Original Member – 1994-2002
David Richard Parsons was born July 2, 1966 in Hillingdon, West London. Dave grew up with his mother, Annie Gration, and his four siblings, Ralph (older brother), Trudi (older sister), Fleur (younger sister), and Rosie (younger sister.) Dave surprisingly doesn’t like ice cream, and his favorite color is blue. He likes to play football (soccer), hike and climb in his spare time. Dave used to be an clerk in a clothes shop, but since then has gone on to play bass for two rather successful bands.
“Some friends of mine, when I was still in school, had a band and they were losing their bass player,” Dave Parsons recalls about his initial foray into the world of music, “And I wanted to play in a band, and I said ‘I’ll do it. I’ll do it.’ And I never really played in one before, but I was so enthusiastic, that they gave me the part and I had to pick the bass up and I learned it from there.”
Parsons had a knack for playing bass, and became a member of quite a few bands over the ensuing years. Among the bands he played with was Future Primitive (now Bush), Transvision Vamp, The Partisans, and Dig:Dig:Dig. Parsons has noted that some of his biggest musical influences over the years have been David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Bob Marley.
Parsons joined Transvision Vamp after fellow members Wendy and Nick had moved to London and had signed a record deal with MCA in the winter of 1986. Dave met up with the two at a pub he frequented in Notting Hill. Two months after forming Transvision Vamp, the band did ‘Revolution Baby’, followed by the video, and then concentrated on being a successful live band. By 1988 and 1989, Transvision Vamp was on top of the punk/pop/rock world with huge hits including ‘I Want Your Love, ‘Baby I Don’t Care’, and no less than nine other charting songs. They were #1 in the UK and Europe, they were phenomenally huge in Australia and Japan. Transvision Vamp toured the world, and filled stadiums of up to 50,000 screaming fans.
1991 brought Transvision Vamp’s third album. MCA announced they would not release the album in the Vamp’s home country of England. In America, the shining hope of conquering new shores, listeners turned their ears to a new sound from the Northwest as grunge swept the nation, and Transvision Vamp’s days were numbered.
Dave Parsons, however, was a musician, and he would once again rise to the top of the bass playing world. In 1992, singer Gavin Rossdale and guitarist Nigel Pulsford had hooked up, and in a strange Vamp deja vu, soon added drummer Robin Goodridge and good old Dave on bass to the lineup.
“We held some of the strangest jobs in the world while we waited for the band to break,” recalls Dave. “We painted houses, worked in a take-out sushi restaurant, and were short order cooks. Believe it when I tell you that being in a successful band is a lot more fun than any of that!”
Bush had little success in England, but were perfectly timed for the alternative rock scene in America that had been born out of grunge success. Bush signed with an American label, and had an momentum gaining smash record in 1995 with Sixteen Stone. Bush has sold over 30 million albums since 1994, including follow-ups Razorblade Suitcase, Deconstructed, The Science Of Things, and Golden State.
On June 9, 2000, Dave Parsons and his girlfriend Sarah Chope gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Eden. Parsons has also been credited for the original theme to the film short Sixty Cups of Coffee released in 2000.
Since Bush stopped touring in 2002 not much news of Parsons has surfaced. He did have a second child (Billy) in 2002 and possibly a third child (Frank) in 2007. Nigel Pulsford mentioned the two of them doing a car commercial together in 2004. That’s about the extent of Dave’s whereabouts at the moment. Dave decided not to be a part of the Bush reunion in 2010.