Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)

Subject: Obit: Dave Turner
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 12:18 PM

Although I did hear the news over the weekend this has just been passed to me via Nottingham Evening Post:-

Nottingham folk singer and comedian Dave Turner died on Saturday.
His son called in to let us know.
Last year he released an album called "Twials & Twibulations."
Some of Dave's work has been used by stars such as Jasper Carrot and Billy Connolly and Fred Wedlock

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 12:37 PM

Oh I'm sorry. He was a brilliant talent, and he should have achieved more.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: alanabit
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 05:02 PM

He was a very good guitarist and a very sharp comedian, with superb timing. He can't have been an old man either. Condolences to his family and friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 05:46 PM

A wonderful anarchic spirit, great performer and a good friend in times of trouble. I was walking past Robin Hood's statue only last week, and somebody had removed part of his bow. Again. First thought was of Dave and "Somebody Swiped His Arrow". May he come to his place in peace.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:06 PM

This wasn't by any chance the same Dave Turner who read mining engineering at Nottingham University probably 1969-72 was it?

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 04:50 AM

May he rest in peace. Condolences to his family.

He can't have been older than early to mid - 60s, surely ?

I had the privilege of MCing his gigs at MSG many years ago. A gifted musician with a very dry and subtle wit.

May he rest in the arms of the Great Mother, and know the smile and comfort of the All Father.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: GUEST,Old Town Mate
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 12:40 PM

Thanks for posting this, it might otherwise have been a long time before I found out. If the family are reading this, please accept my sincerest condolences. Dave was a true original, a lovely bloke and almost a gentleman sometimes.

Does anyone know how to get hold of the album?

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner
From: GUEST,Carol
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 10:50 AM

As you already know, Dave Turner has died, aged 66.

There will be a short funeral service at 9am on Monday 15 September at Wilford Hill, followed by a long wake at the Running Horse on Alfreton Road.

Many thanks to everyone who has already contacted me and sent photos.

Dave was a popular 'folk comedian extraordinaire' of the 60s and 70s, a friend and contemporary of Jake Thackeray, Fred Wedlock, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch, Anne Briggs, Billy Connolly and many more.

He supported some major bands of his era, including 'Spirit' and 'the Crazy World of Arthur Brown'. A brilliant self-taught guitarist and artist, he influenced many other musicians.
Later he ran 'folk, blues and beyond' at the Running Horse and at the Golden Fleece. He was still introducing acts at the 'Fleece' open mic night up until about 6 years ago. Sadly about 4 years ago he contracted shingles in his right arm and ,due to severe nerve damage, was unable to play the guitar again.

If anyone has any 'Dave Turner' stories to tell or photographs to show please contact me: [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 01:10 PM

Ah, one more from my youthful days has departed - a wonderful man!

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 08:39 PM

Dave Goulder was a friend of his, and he sang one of Dave's songs (The Lover of Lady Chatterley), at tonight's session.

JM

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST,Sarah in Newcastle
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 03:40 AM

Sad news...I remember him from the runner and the fleece open mic, was a legend..
REST IN PEACE..

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 10:20 AM

I remember him from my Nottingham days. Excellent guitarist, witty bloke. Sorry to see you go Dave. R I P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST,Carol
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 09:21 AM

Dave's funeral will be at Wilford Hill at 9am on Monday 15 September followed by a wake at the running horse on Alfreton Rd. I hope all Dave's friends and anyone with fond memories of Dave will come along.
There is a lasting tribute to Dave on the Nottm Evening Post website following the tribute in Friday night's post. There is also a Dave Turner tribute myspace at myspace.com/daveturnernottingham .

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 09:23 AM

Very sad to hear it. R.I.P.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST,old git
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 11:05 AM

Richard,
I think the Dave Turner you refer to is my brother.
He's been living in Canada for the last 25 years...still in the mining industry...but these days freelancing as a Health and safety consultant.
Sorry about the thread creep to those mourning the loss of the other Dave Turner.

geoff turner

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 01:21 PM

PM sent

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 07:43 AM

I saw him do a very funny floor spot at Nottingham Carrington.sad news,RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 05:04 AM

I've got to take a guitar in to be fixed at The Music Inn just along from the Running Horse - so I'll look in at the wake.

I never really knew him. Though our paths crossed a few times. The first time was maybe 1969. I was a student and someone said - theres a guy down the folk club selling drugs - he's got acid. so naturally I went. the college we were at, was sort of insular - we didn't go o the town folk club in the ordinary way of things.

Dave was doing a bizarre sort of act at the time. You could tell he had some nice moves on the guitar though. My chief memory of it was that it involved taking the piss out of Jimi Hendrix's sliding riff on The Wind Cries mary. We cornered Dave in the interval, bought a tab of acid out of a polythene bag. he had a bill of fare. The mescalin, I remember was a pretty purple. we paid him a quid and took half a tab each. I talked a lot and got very paranoid.

About five or six years later. I had a jug band (Juggerlugs) doing a residency at Tamworth Golf Club FC. We didn't book the acts. But Dave was booked. He was working with Joe Stead's Sweet Folk and Country agency and record label. And it was the first time I had really got to see his act - The Farting song ('Wottaboutahot waterbottleWibble?), Ban the Bow - the bizarre and brilliant guitar runs that seemed to lead nowhere in particular - but always came good. All delivered by this bewhiskered, balding chap slouched over an old Guild guitar - which was a curiosity in itself. The sides had about twenty splits in it, and it had obviously been glued back together - but it still sounded fine.

Downes and Beer were doing so well after Sweet Folk and Country had given them the impetus to become national figures on the scene - that I suppose I hoped for something of the kind for Dave. It was during that period I had a guitar built by Rob Armstrong, and Dave had been the best man at one of Rob's weddings. I suppose this must have in the days of the New Modern Idiot Grunt Band. rob told me loads of stories about Dave - how he'd lived in Canada, how he collected comics - long before the collecting of ephemera was fashionable.

I saw his act a few times more, but the one that performance that really sticks in my mind was a time in the 1980's in Long Eaton. I was full time in showbiz at the time, and I took a friend who was a comedian, Tich Cooper. Tich was blown away by the act. he said to me, that is the most brilliant appropriation of Rob Wilton's technique, I have ever seen. And once that pointed out to me - I could see it.

I don't want to get on my hobby horse again, but this is what tradition is really about. Its not simply digging up some old material and demanding respect from the great stupid masses. But to breathe life into a discarded technique so seamlessly that hardly anyone would realise. It takes talent and application.

After that I seemed to see Dave at various of my gigs. There was something about me that he liked, because he always left a Guinness for me behind the bar.

In the 1990's I used to do a gig in Bingham at the Moot House and his sister Kath and her husband used to come and see me. They hadn't seen Dave for years. I can't recollect seeing him play after that time in Long Eaton. I know he told me he was bitter about losing the residency at The Fleece.

Someone said he was living rough - he might have been from his appearance. I was in no real position financially to help him, and I didn't really know him that well. Every avenue I explored musically was turning to shite. When its like that, you just hang on and hope it gets better for yourself.

Anyway no one else seemed to be supplying memories of this very talented and entertaining man - so here are mine. fragmentary I'm afraid.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 05:54 AM

That is a really nice apolagia

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 06:03 AM

yeh I wonder if anyone will do as much for us, Richard. The only thing I've stipulated is that i don't want a funeral when I go, or a memorial concert celebrating my life or any of that crap.

people have the perfect opportunity to say nice things about me while I'm alive.   if they can't manage it now, bugger'em!

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST,John Glenn
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 01:49 PM

I was a regular at the folk club at "The News House" every Friday night in the sixties. Not a muscian, just a spectator but I remember Dave very well as a talented entertainer. I haven't been to a folk club in years, but whenever I see Billy Conelly or Jasper Carrot I wonder why Dave never got the same success, he certainly had as much talent.
I thought about him briefly last week and decided to look him up on the internet. Sadly I now know he is no longer with us, and feel the world is diminished not only by his passing but also by the fact that his potential was never fully realised.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 04:53 PM

I went to the wake, but I didn't know anybody there. There were pictures all round the pub of Dave in his younger days. much younger than when I first met him.

he had a lot of friends, and all around I could hear people saying they would miss him.

drank a guinness to his memory, and left without talking to anyone.
Someone was playing Dave eccentric versions of Down and Out Blues and the Banks of the Ohio.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Gurney
Date: 21 Sep 08 - 05:48 PM

Is this the Dave from Nottingham who used to write eccentric blues songs? I remember a talking blues about Noah (fast guitar, slow talking) and the trouble Noah had getting rid of animal excreta.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Sep 08 - 12:37 AM

And another song with the chorus:
"Working for the N.C.B., boys,
working for the N.C.B!"

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Sep 08 - 01:15 AM

yep - that's the man!

and then in 1492.......!

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Gurney
Date: 22 Sep 08 - 04:25 AM

Yeah, well, I haven't been to an English folk-club since 1974....


But give me marks for memory!

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 29 Dec 10 - 07:50 PM

christ just read all this, sad news indeed. My memories of personal contact are going round Dave's flat late on a cold winter's night 1969 and scoring a smoke to take back home to my bedsit on All Saint's St...RIP Dave x

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 08:13 AM

John Innes. Its 2014 and I have been trying to think of this blokes name for years. I saw him at Cellar Folk Birmingham in 1969 (Jasper Carrots' club in Selly Oak) thought Dave was really talented. I think he appeared on Midlands Today a few times. A great pity he didnt achieve the level his talent deserved. Did he ever issue a record?

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 09:27 AM

He did a song called The Perils of Percy Pilliwig?

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 10:03 AM

yes i think so with Joe Stead's sweet folk and country label.. joe would be the man to talk to. or maybe rob armstrong, the coventry luthier.

Subject: RE: Obit: Dave Turner (Nottingham, 6 Sept 2008)
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 13 Oct 14 - 10:22 AM

I must have missed this thread first time round and for that I apologise. I have now added Dave to the "In Memoriam" thread. My condolences to all who knew and love him.

RIP

Peter