John David (born John David Williams, 19 January 1946, Cardiff, South Wales), is a Welsh musician and songwriter known equally for his work with Dave Edmunds and for his songwriting.[1]
He began his musical career playing drums in his father’s dance band Avalon. By 1968 he was playing bass guitar and sang backing vocals in Edmunds’ first major group, Love Sculpture, best remembered for their 1968 top five hit single "Sabre Dance". At that time he used the name John Williams.
After Love Sculpture split in 1970 he concentrated on studio and session work, songwriting and engineering. In 1978 his group Airwaves recorded an album and single New Day. The single, performed accapella, never reached the charts, but was played on radio at the time. A choral version was later recorded by the King's Singers.
Throughout the years he had maintained his involvement with Edmunds, appearing on the latter's No. 1 hit "I Hear You Knocking". After Edmunds’ group Rockpile disbanded in 1980, David returned to working with him, writing and co-writing several songs on Edmunds' subsequent solo albums, including Information (1983), Riff Raff (1984), and Closer to the Flame (1990), as well as contributing backing vocals, bass and other instruments.
At the same time he established a reputation as a songwriter for other artists. His first Top 10 success being "She Means Nothing To Me", a No. 9 hit for Phil Everly and Cliff Richard in 1983, on which he played lead guitar.[2] Further success came with "I Won't Run Away", recorded by Alvin Stardust and a No. 7 hit in 1984, followed by "Rollin' Home", "Red Sky", "I Didn't Mean It", "The Party Ain’t Over Yet", and "All That Counts Is Love", all hit singles for Status Quo.
He also built his own recording studio, Berry Hill, in the Forest of Dean, mainly to record his own song demos. In 1983 he released a solo single, "On The Mountain".