A POET AND A MUSICIAN WALK INTO A BAR…
David Reid is a professional musician. A gifted composer and lyricist David and his band, The Contrast, have released eight critically acclaimed albums.
David has a particular talent for coupling lovely melodies with dark lyrics in a way that both surprises the listener and intensifies the emotional impact of a song.
David was born in Glasgow and, although his family relocated to the south of England when he was very young, he remains very much a Scot.
After four years at Art College – mostly spent hiding out in the local music library – David embarked on a full-time career in music. He started his own guitar teaching business and spent several years working as a session player/hired hand. In 1998, having worked on a hugely diverse range of ‘success-chasing’ projects, David decided to concentrate on his own material. He had realised that any kind of success would only be worth having if you actually liked and believed in what you were writing and playing.
Ron Graves grew up in the North East of England, in the mining town of Spennymoor, County Durham. He left school aged fifteen, having excelled at nothing. His English teachers noticed something, though, and generally allowed him to write about whatever he liked.
After leaving school, Ron worked in a hotel for three years. An historian who became his friend thought that reading ancient Roman and Greek literature, and writing poetry, meant Ron should get back into education. Ron’s parents agreed and he spent the next seven years as a student (‘Parasiting on Mam and Dad,’ he says) before becoming a student psychiatric nurse, ‘To find out what happened in the asylum.’ In total, Ron managed to be a student for ten years! Having grown up in the coalfield, it was maybe inevitable that Ron became a political and trades union activist.
His earlier writing, ‘Just lay around somewhere till I forgot about it,’ until he began a collaboration with David Reid.
