Rockin Dave (1957 - 2016)
This amazing Great British Rock & Roller, Boogie Woogie pianist, singer, composer, arranger and showman created an electric atmosphere everywhere he performed, from Hong Kong to Russia, from Finland to the Philippines, with his extraordinary, custom built Rockin' Piano and magnificent Show Band!
Rockin Dave entertained ecstatic audiences worldwide for more than 40 years and was not named the Acrobat Pianist without good reason! The stage show consisted of Jump Jive, Rhythm*n*Blues and1950s Rock*n*Roll, including some of Rockin Dave's self-penned material. Rockin' Dave was renowned for his inimitable piano playing technique and an electrifying Swing Jive & Boogie Woogie beat.
Rockin Dave built an amazing musical career, performing at a variety of top venues worldwide, ranging from private parties on the English society party circuit to the Cannes Film Festival - playing his custom-built piano to the likes of Austin Powers, Steven Spielberg, Sir Richard Branson, Charles Bronson and Val Kilmer, and headlined a large outdoor festival in Barcelona, with an audience of more than 300,000.
Rockin Dave passed away on 1 May 2016 in the Philippines, after seven months of gradually advancing illness. He was a remarkable character and musically very talented, with his own special sense of twisted humour. He completed these memoirs over the final five years of his life.
“It’s nice not to have to travel around the world anymore and instead the audience comes to see me now. It’s a fitting epitaph,” stated Rockin Dave in 2012, just before going on stage at his own Midnight Rock club in Angeles City.
Rockin Dave was cremated and his ashes rest in the Mt Pinatubo volcano crater lake, Philippines, scattered there on a flypass from a light aircraft, as it was always his wish to make a skydive into the lake.
The legacy lives on.