David Lay

David Lay was an Australian living in 1975 in Wivenhoe, Tasmania, who was a Sounds music reader, who sent a compilation cassette tape of Australian artists he recommended to John Peel. According to various internet sources, it seems David Lay is now a creative writer, whose early years seems to record that he was living in Tasmania until 1990 according to his public LinkedIn page. However, to be cautious, this may not be the same David Lay and could be of a different one, although there is a high probability it maybe the same individual.
==Links to Peel==
Peel on his 19th July 1975 Sounds article mentions that a David Lay from Tasmania sent him some couple of months ago a 90 minute cassette of Australian artists that he ought to know as an education. Peel revealed the artists and his opinions of the contents on the cassette in the article:
*AC/DC: Please Don't Go (JP: 'To illustrate his point he starts the cassette with a punk-rock band called AC/DC. These lads tackle, with admirable enthusiasm and no little skill, the classic 'Baby Please Don't Go'. Their version owes quite a lot to Them, a certain amount to the Amboy Dukes version. But there again, nicking ideas is a staple of the punk-rock bands business, and AC/DC attack the oldie with some ferocity. I would like to have heard more of their work.')
*Skyhooks: Living In The 70's (JP: 'A raucous and beautifully played number')
*Skyhooks: Horror Movie
*Skyhooks: Whatever Happened to The Revolution? (JP: 'All of these are excellent; tight, imaginative and incisive. Wish I had the album to play on Top Gear')
*Dingoes: Way Out West (JP: 'From Skyhooks David turns to Australian country rock and the Dingees (sic). The best produced Australian album, he says of their debut record, and from what he plays me I can tell that it is indeed very fine')
*Dingoes: Pay Pay Again (JP: 'The second Dingees (sic) track we hear, Pay Pay Again, spans with a brief and distant quote from Pub With No Beer, a number older viewers may recall in our own charts years ago. Slim Dusty, wasn't it? Pay Day features some high grade dobro playing')
*Dingoes: Sydney Ladies (JP: 'The last Dingees (sic) track David plays is also the most impressive. It is called Sydney Ladies and waxes quite Little Featish at times. There's a somewhat mystifying opening, which features sound effects of people pottering about, conversation and girlish laughter. My mind turned fairly quickly to thoughts of an assignment between whore and customer - but that may just prove to you what a horrid old man I am and have nothing to do with Sydney Ladies at all.')
*Country Radio: (JP: 'Several tracks from their only LP recorded live several years ago... Yet again the music is of a very high order, the Tolhurst turning in some lovely playing on guitar, mandolin and dobro. The songs are excellent.')
*Linda George: (JP: 'David Lay of Tasmania continues with records by Linda George, a singer/songwriter called something like Russian Marris, who has a little of Neil Young in his praiseworthy voice')
*Aunty Jack: (JP: 'He ends with a selection Australian humour from Aunty Jack, a man who dresses as a lady. Not as bad as you may be thinking either')
At the end of the article, Peel mentions taking steps in the following weeks to lay hold on some of these records and will endeavour to play them on the radio. There is some evidence he did, especially with AC/DC, although the other artists, it is difficult to say, as there is not many full tracklistings from 1975 on this site to confirm this.
== See Also ==
* Australia
== External Links ==
* Twitter
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