David Mark Willmott

David is my cousin and is 6 months younger than me. During my childhood my family and I stayed with David and his parents and Paul on a number of occasions and I even lived at their home for a short time which was a a sweet shop! I even briefly went to school in Bristol whilst living with them. I remember watching the 1966 World Cup in their living room in black and white! Even then at a very young age both David and Paul were very musically talented, something I was quite envious of at the time as I had no musical aptitude! whilst living RIP David.

There is a phrase that Dave used when we used to rehearse with him, "Rehearsal Ready". It's a phrase that we always use at rehearsals now and it will always remind us of Dave. It meant that you can't just turn up and rehearse, you must have put in a lot of work before the rehearsal in order to be "Rehearsal Ready". However, being the consummate professional he was, Dave's idea of Rehearsal Ready meant you could pretty much go out and gig it tomorrow! If someone made a mistake in rehearsal Dave would just stop playing and cross his arms until we all stopped too and I was left hoping that it wasn't me who'd make the mistake. I will always remember Dave with his arms crossed over his guitar and be forever grateful that he played with us and helped us get to grips with our favourite prog songs. We all miss you Dave but would like to think you're playing in that Great Gig in the Sky and looking down on us with ocassional crossed arms waiting for us to get it right.

Memories from childhood: visiting Bristol in the seventies: being fascinated by a very long-haired David and his very long-haired band-mates, rehearsing upstairs in his parent's (our aunt and uncle's) house. Even as a child I could sense the talent in that room; his vitality and creativity, expressed through music, will always be with us.