David Stopp

David shares his birth date,13th March, with one of his heroes.. Neil Sedaka (though David is some few years younger!)

David wrote his first song aged thirteen, when his best pal Clive urged him to come up with some lyrics to a tune he kept humming so they could impress famous 60s disc jockey Alan (fluff) Freeman whose car they used to clean. It was a catchy tune and this is how it sounded: "da da da da da da da da da da" - Like it?

Influenced by the Kinks and the Beatles ... Neil Sedaka, David Bowie and Billy Joel, Noel Coward ... Chopin, Rodgers and Hammerstein ... Cole Porter and Irving Berlin,amongst others ... including Brian Wilson to name another few,

David started to hum his tunes into the old one track reel to reel tape recorder under his bed so as not to annoy his gran in the next room, to send off to up and coming publishers and record producers like EMI and George Martin. The replies were short and not too sweet: get a better tape recorder was one piece of thoughtful advice.

Then in 1970 David met Alec Gould one of the many collaborators who helped David hone his skills. They wrote three songs for Lois Lane out of the Caravelles and through Alec,

David met Bob Jackson.David wrote great lyrics to Bobs catchy tunes, one of which The New Seekers were about to release just before they spilt up in 1977. Via Bob, David met the great sound engineer Curly Clayton with whom he wrote a number of songs. Curly's claim to fame was that he (in his own words) had chucked the Rolling Stones out of his three-track(!?) studio in Highbury for being cr@p ... this was probably true.( that he chucked them out that is... Curly thought anyone who disagreed with him was c...p, bless him) Curly was an amazing musician and producer..a wasted talent who may have modelled himself on Phil Spector...Curly used to practice firing his gun in the alley outside the studio (so we are told!!), but despite his rudeness and filthy temper Curly was a great guy and a big influence on David's writing. Having been encouraged by the crazy genius Vivian Stanshall and mad drummer Keith Moon, David was inspired to compose his own music. I.P.S. studios in Shepherds Bush was where he met the clever sound engineer and producer Pete Mcgee who introduced him to many of the brilliant musicians he works with today.

David was bought up in North West London, and Hampstead Heath was where he often jumped out of his pram; Mixing with the likes of the sultry Annie Robinson and Peter Cook two famous Hampsteadites of the time was very inspiring to his inner child.. working with Ray Davies and Barry Mason encouraged David to become Geezer. Since the early noughties, David has also written some reggae style songs with Delroy Pinnock which hopefully will soon be released ,and also three great songs with Gill Warren which appear on his current album. David now lives in East London where he likes to occasionally suffer the skills of Leyton Orient! All-in-all, a career of stopps and starts - he is currently writing a musical and is also working on promoting a childrens horror story set to music.

Throughout the years David has worked in many professions as well as the music business. Starting off with a very brief smell (sic) in the army in 1967 he went on to spend many minutes in various jobs - advertising agencies, Covent Garden and Smithfield markets and the London Ambulance Service.

To coin a Manfred Mann phrase: Davey's on the road again!