David Baynton-Power

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Dave Baynton-Power was the drummer of the long existing English band James from 1989 - 2002.

In his youth, when his family moved to Holyhead, Dave was what he describes as a "tearaway". Out of the 2000 pupils at his school, Baynton-Power had the worst attendance, and he found that in Holyhead there was nothing to do bar playing music.

Prog Rock was his first real venture into playing drums, but became a huge fan of Punk music when it arrived, and became a part of the New Wave movement with his first real band The Modernaires. They played some decent sized gigs for a new band, but they soon split after moving to Chester as their vocalist, who was schizophrenic, took a strange turn and announced he was leaving.

They soon re-formed with a new singer however, as they realised that, with the arrival of the Welsh language TV Station S4C, if they changed the lyrics of their songs from English to Welsh they could make some profit. They changed their name to Brodyr Y Ffin (welsh for Brothers On The Border) as their house in Chester was right on the Anglo-Welsh border, and quickly rose to the top of the Welsh scene, staying their for a few years doing TV and even bigger gigs than before.

However, their existence came to an abrupt end with a massive house fire, which resulted in the death of one of their members.

Not too long after that though, Baynton-Power was linked to James through another band's keyboardist, who was friends with Andy Dodd - Dodd initially booked all the bands at Band On The Wall in Manchester. Andy suggested Dave as a replacement for James previous drummer Gavan Whelan, when he heard they were on the lookout back in 1989.

Tim Booth had a clairvoyant who said there would be a Dave from Wales. So when Baynton-Power was reluctant to go for a James audition, Booth wouldn't take no for an answer. Eventually they paid for a van and all the costs that it would take to bring Dave down from Wales. After the audition, the members of James later described how "He was streets ahead of everyone we'd had in", and said that his drumming was very "solid and powerful", happy that he'd mastered all of Gavan Whelan's drum parts.

Dave endured the long road, remaining in James through from 1989 to the final tour. He has also played a big part in the production side of the later James albums, through from Whiplash onwards, and some would argue that he was the main reason for the band finishing Whiplash.

Since 2002 Dave has toured with Welsh punk rockers The Alarm, spent much time with his family, and is also now, as confirmed in the 2006 Q article, working as a freelance Sound Engineer in Television.