A Rockapaedia Obituary
Dave Holland
Bands: Judas Preist, Pinkerton's Assorted Colours
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Dave Holland died from Liver Cancer, aged sixty-nine on 16
th January 2018.
On 22nd January 2018, Spanish newspaper El Progreso reported that Dave Holland had died six days earlier at Hospital Universitario Lucus Augusti in Lugo, Spain, a hospital close to A Fonsagrada, a town in the mountains where Dave had lived at the time of his death.
Dave Holland began piano lessons at the age of six, but soon developed a passion for drums and begged his parents to let him have a set. After his first appearance as a stand-in for a local band, Daverealised he wanted to be a musician. When he was fourteen years old, he supplemented his pocket money by playing with another local band titled The Drumbeats, and selling furniture and carpets.
When still young Dave listened to traditional jazz. He cited his first rock influence as Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. Later, he became interested in funk music in the vein of Booker T & the MG's, blues rock of Free and progressive–psychedelic music of Traffic.
In early 1965 he was with Northampton band Dorian Gray. Later that year Dave Holland was persuaded to leave and join The Liberators who had recording and management contracts ready within a few weeks to evolve into Pinkerton's Assorted Colours, a pop band that put autoharp to good use, taking after The Loving Spoonful. In 1966 a single, "Mirror Mirror" released on Decca, peaked at number eight in the UK Singles Chart.n However, Dave Holland continued studio session work.
Dave Holland stayed with the band until August 1968, when he joined Finders Keepers, who were soon joined by Mel Galley on guitar and Glenn Hughes on bass, recorded several singles, with some of the songs now available on various compilations. Soon afterwards the threesome joined forces with vocalist and winds player John Jones and multi-instrumentalist Terry Rowley of The Montanas fame to form a quintet called Trapeze.
Trapeze appeared in the British TV show Colour Me Pop and soon was swamped with offers of recording contracts, including one from The Beatles' Apple. They did, however, settled for the newly formed Threshold label, belonging to The Moody Blues members. The band would soon open for The Moodies and other well-known acts. On Threshold, the band released three records, the debut as a quintet and the rest as a power trio.
Trapeze were gaining momentum at the time, especially in the southern United States, but lost a major contributor as Glenn Hughes decided to leave the band and join Deep Purple for the recording of their Burn album.
Galley and Dave Holland added a bass player and a second guitarist. Dave Holland and Galley also toured as part of John Lodge – Justin Hayward band The Blue Jays.
Earlier on, both Galley and Dave Holland lent a hand in the recording of Glenn Hughes' first solo album, Play Me Out, offering a unique blend of psychedelic jazz funk. Dave Holland was assisted by Mark Nauseef on percussion.
In 1979 and 1980, Dave Holland recorded some drum parts for Justin Hayward's solo albums, Songwriter and Night Flight.
Dave Holland left Trapeze and joined Judas Priest in August 1979. He played drums on many of Judas Priest's platinum albums, such as British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith, Turbo and Ram It Down.
During the 1980s, Dave Holland also collaborated with guitarist Robin George, as part of his band Life and on George's solo project, Dangerous Music.
In 1989, personal problems of health and family issues and musical differences moved Dave Holland to leave Judas Priest. He was replaced by original Saints Or Sinn
ers drummer Scott Travis, who had also previously played in the band Racer X.
Throughout the 1990s, besides touring with briefly reformed Trapeze and filling in for various bands like The Screaming Jets during their European tours, Dave Holland gave drum clinics and private lessons, managed and produced bands such as the Swedish "teen funk trio" Shutlanger Sam whom he introduced in person at a show with his former Trapeze bandmate Glenn Hughes in Vänersborg 1996, and played on various recordings of his former mates. In 1996, he participated in sessions that involved Glenn Hughes, Tony Iommi , and keyboardist Don Airey. In 1998, a collaboration with Al Atkins, Judas Priest's original singer, was released, featuring a few covers of early Priest songs that Dave did not originally play on.
In 2004, Dave Holland was found guilty of attempted rape and several indecent assaults against a 17-year-old male with learning disabilities to whom he had been giving drum lessons. In an interview during the criminal proceedings, Dave Holland revealed that he was bisexual. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. As a result, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi chose to replace Dave's drum parts on The 1996 DEP Sessions because he did not want a convicted sex offender appearing on his album. Dave Holland was scheduled for release from prison in 2012 and was reportedly out by June that year.
In late 2006, Dave Holland, who had steadfastly maintained his innocence, revealed that he was in the process of writing a tell-all autobiography. Writing to biographer Neil Daniels from prison, he stated that he was convicted of a crime that he did not commit, and like so many others in similar situations to the one in which he found himself, an offense that never even existed in the first place.
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