User:David R Merry

David was born in Ballykinlair, Northern Ireland in 1964 whilst his Father was on active service with the British Army. His Parents moved back to Harold Hill, Essex, England when He was 1.

Soon after, the family moved to Mardyke Estate in Rainham Essex. Davids Father worked for 3 seasons at the Romford Brewery Company as a driver/drayman until finding a full time position as a heavy goods driver at Tate & Lyle`s Thames refinary in Silvertown. His Mother worked 3 part time jobs at the same time: Telephone Cables-Chequers Lane, Chloride Batteries-Chequers Lane & at Davids junior School "Newtons" as a play ground assistant, and on her days off, temporary duties at the local "Spars" shop. David was aged 10, when his parents relocated for the last time to the Romford area, near to the dog track.

David and his sister attended their final years of education at Pettits Lane School, and Marshalls Park Upper School. During those years, David became good friends with Robert Kendal Chapman, who by 1979 had become band member, and co-songwriter with David on many musical recording projects and live performances (gigs)

David & Robert formed their first band “Kingston” writing original material together whilst still at school and aged only 14. The band did several local gigs over the following years including school functions and a one off Rock & Roll gig at the “Parkside” public house on Davids 17th birthday, on May 28th 1981.

David joined other bands when Robert went off to St Martins Collage for art. Firstly "The Outer Limits" psychobilly trio in the East Ham area of East London in 1981-1982 as their lead guitarist and vocalist, peformed one gig only, at the Cock Hotel on the Broadway at East Ham. Then joined "The Blue Notes" of Hackney near to Homerton hospital in 1983. Again only one gig was ever performed by the band, this time at "The Juke Joint" in Dalston, East London in July 1983.

David gave music a wide birth for the next 4 years, having got married to Paula, and at that point having 2 children. In 1987 He joined the Indie band "First Quarter" He Decided to drive to his local recording studio and take a look at the music boards/adverts for musicians wanted one evening. He was only there for about five minutes, when an old schoolfriends brother named Martin, walked past behind him whilst he was reading the adverts, Martin suggested that he should come and listen to his band rehearsing in room seven, as they were quite good! He took up the invite, liked what he heard, and joined the band that night as their singer. At that time, they were still named: "The Box" ................ FIRST QUARTER were a Romford based band consisting of four members: The Bourne Brothers, Steven on bass & Martin on lead guitar, Robert Lewis on drums, and David R Merry on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. On the rare occasion that backing vocals were needed, Martin supplied these too. FIRST QUARTER had a little record company interest from "Spartan Records" of Wembley in North London, because of their Manager Robin..s connections within that company! He worked in "Spartans" A&R department, and plugged the hell out of his band, as you would imagine! However, before anything had a chance to develop on the fame front, David had a falling out with Robin one night at the end of a rehearsal, it seemed Robin wasnt pleased with the bands efforts! David never mentioned this to the rest of the band, but instead decided to leave that night after only 12 months of being with them! ....... Rob stayed in touch with David for six months or so, and asked several times for David to rejoin the band, but he always answered with no, and carried on with his truck driving, vowing to never be in a band again! Rob joined a band called "POLCOS" shortly after his last visit with David, and headed off for a mini-tour of Europe, Martin joined the same band as their lead guitarist, and that was the last time they all saw eachother!

At his home in Harold Hill, that he shared with His Wife, and now 3 Children, David occasionally Had his original band member "Robert Chapman" come over for singer/sonwriting evenings, Robert used to leave His semi acoustic guitar there, until one evening David explained that His children were tampering with it in interest, so for safety`s sake, would he mind taking it home in future until He next visited. They never met up again, David assumed Robert had misconstrued his genuine concerns as boredom!

David moved his Family to North Romford in 1993, and became a house husband, and full time parent/carer to his now, 4 children. His wife Paula had taken up college full time, training in hairdressing. She qualified and started working in a near by salon in 1995. David formed FIRMAMENT in the early part of 1995, with founder members: "David R Merry" as rhythm guitarist/vocalist, and "Andrew M Bristow" as lead guitarist. Both members set about co-writing an albums worth of Blues Rock songs together at Davids home, before ever recruiting a bass player or drummer. When the collection of songs were completed, and logged onto audio tape as a set-list demo, the pair then began to audition for the other 2 members. By the beginning of 1996 rehearsals had begun, with Stephen Grant on percussion/drums, and Martin (Chip) Chapman on the bass guitar. They rehearsed together in many local studios until performing at their first gig almost one year later, at "The Standard E17" on November 1st 1996 supporting "PHIL HILBOURNE". Their second and last gig was performed at that same venue, one month later on Christmas Eve, supporting a "Greatful Dead" covers band! .......during 1997-2000 Andy and Dave continued to co-write together after the bands split at the Christmas Eve gig in 1996! By now David had purchased digital recording equiptment, and located his home studio into the attic space. The duo wrote and recorded another 8 tracks together.

in 2000, David made a career change, joining several television agencies as a background artiste (extra), appearing in many shows such as EastEnders, The Bill, Waking The Dead, etc (appearance listings on UKscreen.com)

He progressed onto featured appearances in Movie and Television productions, usually acting out small part speaking roles, such as gangsters/vilians/prisoners .... Also taking part in several photographic shoots, television adverts, and idents for Sky Television.

David continues to contribute to the film industry on a part time basis on his rest days from HGV driving. If he`s not recording footage with a production company, youll find him at his home digital recording studio producing his own original musical pieces.