David started formal music lessons on the piano when he was six, and continued under the tutalige of one Miss Hilda Salter for ten years until she fell ill, (and he discovered girls at the same time!) He started singing with a Skiffle Group about that time.
Yes - that was back in the days of Lonnie Donnegan, Tea Chest basses, Washboards, and Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos and Kazoos and all of which was in the late 1950s.
Some of his friends - all fellow scouts - had formed a group with a drummer, two guitars, and a banjo, and a singer (called Liam Looby) who knew just one verse of "Rock Island Line" and they used to practise in the church hall in West Hampstead after the scout meetings. He went home and asked his mother if there were any instruments in the house, and she produced a flat back Mandolin from an old trunk. That was it!!
He went to the music shop, had it strung, learned the chords and went to the next rehearsal carrying a washboard and some thimbles. and his Mandolin and told them that Drums were out, Mandolins were in and he knew the words to twenty songs - all verses.
And that is where is started!! They reformed as the "MORONS SKIFFLE GROUP" with David as lead singer.
The drummer set off to find another place to play. Some of you may recall "CLIFF RICHARD AND THE SHADOWS" and their drummer - TONY MEEHAN. He was the young man who had been booted out and who went on to find fame and fortune, while the Morons had a great time for two or three years then disbanded as they went off to University and other places of higher education.
Music went "On Hold" a bit after that. He used to go to parties and sing and entertain while at college, surrounded by long haired boys in flares, and girls in long dresses and flowers in their hair - but that was about it.
Then he married and raised a family until, in 1974, at a party with his guitar he was asked if he would like to think about joining a local choir.
Nothing venture, nothing gained, he said "Yes". A really life changing experience and he joined in 1974!! David heard his first Madrigal when he was about thirteen years old and so when he joined the DAMON SINGERS and heard a Madrigal - that was it.
The Damon Singers were a local choir of about 20 voices started in 1957. After a few years of singing with them, a small group was formed in 1980 to enter a local competition. They won a cup and that is how the "CONSORT" began life.
And that is David's CV - or rather more of a rambling musical history.
He is passionate about small A Cappella groups and that is why he now leads the ASHLEY CHORALE and the CONSORT