HOLLOW EARTH

Dave started playing drumsat the age of sixteen, after an abortive attempt at playing bass! His first band was a Heavy Rock/Metal Band called Gethsemane, which used to draw large crowdsto East Winch Village Hall who witnessed the 'Mars God of War intro to smoke bombs and strobe lighting!  (producing coughing fits and whilst playing with your eyes shut)  Next came a band named Middle Earth (strangely enough) which flirted with the more 'prog rock' side of the rock equation.  The band recorded one very expensive and hugely overproduced demo at Spacewood Studios then the singer left, the band stayed the same and re-recruited the Gethsemane singer to create 'Rhythmic Fridge'.

Rhythmic Fridge was characterised musically by its mix of Rock - Progressive, Heavy, Jazz - and Pop and visually by its use of an old American-style fridge, painted pink.  This band worked hard to perfect their music but lacked the necessary drive to do anything with it; this resulted in it stagnating, languishing and then dieing.  The keyboard player, the guitarist and Dave then moved to Norwich and started a band called The Herman Herd; a name that came from a radio presenter on the beginning of a stretched tape used for recording a rehearsal (Radio Presenter: '....and the herman heard').   "The Herd" worked together for several years experimenting with musical styles in various permutations, which resulted in an unerring ability to empty venues and get paid to: '...go away!' 

During this time, Dave started working for Community Music East, as a Community Musician, and was lucky enough to be exposed to the teaching and playing of a jazz drummer called John Stevens; this led him into an improvisational stage, which meant him playing in Blue Funk Free and Rhino and creating some truly noxious "solo projects".  The post-jazz years were filled with Dave's most succesful musical offering - a band called 'Basti'.  Basti were a combination of two bands The Herman Herd and Eva Valve; the latter being a group of ex art-school students who Dave met at CME.  Basti's first gig was one of the first put on by the campaign to build a venue in Norwich (later to be The Waterfront) and was playing support to Gay Bikers on Acid. The band went from strength to strength (record contract; management; tours; NME feature; even a widely publicised fight with The Inspiral Carpets) and seemed to be on its way to STARDOM.  However, Dave started to feel unhappy with the way the band was going - becoming too commercial- and decided to leave due to, (wait for it) "musical differences".  Dave then decided to do his own thing, and created several bands - Pig; Delta Radio; The DIY Vultures; The Young Britons - with two core musicians, who became his colleagues in his latest project The Improvement.

Dave says he joined Hollow Earth in order to fulfil a dream to play tunes by his favourite band Yes and to reacquaint himself with the musical fantasy that is "Progressive Rock"; he explained: 'When drummers play "Prog Rock" they can almost be mistaken for "real" musicians!' (mmmmm...).