembly Code.

He also owned many computers like ZX Spectrum, Sinclair QL and PCs.

His website & YouTube channel-

Clive was an early adopter of the internet and programmed his website, www.bigclive.com in lean HTML.

Around 2007, YouTube became his main mode of entertainment and he stopped watching television.

Clive used to enjoy watching the electronic channels and after he moved to the Isle of Man, he felt an obligation to start his YouTube channel to give back to YouTube by producing videos.

So, he started his YouTube channel, ‘bigclivedotcom‘ on 14 January 2007.

Later, Clive started focusing more on his YouTube channel rather than on his website.

As of December 2023, he has 1.01M subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Clive earns through advertisements on his YouTube videos and also accepts donations through Patreon and PayPal.

The story behind the ‘Big Clive’ name-

Initially, Clive wanted to register the clive.com domain name and build a website on it.

But to his disappointment, he found that the clive.com was cybersquatted and was being offered at an exorbitant price.

As everybody used to call him Big Clive, thanks to him being very tall (he is 6’4) and broad-shouldered, Clive registered the bigclive.com domain name and started his website.

His website became successful and later, he started his YouTube channel by the same name (bigclivedotcom), which also eventually became successful.

His favourite YouTube channels-

The following are Clive’s favourite YouTube channels-

• EEVblog
• Julian Ilett
• Connor Wolf
• jimmydiresta
• John Ward
• ElectroBOOM
• Techmoan
• Cody’sBLab
• South Main Auto Repair LLC
• Steve Summers
• LockPickingLawyer
• ashens.

Personal life-

Through Clive’s YouTube videos, he revealed that he is a gay.

He is single.

Clive resides in Ramsey, Isle of Man and has his workshop there.

Some interesting facts about Clive Mitchell-

• Clive is an ailurophile and loves walking long distances.
• He is nocturnal and loves vans. He owned many vans like Ford Escort Van, Ford Fiesta Van and a Ford Transit van.
• Clive loves Electronic dance music especially “Jack Your Body” music song by Steve “Silk” Hurley.
• He is a polyglot as he knows English and French.
• Clive travelled to Australia and the United States.
• He is a fan of the fighters, Big Show and Kimbo Slice.
• Clive loves lasers, and built his first laser, a helium–neon laser from scratch.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Clive Mitchell?

Share with me in the comment section below.