Landmarq - Dave Wagstaffe

Dave Wagstaffe
(drums / percussion / vocals)

A Brief History

Dave Wagstaffe (he's in there somewhere!)

Born in Washington, Sussex, England, but spent school years in East Anglia. Discovered a passion for drums after an initial interest in classical guitar at around 11 years of age. Joined the Army as a boy entrant at age 15 on a mad impulse, with a brief time in the regimental band. On ‘escaping’ two years later, worked with a couple of local bands including his first recording band The Clouds, before heading to London in the early seventies.

After a period of going to auditions, formed heavy rock band Argus with bassist Mick Pearl, touring with bands such as Thin Lizzie, Lindisfarne, Pink Faries, Brinsley Schwartz (with Nick Lowe) and The Equals. Their debut album was released on the Audio Archives label. Next band was Jazz Rock outfit Anaconda at the end of 1976, playing the London Jazz circuit, including a couple of stints at Ronnie Scott’s with Sarah Vaughn and Joe Pass. After Anaconda folded, worked with a number of bands in East Anglia, including Abraxus, and also Supergrass, featuring former Samson vocalist Mark Newman. Came back to London in 1983 and joined Heavy metal Band Gaskin, who were in the process of starting their third album, but the band ran out of steam a year later, whereby Dave got the gig with Prog Rock band Quasar.

There followed five and a half years touring with the band, during which time he recorded their second album ‘The Loreli’ (1989) also playing on the ‘Fire In Harmony’ compilation album for EMI, and the (so far) unreleased album ‘Forgotten Dreams’. During this period Dave also did sessions for Canadian artist Ron Warren Ganderton, and UK band Vega. When Quasar came to an end, joined Landmarq. Dave was also involved with a number of other projects, some long and some short-lived. One was recording the solo album of former Quasar and future Landmarq vocalist Tracy Hitchings.at Thin Ice studios. Another project being Kooch - the band led by World Music artist Cyrus Khajavi, recording the band's second album, titled ‘Zemzeme’ (Whisper) in 2000.

In 1992 to 94, played with band Willie and The Shakers, along with the late Tom Lundy, which featured a ‘floating’ line-up of musicians including guitarists James Litherland (Colosseum) Jamie West Oram , Brian Willoughby (Strawbs Dave Bunce (Jeff Beck) Boz Burrell, Clive Bunker and others. In 1995, along with Steve Gee, Uwe and Tracy, formed the touring band for John Wetton, for the European leg of his ‘Chasing The Dragon’ tour, along with IQ keyboardist Martin Orford. Dave had previously recorded with Martin in the short lived project NO with Clive Nolan.

In 1999, worked with Janison Edge, featuring future Landmarq keyboardist Mike Varty. Recording the album ‘The Services Of Mary Goode’ at Thin Ice studios, followed by a series of gigs, including an appearance at the Prog Farm Festival in Holland.
In 1996/7 Dave played for two years with ‘The Illegal Eagles’-no prizes for guessing who it was a tribute to!

Around 2000, started working with Oliver Wakeman, the first item on the agenda being recording the album ‘The 3 Ages of Magick’, with Steve Howe on guitar. This was followed by ‘The View From Here’, and ‘Mother's Ruin’, being joined on stage at the record launch, by Rick Wakeman.

In 2001, Dave was involved with a few projects with former Uriah Heep keyboardist Ken Hensley. After playing in his band at the Sweden Rock Festival, played on his ‘Running Blind’ album, and recorded a DVD for the Classic Rock Legends label.
2003- recorded some drums for the second concept album of Martin Darvill entitled ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, along with Dave Kilminster and Andy Pyle.

2005 - began working with guitarist Davy O List, former founding member of The Nice, doing a series of UK dates, playing all the old classic Nice numbers, plus new material Davy had written for a new album. A live album was released from the tour. Over the last ten years Dave also had short stints playing in various theatre ‘Musicals’, including ‘West Side Story’, ‘Grease’, ‘Oliver’, ‘Annie’ and ‘Billy Liar’

Other musicians he has played / jammed or recorded with over the years include Pete Banks, Patrick Moraz, Paul Young, Peter Haycock, (Climax Blues Band) Mick Box, Trevor Bolder, Bernie Shaw and Phil Lanzon of Uriah Heep, Danny Kirwan (Fleetwood Mac) John Mizzaroli (Atomic Rooster) Hugh McDowell (ELO) Nick Turner (Hawkwind) and John Young (Asia, Scorpions) he also teaches drums in a number of schools and colleges in London and was the drum teacher for Ivor Arbiter’s ‘Fender Rock School’ during 2000.

Visit the Dave Wagstaffe Website

Dave Wagstaffe - Discography (all selections DW plays drums & perc. except *backing vocals where indicated) Other commercially released recordings plus non-released recordings of notable interest. (Note: inclusion in this list does not guarantee availability of items) Listings are in chronological order:-
Band/Artist	Title	Label/Cat. no.	Year	Details (where known)
1. The Clouds	'I Won't Cry'	n/a	1969	Single (no details available) (DW says: "I don't even have a copy myself!").
2. Quasar	'Fire In The Sky'	EMI	1985	Track recorded for 'Fire In Harmony' compilation album also incl. Pendragon, Solstice a.o.
3. Quasar	'Forgotten Dreams'	n/a	1987	Album with Nick Williams on vocals (unreleased).
4. Ron Warren Ganderton & also Vega	'Vox Nouveaux'	SCCP 001	1988	Sessions for comp. album
5. Quasar	'Fire In The Sky'	QUA-1	1988	Re-issued on CD with bonus track.
6. Quasar	'The Loreli'	QUA-2	1989	LP and CD
7. Tracy Hitchings	'From Ignorance To Ecstacy'	SI Music SIMPly 6	1991	Title track also included on SI compilation CD with LANDMARQ and others.
8. N.O. (Nolan/Orford)	(see details)	SIMPly 22	1993	Track 'Quantum Leap' for 'SI Compilation Disc Too'
9. Shadowland	'Mad As A Hatter'	Verglas	1996	*Backing vocals only
10. Janison Edge	'The Services Of Mary Goode'	Gargoyle Records GRG 001	1999	Debut CD from Mike Varty's band/project
11. Oliver Wakeman and Clive Nolan	'Jabberwocky'	Verglas VGCD 014	1999	*Backing vocals only
12. Kooch	'Zemzeme'	n/a	2000	CD by Iranian rock artist Cyrus Khajavi.
13. Oliver Wakeman with Steve Howe	'The Three Ages Of Magick'	Resurgence RES144cd	2001	Son of Ricks' latest solo effort also features Yes guitarist, Steve Howe.
14. Argus	'Argus'	Audio Archives AACD042	2001	Bluesy-prog debut album recorded in 1974, released 2001.
15. Ken Hensley	'Running Blind'	Mystic - MYSCD153	2001	CD from the ex-Uriah Heep member.
16. Oliver Wakeman and Rachel	'The View From Here'	Watermark WCDS001	2002	CD EP
17. Oliver Wakeman	‘Mother’s Ruin’	Label -?-	2005
18. Martin Darvill & Friends	‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’	Mystic Records	-	CD to be released 2004
19. Clive Nolan	‘Skeletons in the Cupboard’	CANCD001	-	Track ‘Quantum Leap’ with ‘NO’ (Nolan-Orford)
20. Ken Hensley & John Wetton	'More than Conquerors'	Classic Rock Legends - DVD - CRL0881	-	(on bonus videos)

Dave's favourite...
...band/artist(s)	Jerry Goodman, Didier Lockwood, Al DiMeola, Chick Corea, Michel Camillo, Alan Holdsworth, Simon Phillips, John McLaughlin, Beatles, Eagles
...album(s)	'It's Alive'- Jerry Goodman, 'Battle Lines' -John Wetton, 'Images and Words'- Dream Theatre 'It's Alive'- Jerry Goodman, 'Battle Lines' -John Wetton, 'Images and Words'- Dream Theatre
...food(s)	Indian, Turkish.
...drink(s)	'John' Daniels, Raki.
...book/magazine(s)	'In Search Of The Miraculous' (P.D. Ouspensky), 'All and Everything' (G.I. Gurdjceff).'Memories, Dreams and Reflections' (C.G. Jung)
...movie(s)	A Night At The Opera (Marx Bros.), Close Encounters, The Thing, Shadowlands, Remains Of The Day.
...TV/radio show(s)	The Fast Show, Blackadder, Have I Got News 4 U
...(non-musical) pastime(s)	Films, photography, general debauchery!
...website(s)


Uwe D'Rose \| Steve Gee \| Tracy Hitchings \| Dave Wagstaffe \|Mike Varty