Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Tom Jones... Leigh bassist Dave Bronze has played with them all. He chats to Kelly Buckley ahead of his gig with Andy Fairweather Low and the Low Riders, at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff.

EVEN Dave Bronze himself – who says he was a late starter and came from a non-musical family – looks back upon his remarkable career with a mixture of gratitude and astonishment.

He says: “I had absolutely no intention of pursuing a career in music as a young man – I never thought about it.

“I do look back now and think it is astonishing that it’s got to what it has. I suppose as my career took off, it all happened very naturally.

“I was always very pleased to be asked to play by well-known people, but hand on heart, I think I’ve been extremely lucky, meeting some key people at some key times which opened doors.”

Dave, 61 from Leigh, says his story began in his teens when he lived in Basildon.

“It was the latter days when I was at Barstable School and someone said they needed a bass player.

“I said, ‘I don’t play and I don’t have a bass’, so my friend said, ‘I’ll lend you a bass’ and that was that.”

A blues band was formed, which didn’t gig, and Dave doesn’t think ever had a name.

He says: “It was just kids in a classroom re-hearsing. I played harmonica too. We never went anywhere, but it gave me a hobby.”

Dave went on to play in covers bands, all the while going down the route of getting a job as a medical technician and starting a family.

Years later, he was asked to join a professional band, and thanks to the encouragement of a clearly very supportive wife, Dave took a leap of faith and joined.

“I had a career and a family and was in my mid twenties, so I wasn’t sure about it. But my wife said ‘you have to give it a shot or you’ll always wonder what would have happened’. She told me to take a year out from work, so I did. It was 1976.”

The band didn’t last very long, but Dave started to get lots of session work, also playing on tunes for ads, jingles and film soundtracks.

He says: “I wasn’t making 100 per cent the income required, so I was working as a guitar tech in a local music shop too. Then the music gradually took over and by the early Eighties I was fully employed, meeting different people at each job, and it spread like a virus. The more work I did, the more I got and it progressed and progressed, until I ended up playing with the likes of Eric Clapton.”

Over three decades Dave has appeared, on record or on stage, alongside such household names as Belinda Carlisle, Roger Daltrey, Bo Diddley, Duane Eddy, Dr Feelgood and Bryan Ferry. He played alongside Clapton in the Live in Hyde Park concert, and the multi-platinum, Grammy award-winning tribute to George Harrison, Concert For George.

It is perhaps a credit to his pleasant nature, as well as his undeniable talent, that Dave has worked with so many credible people.

But he says it is working with his longstanding friend Andy Fairweather, that brings him most joy.

Dave explains: “We go back a long way and have worked on various projects.”

“He was in Eric’s [Clapton] band at the same time as me and we’ve been friends for a long time – all of us in the band are good friends.

“As well as being a bunch of mates who have a good time, musically it is easily the best band I’ve been in. Everyone listens to everyone else and we are all very focused musically – it just works.”

Andy Fairweather Low
and the Low Riders,
Palace Theatre, Westcliff.
Saturday, 8pm
Tickets from £19, from southendtheatres.org.uk
or call 01702