David McWilliams(1945-2002)
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Singer/songwriter David McWilliams was born on July 4, 1945 in the
Cregagh area of Belfast, Ireland. The only child of Sam and Molly
McWilliams, David moved with his family to Ballymena when he was three
years old. McWilliams attended both the Model School and the Ballymena
Technical School. Following graduation, he served an apprenticeship at
an engineering factory that built torpedoes. However, music was always
David's first true calling: He learned how to play guitar in his early
teens and formed his own dance group called The Coral Showband.
McWilliams eventually started writing his own material and released his
debut single "God/My Country" on the Major Minor label in 1966. David
recorded his best-known and most well-regarded song "The Days of Pearly
Spencer" in 1967: Although "Days of Pearly Spencer" failed to crack
the UK pop charts, the haunting single was nonetheless a substantial
radio hit in such places as France and the Netherlands and sold over a
million copies worldwide. ("The Days of Pearly Spencer" was covered by
singer Marc Almond in 1992; Almond's version
of this song peaked on the UK pop radio charts at #4.) McWilliams'
first album was issued that same year; it reached #38 on the UK album
charts. His second album went all to way to #23 on the UK album charts
while his third album charted at #39. David toured Europe extensively
in the late 1960's and moved to London, England. He proved to be
especially popular in France, Holland, and Italy (McWilliams
re-recorded some of his songs in Italian). Alas, McWilliams' singles
and albums failed to click with the masses in the early 1970's. David
moved back to Northern Ireland in 1982. In 1984 McWilliams headlined a
concert supporting striking coalminers and occasionally performed at
the Bellycastle Northern Lights Festival. Outside of music, David was
also a talented soccer player who was a goalkeeper for the soccer club
Linfield in the mid-1960's. McWilliams was married twice and had eight
children. He died at age 56 from a heart attack at his home in
Bellycastle, County Antrim in Northern Ireland on January 8, 2002.