DAVID MCWILLIAMS

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DAVID MCWILLIAMS
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David McWilliams was a Northern Irish singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his 1967 song "Days of Pearly Spencer". 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 radio station Caroline. Solomon won McWilliams 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. His second album, David McWilliams, which reached # 23 in the album chart featured the single "Days of Pearly Spencer". This was a song about a homeless man McWilliams had encountered in Ballymena, and featured a sweeping orchestral arrangement by Leander and a chorus sung as if through a megaphone. Massive exposure on Radio Caroline and through advertisements in the UK music press in the summer of 1967 helped generate interest and sales in continental Europe, and the record topped the charts in numerous countries, selling a million copies worldwide. However, although it became well known in the UK, "Days of Pearly Spencer" failed to make the charts there. Reportedly, David Bowie once named McWilliams as his favourite songwriter. He moved to London, and released further albums and singles on the Parlophone and Dawn labels in the 1970s, but these were unsuccessful. McWilliams moved back to Northern Ireland in 1978. He performed infrequently after that, mostly in local bars, although he also headlined a concert in aid of striking miners in 1984. McWilliams died of a heart attack at his home in Ballycastle, County Antrim in 2002, at the age of 56. He was married twice and had eight children.

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