David McCormack
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David McCormack is a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Australia, most well-known for fronting the Australian rock band Custard. He was born during the summer of 1968 in the Brisbane suburb of Kenmore. He attended the Ipswich Grammar School.
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[edit] Early Groups
McCormack started his musical career in Brisbane rock outfit Who's Gerald?. This was a band consisting of McCormack and fellow Ipswich Grammar School alumni Paul Medew and Glen Donald. They recruited Hungry Jack's burger-flipper Cathy Atthow to play drums. Who's Gerald? released a single named "Wrestle Wrestle/Gerald Is Stumbling Away Upon The Highway Of Life" and had a track called "Pins And Needles" included on the 1988 Youngblood compilation.
[edit] Custard
After the dissolution of Who's Gerald? McCormack formed Custard Gun in 1990. The band also featured Paul Medew, James Straker (The Melniks) and Shane Brunn (Hugbubble, Vanlustbader). After a few shows and line up changes (namely James being replaced Matthew Strong, who, as he worked at the Commonwealth Bank at Milton, Queensland, had enough money to contribute to the manufacture of a vinyl release), Custard Gun morphed into Custard. Custard existed for about a decade (albeit with a revolving line-up of drummers, including, but not limited to, Gavin Herrinberg, John Lowry and Glenn Thompson, later of The Go-Betweens). The band released five albums: Buttercup/Bedford, Wahooti Fandango, Wisenheimer, We Have the Technology and Loverama, a stack of EPs and singles and a greatest hits compilation entitled Goodbye Cruel World. A DVD video clip compilation called The Spaces By The Side Of The Road - A Digital History Of Custard remains unreleased.
Unbeknownst to most people outside Brisbane, David was also in a number of bands beside Custard during the 1990s. These bands formed in and around 52 Bradley Street, Spring Hill, Queensland. This was were Custard had their practice room. If a few people happened to be there at the same time, and some songs were played, then a new band was formed. Some of these bands included:
- COW - which stood for Country Or Western. Also featured Glenn Thompson (Custard/The Titanics/Go-Betweens) and producer extraordinaire Robert Moore, as well as about a dozen other people! COW released one CD, called Beard, in 1995. In 2006, Dave and Robert Moore collaborated on a new COW single called "The Chicken Dance" featuring Rob Hurst of Midnight Oil fame on drums. There were only 50 copies produced. They are hard to get.
- Calf - a COW side-project featuring only Dave and Robert Moore. They played a few acoustic gigs and, in a strange quirk of fate, released a limited edition single called "The Chicken Dance" in 2006 featuring Rob Hirst from Midnight Oil on drums.
- Frank 'n' Stein - which also featured Robert Moore and Dave's brother Dylan McCormack (of Biro, Gentle Ben & His Sensitive Side, and The Polaroids fame), amongst others.
- Adults Today - mostly a Glenn Thompson project, but Dave also played a few shows with them, along with Dylan McCormack, Trevor Ludlow (from The Melniks and Small Fantasy) and Nick Naughton (of Biro and Miami). The Custard super-hit "Music Is Crap" was originally an Adults Today tune.
- Robert Forster's (of The Go-Betweens) band - for the recording and touring of his Calling From A Country Phone album in 1994 with Robert Moore and Glenn Thompson.
- Computor - a collaboration between Dave and Robert Moore that was quite electronic sounding. Computor released a tape called Floppy Disk.
- Miami - with Maureen Hansen (Dave's girlfriend at the time), Nick Naughton and Paul Medew. Miami released two CDs: Costume of Sand and Feel the Seed (1998).
After the break-up of Custard in 2000, Dave formed The Titanics with Glenn Thompson, Emma Tom (journalist for The Australian newspaper, motorbike enthusiast and Dave's then wife) and Tina Havelock-Stevens. The Titanics released two albums: Size Isn't Everything and Love Is The Devil, in 2000.
[edit] The Modern Day Lover
Following the break up of The Titanics, Dave went solo. He released a CD of electronic doodling called The Matterhorn (2001). After that, Dave recruited a backing band called The Polaroids. David McCormack and The Polaroids have released two albums, Candy (2002) and The Truth About Love (2004) as well as a few singles and a DVD entitled Save Dave.
In November 2006, David assembled a band to perform a concert at the Tivoli in Brisbane as a tribute for the late Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens.
In early 2007, David then went into the studio to produce a tribute album to the Go-Betweens called "Write Your Adventures Down". Sony BMG released the album.
Dave has also managed to compose two film scores. Firstly he worked on Alex Proyas's gritty Sydney polemic Garage Days in 2002, and in 2006 Daniel Krieg's West.
