Influenced heavily at a young age by his older brother Bernie, Dave realised very early on that music was to become the main passion in his life. "The first time I heard the opening to Whole Lotta Love by Zeppelin it totally changed my life, I was completely hooked, I wanted to be able to do whatever it was I was hearing."
Dave started playing guitar at the age of twelve, struggling by himself, but determined. He was soaking up all the music he could, listening to Alan 'Fluff' Freeman's Saturday afternoon Radio 1 show with his brother to the likes of The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and Free.
Free, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Mountain and UFO would become his favourite rock bands and Mozart his favourite composer.
"My Nana bought me my first guitar for my 12th birthday, and the following Christmas my Mother and Father, persuaded by my constant whining, bought me my first electric guitar, a CSL Sunburst Les Paul copy which I still possess. This guitar became my pride and joy, and I took it everywhere with me"
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.
To date Dave has released the two albums with Nobody's Fool, the three with UUFO and seventeen solo albums. With a return to the stage and more projects than ever before, including the recording (in 2015) and a tour in 2016 with Paul Raymond Project.
During Covid Dave recorded Nothing Is As It Seems with Lee Small, which was released receiving critical acclaim. 2024 should see the second release by Dave and Lee, as yet untitled.
Dave has been involved with music projects that include:
Paul Raymond (Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, UFO, MSG, Waysted & PRP)
Lee Small (Shy, Phenomena, Lionheart, Sweet)
Graham Bonnet (Rainbow, Alcatrazz, MSG, Impelliteri, Graham Bonnet Band)
Stephen Pearcy (Ratt)
Vinnie Moore (Solo, Alice Cooper, UFO, Red Zone Rider)
Rob De Luca (Spead Eagle, Sebastian Bach Band, UFO)