Question- What do record industry moguls David Foster and Trevor Horn have in common with Queen's bass player John Deacon and Whitesnake's guitarist Bernie Marsden?Answer- they all began their recording careers at a recording studio in a former factory in Kettering owned and run by Derek Tompkins.Derek was a radar technician in the Army in the 1940s. During the 1950s he worked as a television repair man. In around 1960 he took a drum kit in lieu of payment and taught himself ...

Dave has always been a bit of a scribbler, writing songs for his 1960s and 70s bands. He stepped up a gear in the 1990s, writing songs, poems, sermons and articles. Progress was slow, mainly down to his awful handwriting, but all that changed when he got his first word processor. A few years later he discovered the joys of blogging and much of this book began life in blog form. He is blessed (some may say cursed) with a memory that collects facts and anecdotes like a magnet attracts iron f...

Question- What do record industry mogul David Foster and record producers Trevor Horn and Max Norman have in common with Queen's bass player John Deacon, Whitesnake's guitarist Bernie Marsden and goth punk pioneers Bauhaus?Answer- they all began their recording careers at recording studios owned and run by Derek Tompkins.Derek was born in 1925 and trained as a radar technician in the Army in the 1940s. During the 1950s he worked as a television repair man, marrying Mavis Dobs...

Dave Clemo began playing music in the mid 1960s and spent the next fifty years untroubled by success, fame and riches. He is blessed with a memory that collects facts like a magnet attracts iron filings, and a restless nature that has led him to play almost every style of music from rock to pop, folk to country and punk to funk.This is Dave's third instalment of his musical story and begins in 1990 when his self imposed retirement from all things musical ended when he became a Chris...

I started writing this book twenty years ago. It begins in 1950s Cornwall. I was sent to Sunday School every week and loved it. I stopped going when we moved to London in 1962. I was thirteen. Apart from the time that an evangelist told me about Jesus and I prayed the prayer, I spent the next 20 years swearing to god I was an atheist.I became a Christian in 1990 and for the next fifteen years or so used my God-given musical talent to sing songs, preach and lead worship. By 2005 I wa...

The second volume of Dave's story carries on from 'Too Young for Rock and Roll' which ended in 1974 when he left London for a new life in Northampton.'Part rock history, part autobiography Dave's books can also be read as social studies as they also capture some of the seismic shifts that swept the country. In an age of power cuts, strikes and three day weeks it can't be overemphasised how music added colour to the leaden seventies. Just like you're sharing a drink with Dave 'Too Ol...

Dave's first home was a beach chalet in Cornwall. The plain wooden shack had none of the things we take for granted like electricity, sewage or water.Cornwall in the 1950s had no TV and only two BBC radio stations, so he had very limited exposure to popular music.He was seven when Elvis and Cliff Richard hit the charts.Ten years later he was living in West London, the epicentre of the underground music scene that shook the music business like an earthquake. He went to ...