Dave

Born in 1962. Don`t remember England winning the World Cup but remember watching the first moon landing on TV with me Dad when I was 6!My interest in Rock music started at school when I was heavily into Led Zeppelin, Yes, Genesis, ACDC, Quo, Sabbath, Priest, Purple etc and then later, Saxon, Maiden and all the newcomers. I was at the first Castle Donington Monsters of Rock fesival in 1980? and got blown to smithereens by the whole event!!By then I had been drumming in 2 bands. From an early age I had been drumming to Genesis and Zep tracks with wooden spoons on the arm of the settee! and then, when I was 15, I decided to buy a drum kit. I washed up at Smithills Coaching House Restaurant that Summer to earn some cash and bought a tiny kit from an old guy who had advertised in the paper. It cost £30! A snare (a good one - Premier wooden snare)one cymbal, a bass drum and a tiny mounted tom.I joined a band called `Alf Tupper`s Electric Nightmare` and did my first ever gig at St Osmonds Youth Club on Long Lane, Breightmet. I was hooked - big time! The audience consisted of 14 - 16 year old boys and girls. We made no attempt to dumb down the set list and played Exerpts from `Dark Side of the Moon` as well as Thin Lizzy and Sabbath!! They were bemused, but.....THEY CLAPPED!! Hooked!I then formed my own band, `HGV` soon to be renamed `Rapid Fire` and had 2 great years of thrashing out UFO, Priest, Sabbath as well as a good proportion of our own songs. I was writing songs by this time - not very good ones however - but I still have the demos! Typical lyric: "We gotta climb into the sky, we gotta send our spirits high.." ha ha!University beckoned and up to Lancaster I went. I had been singing backing vocals with Rapid Fire so, when I started looking for a band at the Uni to join, I wasn`t bothered whether it would be drums or vocals. I had taken my kit with me just in case (by this time, a new Pearl `Maxwin` kit!)I joined `Bashful Alley` as their frontman. Extremely daunting! The Bashfuls wrote their own stuff and knew what they were doing and I ended up, just a few weeks later (bearing in mind that I had done a handful of gigs in Bolton, as a drummer, to not many people) headlining Lancaster`s Great Hall in front of a thousand people!That year of 1980/81 seemed to last forever. Fantastic! We also supported `The Sweet` which was surreal as they had been one of my fave bands in the 70`s. I had fallen in love with the whole thing. Rob Tidd who was the guitarist in that band remains a friend to this day.The other lads in the band were 3rd years, so after my first year, they left and continued the band down in Lichfield, with Rob taking over the vocals. Incidentally, a German label recently picked up on a load of old demos that we did and has released them on CD!! My voice was a lot different then. I would describe it as crap.I started from scratch. I was heavily into Rush by this stage so I bought a bass guitar, taught myself quickly to play, and formed a 3 piece originals band called `Harbinger`. Then came a hugely creative couple of years. I wrote epic, progressive, Rush type songs with my new mate and guitarist Matthew `Beaker` Douglas. Some of them were good. One was called `The Eve of Saint Agnes` (what? pretentious? Moi?) We quickly became an excellent, tight, live unit, playing our own quite complex songs. The Uni TV station did a documentary on us. I would LOVE to see that again!!But again, the end of our studies and the academic year sent Bill (drummer), Beaker and myself in different directions. I took a year off and got my first office job (AAAAARGH!) but the addiction could not be ignored. Bill had gone back to his native London, so, after a year of wearing a tie and saying yes sir no sir, I was off! I sold my motorbike and went to London to hook back up with Bill with nowhere to live, no job and £200 in my pocket!We ditched the `Harbinger` name, called ourselves `Bronx` and went for a more modern sound. By this time, American Rock was huge. Bryan Adams, Foreigner, Huey Lewis, REO speedwagon et al were storming the charts, and we made a decision to write more commercial, American sounding stuff. Again, some of it was pretty good - but not all!!During this time, One of my songs, `Knockin on the door of Love` (told you we had gone all American) found its way onto a compilation Album. The only time I`ve ever got onto vinyl. I also got a management deal as a solo artist!! I made one demo with this guy (a cover of Don Henley`s "All She Wants to do is Dance") but it got nowhere. It was time to abandon the London adventure.I parted ways with Bill and returned to Bolton. I formed a new band under the old name of `Bronx` and we had a couple of years doing increasingly good original stuff. I was writing good songs by this time, but, as always seemed to be the case, the band broke up just when we were getting really good. In my opinion, we could`ve got a deal and had some success but we blew it.I formed another band to play some of the more Rock n Blues type stuff I was now writing, but it was a short lived thing. By now I was tired and couldn`t be bothered continually starting from scratch with new musicians and with all the endless rehearsals etc!I then sold out disgracefully for a couple of years! First, playing bass and singing with a Country n Western band and then 2 years as bassist with a cabaret / golf club type of band doing Frank Sinatra and Rod Stewart songs!! I had to wear a red waistcoat and a black bow tie!! My soul was destroyed, but the money was VERY good!Then it was time for a break. I didn`t do anything for a year or so. But it wasn`t long before the nostrils started twitching and the old addiction came to the fore again! I wandered into HW Audio Music store in Bolton to look at the musician ads on the board. `Singer wanted for Heavy covers band, ACDC, Zeppelin etc`. This was my first love. I didn`t care about writing songs and `making it` any more - I wanted screaming audiences and to play all the songs I love! So...I auditioned. This time with my loudest, highest, screaming voice that I had always wanted to use after all those years of Robert Plant and Bon Scott and the hairbrush in front of the bedroom mirror!!We gelled. We chose the name `Riff Raff` and the rest is history. That was nearly 10 years ago!! We`ve been rocking audiences all over the North for all that time.So I never made millions - so I never got famous - who gives a...wait..The lads in Riff Raff are talking about writing and recording some original material!Do I get one last shot....?Yours Rockingly Dave