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Singer,
Writer, Musician
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David
shares his birth date,13th March, with one of his heroes..
Neil Sedaka (though David is some few years younger!)
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David
wrote his first song aged thirteen, when his best pal Clive urged
him to come up with some lyrics to a tune he kept humming so they
could impress famous 60s disc jockey Alan (fluff) Freeman whose car
they used to clean. It was a catchy tune and this is how it sounded:
"da da da da da da da da da da" - Like it?
Influenced
by the Kinks and the Beatles ... Neil Sedaka, David Bowie and Billy
Joel, Noel Coward ... Chopin, Rodgers and Hammerstein ... Cole Porter
and Irving Berlin,amongst others ... including Brian Wilson to name
another few,
David
started to hum his tunes into the old one track reel to reel tape
recorder under his bed so as not to annoy his gran in the next room,
to send off to up and coming publishers and record producers like
EMI and George Martin. The replies were short and not too sweet: get
a better tape recorder was one piece of thoughtful advice.
Then
in 1970 David met Alec Gould one of the many collaborators who helped
David hone his skills. They wrote three songs for Lois Lane out of
the Caravelles and through Alec,
David
met Bob Jackson.David wrote great lyrics to Bobs catchy tunes, one
of which The New Seekers were about to release just before they spilt
up in 1977. Via Bob, David met the great sound engineer Curly Clayton
with whom he wrote a number of songs. Curly's claim to fame was that
he (in his own words) had chucked the Rolling Stones out of his three-track(!?)
studio in Highbury for being cr@p ... this was probably true.( that
he chucked them out that is... Curly thought anyone who disagreed
with him was c...p, bless him) Curly was an amazing musician and producer..a
wasted talent who may have modelled himself on Phil Spector...Curly
used to practice firing his gun in the alley outside the studio (so
we are told!!), but despite his rudeness and filthy temper Curly was
a great guy and a big influence on David's writing. Having been encouraged
by the crazy genius Vivian Stanshall and mad drummer Keith Moon, David
was inspired to compose his own music. I.P.S. studios in Shepherds
Bush was where he met the clever sound engineer and producer Pete
Mcgee who introduced him to many of the brilliant musicians he works
with today.
David
was bought up in North West London, and Hampstead Heath was where
he often jumped out of his pram; Mixing with the likes of the sultry
Annie Robinson and Peter Cook two famous Hampsteadites of the time
was very inspiring to his inner child.. working with Ray Davies and
Barry Mason encouraged David to become Geezer. Since the early noughties,
David has also written some reggae style songs with Delroy Pinnock
which hopefully will soon be released ,and also three great songs
with Gill Warren which appear on his current album. David now lives
in East London where he likes to occasionally suffer the skills of
Leyton Orient! All-in-all, a career of stopps and starts - he is currently
writing a musical and is also working on promoting a childrens horror
story set to music.
Throughout
the years David has worked in many professions as well as the music
business. Starting off with a very brief smell (sic) in the army in
1967 he went on to spend many minutes in various jobs - advertising
agencies, Covent Garden and Smithfield markets and the London Ambulance
Service.
To
coin a Manfred Mann phrase: Davey's on the road again!