Born David Daverne to conservative Hutt Valley parents in 1936, legend has it that “Dangerous” Dave first donned the flannel and took up the acoustic guitar in the early 1950s. Success and semi-stardom in rural and regional Aotearoa soon followed, thanks to Dave’s knack for stomp-clap rhythms and ability to pen lyrics that reflected the no-nonsense sensibilities of a working man.
Nowadays these four rootin’ tootin’ legends are seldom spotted in the wild, but rumour is you can catch a sneak peak of them in their natural habitat down at the Bowls Club on a Saturday afternoon with a Brown Bomber in hand, or even more rarely at Sports Bar on a Friday night crooning the Clarence Carter classics.
Newtown Fest punters can expect a set of Dangerous Dave standards from across his storied career, ranging from hits like “Justify the Jug” (1981) and “Stickin’ Up The Saloon” (1975), to early career highlights like 1961’s “Pound That Coffin Nail” – and even 2005’s “Rover, Get Out the Hoedown!”, incorrectly thought for many years to be a posthumous single prior to Dangerous Dave’s shock return from a nomadic life abroad.
