A native of deepest Birmingham, Reverend Dave started his bass playing career in hippy garage band Pangolin & the Fruit Bat, before moving on to more mainstream rock and to jam sessions that made Grateful Dead sound shorter than The Ramones. He played with the midlands rhythm & blues five-piece Mr Downchild – a time when he claims to have urinated with Sonny Terry and almost talked Brownie McGhee into sharing his whisky. He has played in various soul and freakbeat bands as well as with the politically motivated six-piece The Jump-Jive-Rhythm-Five. He ventured unwittingly into the world of written bass parts with Open Secret despite not being able to read and his stay with the lesbian funk band Khaos was short lived not only for the obvious reasons. He also plays with poprocksouledelica outfit The Fire Llamas. And he can legally conduct weddings in Las Vegas.