David McWilliams

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 "The 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.