David Curtis
David Curtis stands out as being the youngest hit maker New Zealand has produced. He came to the attention of HMV record producer Alan Galbraith as a 13 year old school boy from Wellington. David auditioned for Alan at the HMV studios, and a few weeks later "Wheel Of Fortune"/"When The Stars Begin To Fall" was recorded and released on the New Zealand market in October 1970. The result was an instant hit and a gold record. The single reached number 5 on the national charts, selling over 17,000 copies. This made David the youngest artist ever to feature on the New Zealand Top Twenty. "Wheel Of Fortune" also made it to the finals of the 1970 Loxene Gold Disk Awards.
Over the next year he released two albums, the first self titled and the second called "Album Two". From these albums, a number of singles were released, including "The Wedding", "I'm Gonna Knock On Your Door" and "Someone To Love Me". His next success came in 1971 with a song that David composed the music for, while his mother provided the lyrics, "Take Your Leave". The song won first prize in the song-writing section on TV's “Studio One” competition , reached number 3 in the national charts and was a finalist in the APRA Silver Scroll. David was selected to represent New Zealand in the Yamaha World Popular Song Contest in Tokyo, winning one of the major prizes. Following this success and at the request of EMI in Japan, "Take Your Leave" was specially recorded in Japanese.
In 1974 EMI released an album as part of their Portrait series, which contained songs from his two albums.
His love for performing made him determined to continue on a musical path, so after leaving school he attended a full time music course at Wellington's Polytechnic Institute for three years, studying arranging, composing and singing.
It would not be until 1983 that the name David Curtis would be heard again as he made a move to Auckland, joined the Lew Pryme Management Company, and sang on television and radio jingles while also performing in several musicals, including “Grease” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” During this time David toured as the support act for Leo Sayer , The Hollies , Richard Clayderman ,The Irish Rovers and was a member of the NZ National Opera Companies production of “The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.” In 1984 he was voted Rising Star of the Year by the NZ Entertainment Industry.
The Very Best of David Curtis albumCricket has always been a big part of his life. Son of well-known Wellington representative wicketkeeper , Mike Curtis, David represented Wellington in under 20 age group cricket and in 1984 he was selected as wicketkeeper in the Auckland 1st class cricket squad, which at the time boasted five current NZ test cricketers.
In 1985 David left New Zealand for England and remained there until 1993, entertaining in various clubs and pubs while also studying singing with top London Theatre vocal coach, Ian Adam. He performed three foyer concerts in the Royal Festival Hall and toured the UK with “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat."
A decision was made in 1994 to return to New Zealand where David, now a committed Christian, lives with his family, Pauline and sons Michael, Matthew and Jesse. David continues to perform at top Auckland clubs and hotels. In 2004 he performed at the prestigious Hong Kong Country Club in Asia. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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