Darlington Review -May 2018
My Place: Guitarist Dave Hole
Dave Hole plays with Blue Manna’s local musos at the pavilion opening — his first time on a Darlington stage (Photos: Lynne Dullard) His distinctive slide guitar style has seen him described as Australia’s best acoustic blues guitarist and we glimpsed the heat generated by his rousing live shows when Dave Hole appeared on a Darlington stage with other local musos at the launch of the Darlington Community Pavilion. Dave Hole tells a nice story about his very first public performance, aged 11, when he acted as MC for a Darlington Primary School concert at Darlington Hall. Given the job of introducing each act, he wrote a script that, in the flurry of the performance, no one thought to approve.
Over the next few years, he discovered the great bluesmen and tried to assimilate their styles, emulating those “crying and singing sounds that define the blues…” “How I found the time to do this is now a mystery to me because I also completed a physics degree, played a lot of gigs with the band and was hanging out generally!”
“So, on the night I was able to deliver a series of humorous barbs directed at fellow students and teachers alike.” His remarks in relation to teachers gave him considerable ‘street cred’ in the playground — “and my first taste of the power of being behind a mic!”
He also got married, handing over the job of chief breadwinner to Janet at a time when music had become all consuming. They moved to London, Dave saw his hero BB King at the Victoria Theatre, and The Times review made him realise that in the UK the blues were treated with respect, as a legitimate culture – “it was an affirmation that it was OK to keep pursuing my dream and developing my own style.”
His family migrated when he was four, moving into a house in Padbury Road, and when walking to Darlington Primary, “the songs I’d heard on the radio were running through my head. In my six-year-old mind they were my friends as I walked through the bush…”
Returning to Perth, his band played pubs and clubs, gaining invaluable experience and honing his craft. And when the band couldn’t find a singer, he stepped in.
Within a year he was hooked on Buddy Holly, Elvis and Marty Robbins and at 11, he became the proud owner of a gleaming Sunburst Spanish guitar. “Think of the excitement of your first shiny new bike and double it,” he recalls.
In 1982 Dave and Janet bought their Darlington home, but it took another eight years for his “best career move” — recording his first album in response to requests from fans.
However, he struggled with the instrument that ended up under his bed until the family moved to the city, he went to high school, was loaned an electric guitar and teamed up with other students to form a band.
“At the time a local studio was offering a good deal so I booked in my band for a three-day session, which was all I could afford,” he recalls. “We cut 16 tracks on day one, overdubbed a few vocals and started mixing on day two and finished the mixes on day three. The engineer was so impressed he encouraged me to put it on one of the very first CDs produced in Perth.
Introduced to a Muddy Waters song – “the raw power of Muddy in full flight hit us like the proverbial ton of bricks, weird and haunting at the same time. This was a man baring his very soul and expressing the most intense emotions on a primal level. We were instant converts and it set me on a musical journey that continues to this day.”
“On a whim I sent a copy to Guitar Player, the absolute bible to guitar players around the globe. I thought they might give me a paragraph somewhere at the back …”
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