Also in this blog I'm going to write a series of profiles of the four other band members, based on what I can remember about each of them. Bear in mind that this was fifteen years ago now! Also, I may not know everything about them as when we were in the band we were pretty focussed on the band; I don't remember too many conversations that I was involved in where we talked about what we did outside the band...
So to the subject of this post.
David Anthony Powter - or as we all called him, DAP - hailed from the small NSW country town of Condobolin. (Current population: approx. 2,800). There he attended high school, and qualified as a teacher. When I first met him, Dap was teaching in primary schools around the area (including my own Raglan Public School) and playing in bands at the same time.
Dap's influences were Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cold Chisel, Van Halen, and many others that I cannot recall. He could play just about anything you gave him, and was a consummate professional in the studio.
Dap was always one of the friendliest, nicest, and one of the most considerate blokes I'd ever met. (This was in stark contrast to my own behaviour at the time - more on that in a moment). I didn't drive, and Dap always had no problems in picking me up from my home at Raglan, 10 k's out of town, and taking me to band practice. In fact if I remember rightly, the guys had a system whereby they would take turns picking up their singer - what a bunch of guys eh!
Dap was a Scorpio if I recall, but unlike a lot of Scorpios Dap had a really pleasant disposition - most of the time. Certainly if crossed or mistreated then the dark side would emerge, although this happened only a couple of times during the time I knew him. And only once was it directed toward me (again - more on that in a moment).
As a school teacher Dap was possessed with a great sense of humour, always enlivening rehearsals with his sense of fun, and a great deal of patience (again - usually toward myself!). Indigo Rush would have been nowhere near as much fun as it was if it wasn't for Dap.
Also, Dap was a seasoned musician who had been performing for a number of years before Brett and I met him (more on this in a later post about the origins of I.R.) I think his band at the time was Out for The Weekend, in which Cameron Ashpole was also the drummer (we poached them both for our new band, tee hee!). Brett and I had ended our previous band and we were not really looking for new members, but when we met Dap and realised what a great guitar player he was, and well we knew it was the right time to start again.
Some of my greatest memories involve going over to Dap's share house, which at first consisted of the bass player with Out for the Weekend and two girls. This for me was my big discovery of girls and how they operated, since I'd had a rather sheltered life and gone to a Catholic private school and had basically no life experience. So knowing Dap enabled me to experience a whole new world, of laughter, friendship, togetherness, getting to know girls, making silly mistakes, and of course, music and performing.
I won't go into detail about the not-so-good-times, but let's just say that I was, I can easily admit, highly immature at the time. I was new to all this fun stuff, and I just wanted to suck the marrow of everything I could. I was therefore incredibly selfish, whereas Dap, Garry and Cameron who were a little older, wiser and more experienced than me, all knew more about giving and taking, sharing and being generous. I knew fuck all about those things, so usually I was a taker. I think I knew this deep down so I tried to give my role as the singer 150%, especially on stage. But in the end I made things hard for the guys, and when I later returned to Bathurst and bumped into Dap he didn't want to know me. Which hurt at the time, but looking back and seeing all the things I did, I can understand.
The last I heard of Dap was that he was no longer in Bathurst and was playing with a band called Razor Glass. I've tried googling Dap but nothing ever comes up. It's probably for the best. I wish Dap nothing but good fortune and a lot of happiness, he was a great mate and a great band member.
As mentioned in a previous post, Dap contributed the song Rushman and the original riff to Foreign Land to the band's catalogue. Dap could always make any song sound good. Good on you, mate, maybe we'll meet up again when the karma is cleared.
Edit, 18 Oct 2012: I have now found Dap, Brett and Razor Glass on Facebook. Also Garry Anderson's oldest boy, Chris, plays bass in Razor Glass.
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