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At his 'O' level music exam, whilst
everyone in the class was allowed to
play whatever piece they wanted, his
teacher said he had to play Greensleeves.
This he did, and so moved were the examiner
and teacher by his performance, (yes...)
they requested that he play it once
more. Dave says he just felt totally
embarrassed and hated the piece with
a passion and only recently can he bear
to play or listen to that piece again!
"Since
leaving school I have spent all my time
(and money!) on pursuing music in any
shape or form, including writing, recording,
teaching and my favourite - playing
live. Years of working in the North-East
of England's pub and club circuit gave
me an ability to entertain and communicate
with an audience. If you don't learn
that here you'll have a very short career!!
It also gave me a bit of a reputation
for being a little better/different
than the norm, utilizing every trick
in the book; playing the guitar with
my teeth, behind my head, with a violin
bow, cordless drill - anything to get
noticed, really! This led to joining
a band called Nobody's Fool
for five years, and then forming UUFO,
and also treading a solo path which
I love as it means I have no compromising
to do, I play/write/record whatever
I want, and that brings a great sense
of freedom."
Dave
met Ritchie at the 1998 Stormin'
The Castle biker's rally in
Durham, "Ritchie's band walked
on stage as the opening act with suits
on and belted it out like they were
headlining. I was knocked out by Ritchie's
vocals and stage presence. We struck
up a rapport straight away and became
good friends pretty soon. I was already
planning to record an album of original
material, which wasn't in our singer's
agenda at the time, so I approached
Ritchie to do the album and fortunately
he said yes".
Nobody's
Fool put together two albums
- the first, although untitled, was
known as Little Black Dress
and was recorded in just 30
hours and released on 1st April 1999,
and the second Turn Another
Page was never officially released
due to internal wrangles. The band fell
apart in late 2000. However, in November
1999 they did appear in Future Publications'
Undiscovered Originals
competition held at Wembley IECC. The
first leg of the competition turned
out to be the first gig with the new
line-up! The Wembley gig was on Saturday
27th November. The following morning
Dave performed Odyssey
from the Little Black Dress
album at the Guitarist
Of The Year competition. "I'd
never do that again - it reminded me
too much of my 'O' level exam!"
In 2002,
after Dave's marriage break-up and his
brother Bernie's tragic passing, Dave
quit working the live circuit - even
struggling to pick up his guitar. It
took him until late 2003 to start up
again, and so began his solo career
where he was able to be in full control
of all aspects - creating the music,
recording it, and designing the artwork.
Jump forward
to Autumn 2004, and one day Ritchie
called Dave up and suggested recording
a mini acoustic album of UFO’s
ballads. This would be purely self-indulgent,
something for themselves only to listen
to. However, before long Dave had recorded
enough tracks to do a full album. This
is the Night Bars And Guitars
album.
They then
decided to record another album - this
one would reflect the live set they
did as UUFO. This album,
entitled Close Encounters
was released in October 2005.
A third
album is also planned - this one will
be from the Chapman and Schenker reunion
eras. Meanwhile, Dave continues to write
and record albums for those who wish
to hear them.
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