Dave was born in September 1948 in the North East of England. In 1962 he was attending Ashington Grammar School but his family moved house to Whitley Bay and Dave relocated to Whitley Grammar. He was already playing guitar but wasn't in a band and in 1963 he met Steve May who was also a guitarist so they began rehearsing a few Shadows instrumental numbers at Steve's house. By late 1964 Dave and Steve were playing with Johnny Claydon and Michael Robinson. Garry soon joined on drums and The Gravel Camp was formed. The Gravel Camp was active from late 1964 until the summer of 1965, when the individual members went their own ways.

Dave immediately began work as an apprentice panel beater at a garage in Holywell but continued to play guitar. However, he wasn't in a band at that time, but he and I, and sometimes Steve, would get together for a bit of fun and play a few songs. Around 1968 Dave started going out with his first wife Francis, who was the sister of a mutual friend called Len Bage. In 1969 Dave and Fran were married, later they had a son. Steve was Dave's best man and both Len and Garry attended the wedding. Around this time, Dave, Len and Francis had started a small folk band called The Tarriers, which worked in local pubs playing contemporary folk and local traditional songs. One of their regular gigs was at the Monkseaton Arms and they would draw a very good audience. Garry went to see them occasionally along with Johnny, who used to accompany them on bongos and bodhran, a traditional Irish drum. This band played for a year or so and got a nice following, but sadly after a couple of years of marriage, Dave and Francis separated and Dave stopped playing for a little while.

In 1972/73 Dave was playing guitar in a three piece band with just a drummer and a singer called Dave Breen. They would play the pop songs of the day and play in local social clubs, but Dave didn't enjoy just playing pop songs and decided to form a new band to do something different. He met a young aspiring bass guitarist called Garry Youll and together they started rehearsing rock and blues songs from bands like Free, Nazareth and The Groundhogs. In October, Garry Cosgrove, ex Gravel Camp drummer, was moving back to the North East after having been working in London for a couple of years and he joined the new band on drums. Now they were a power trio and called themselves Streetband. Dave at that time was the singer, but wanted to concentrate on his playing, so a guy called John Roper joined as the singer. Garry Youll was a budding songwriter, he wrote a couple of songs and wanted us to record them, so we set off to Mortonsound in Newcastle, where we did the recordings. By now Mortonsound had relocated to new premises in Carliol Square in Newcastle and the studios were rather more sophisticated than they were in 1965 when The Gravel Camp recorded Tell Me. When we recorded the songs, by coincidence our friends Michael and Brian Whickham were visiting their family from Canada, so Michael took some photos of us recording! For some reason, around this time the band changed its name to Midnight and these recordings were done using that name. The band then continued to play, but unfortunately as they were playing social clubs they didn't get many gigs. Folks just didn't want to hear the kind of songs they were doing, as they were getting more rocky and heavier. John decided he didn't want to carry on, so Dave called his old singer pal Dave Breen who joined the band and brought more of a pop sound to the band. Midnight got lots of gigs once he joined!

As often happens, the band ran its course. Dave had now met a lady, who was to become his second wife and he dropped out of the music scene all together and moved south for better work. He had two sons in this marriage and family and work took up all his spare time. In the mid 90's there was a Whitley Bay Grammar School reunion and Garry went along. Dave wasn't able to attend, but he sent a letter which was displayed on the notice board. Garry saw the address and was able to get back in touch with Dave after almost 20 years. One of Dave's sons was now attending Newcastle University. Dave and his wife had a flat in the area where their son lived and they could come to visit him, so Dave and Garry started to socialise again.

In 2000 we heard that Steve, who now lived in Canada, was coming to England to visit his daughter. Steve, Dave and Garry decided to meet up at Garry's business in Newcastle. The business was a post production business, so for fun they decided to re-record Tell Me in the sound studio there. They even made a video of the session along with checking out some of the old haunts where they lived, rehearsed and played. Dave then went back home in the south and Steve returned to Canada.

A few years later Dave and his wife divorced and Dave came back to the North East. In 2005 he married his old childhood sweetheart, who he had been going out with in the Gravel Camp days and he and his new wife moved to Kelso in Northumberland. This time Garry was his best man! By now Dave was becoming sick and wasn't able to play music anymore, but Garry used to visit him occasionally and spend nice days just talking and laughing about the old days! Sadly Dave died in 2013. Garry spent a poignant day in Whitley Bay with his family scattering his ashes in the North Sea around the places he used to love to go to when he was young.

Dave was a very good guitar player, who could play a number of styles. The first guitar he had was a big old acoustic given to him by his father, who could play a few tunes and showed Dave a few chords to get him started. Then one day in 1964 Dave went up to Newcastle and came back to Whitley Bay with his first electric guitar, which was a Futurama 2. The other Gravel Campers were waiting for him at Steve's place and saw him walking along the street with his guitar case, so we ran out to meet him. He opened the case right there in the street to show us his new guitar! It was beautiful! It was red and had a white pick guard. I thought it was the greatest guitar I had ever seen. Later when we played in Midnight, Dave had traded in the Futurama for a lovely Fender Telecaster, but he would often say that he wished he still had his first electric guitar!

I knew Dave off and on for 60 years. He was a great person, a true friend and is a big miss.

from left: Garry, Robbie, Dave, Steve, Johnny

Dave’s wedding: Dave, Dave’s bride, Best Man Steve (from left)

Garry being best man at Dave's wedding, 2006

Dave O’Donnell (guitar)

Steve May (guitar)

Johnny Claydon (vocals)