Former & Original Member – 1994-2002
David Richard Parsons was born July 2, 1966 in Hillingdon, a section of London, UK. He was the original bassist for Bush and was with them until they split in 2002. In 2010, when the band was regrouping Parsons declined to rejoin.
Dave’s earliest band was Dig:Dig:Dig. It was this typical high school punk band. “Some friends of mine, when I was still in school, had a band and they were losing their bass player,” Dave 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.” The band released a 3 track 7″ vinyl single. Sometime after Dave joined another band The Partisans.
Bush was not the first successful band that Dave had been a part of. In 1986, Dave teamed up with Wendy James and Nick Christian Sayer to form Transvision Vamp. 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 released the single 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.
A year later he would meet up with the other members of Bush being the last member to be added to the line up. “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!”
While Dave was with Bush he had his first child Eden with longtime girlfriend Sarah Chope in 2000. They are currently still together and have two other children Billy and Frank and live in Bristol, England. Not much news about Dave has surfaced since the band has split. In 2004, Dave and Nigel appeared in a European car commercial together. In 2000, Dave was credited for doing the original theme for a short film entitled Sixty Cups of Coffee. There is a video available on YouTube.
