David McWilliams

David Samuel McWilliams (4 July 1945 – 8 January 2002) was a singer, songwriter and guitarist from Northern Ireland, best known for his 1967 song "Days of Pearly Spencer".
McWilliams was born in the Cregagh area of Belfast and moved to Ballymena at the age of three. He began playing guitar and writing songs in his early teens. After leaving Ballymena Technical College in 1963, he started an apprenticeship at the Shorts missile factory in Antrim, and also started a local dance band, the Coral Showband. He was a well-respected football player, and had a trial with Linfield as a goalkeeper.
He recorded a demo of some of his own songs, which was heard by music industry entrepreneur Phil Solomon, who had previously managed The Bachelors and Van Morrison's band Them and also had close business ties with Ronan O'Rahilly's pirate radio station Radio Caroline. Solomon convinced close friend and well established songwriter Dominic Behan to take McWilliams under his wing to the point that McWilliams moved into the Behan family home in West London, an environment within which he was able to focus on songwriting; the impact of Behan's influence is difficult to determine but, it can be seen that McWilliams' live performances became much more self-assured, a key to future success. Following a period of five months in Behan's household, Solomon was able to negotiate a contract with CBS Records, which released his first, unsuccessful single "God and My Country" in 1966, before signing McWilliams to his own new Major Minor label. McWilliams and Behan were to remain close friends until the death of Dominic Behan in 1989.
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==Links to Peel==
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David McWilliams was managed by Phil Solomon, owner of Dublin-based Major Minor Records and also a director of offshore pirate radio station Radio Caroline. Because of this, McWilliams' early records, like other records on Major Minor, were played heavily on the station, although the rival pirate stations ignored them and none of them made the charts.
In October 1967, the single "The Days of Pearly Spencer" was released in the UK with a barrage of publicity. Full-page adverts in the New Musical Express included enthusiastic quotes from journalists and other pop impresarios comparing McWilliams to Donovan and Bob Dylan. Unfortunately, Radio 1, the BBC's new pop network, didn't add "The Days of Pearly Spencer" to its playlist. This may have been because of Solomon's involvement with Radio Caroline, the only station to continue broadcasting after pirate radio was outlawed by the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, passed by Harold Wilson's government. 
However, Peel did play some of McWilliams' tunes in 1968, including a session for his Night Ride programme. It didn't include "Days Of Pearly Spencer", which turned out to be the singer's only memorable song, becoming a lasting radio favourite. Despite all the promotion he received, David McWilliams was never ranked among the leading singer-songwriters of his era. 
In 2004, Peel played some tracks from a list claiming to be the ten best psychedelic rock tunes, and credited to Will Sergeant, in The Independent newspaper published on 2nd July 2004. Among them was David McWilliams'"The Days Of Pearly Spencer", but Peel didn't play it.
==Sessions==
1. Recorded: 1968-11-26. First Broadcast: 27 November 1968
*Redundancy Blues / Lady Helen Of The Laughing Eyes / Echo Of My Heart / Twilight In The Early Hours Of The Morning
==Other Shows Played==
;1968
*28 April 1968: This Side Of Heaven (7") Major Minor
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs
*Official Website
Category:Artists