About

Dave Burnham was born in June 1962 in Orsett, to parents Rene and Jim. The family moved around a lot in those early years, due to Jim's work with Freightliner container Co. (from London to Hitchin, Chandlers Ford, Leeds, Collingham and Wokingham.) Consequently Dave learnt how to make friends quickly, and due to constantly changing teachers, developed one of the worst examples of hand-writing on the planet (that's his excuse).

In his early teens, following a couple of years' flirtation with the Horror genre, he developed what was to become a lifelong love of Science Fiction - devouring Asimov and Ballard; preferring films like Dark Star and Silent Running to the blockbusters.

Music also started to work its way into his soul with the likes of Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Judie Tzuke and Genesis, then a heavy phase with Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix, which (along with Sci-Fi) helped to sustain him through five years at boarding school in Ipswich - not an experience which he'd recommend, but one which paved the way for university in 1980; as well as discovering an enjoyment in his own scribblings (and the chance to fly in chipmonk aircraft by joining the RAF CCF.)

The following four years at Guy's hospital were the happiest (up to that time), forming close friendships, making the most of London's live music venues and expanding his musical and literary horizons. It was around this time that Dave started to write poetry and try out some early experiments with collage, both of which would pave the way for further development later in life (inheriting his mother Rene's creative side).

In early 1985 he moved to Brighton to begin a career in the Health Service. A thriving music scene and artistic community were just what he'd been looking for and still lives in the town to this day.

That same year the chance purchase of a video, featuring the Enid and Hawkwind, was to introduce him to a musician who would become a major influence in his life - Roy Harper.

On meeting his future wife, Sue, Dave discovered that they had a shared passion for Roy's music and poetic lyrics. Seeing Harper for the first time in June 1987 they soon found themselves travelling far and wide to see him in concert.

Dave and Sue married in 1988 and continued to enjoy Roy's output, regularly contributing gig and album reviews to Hors d'Ouevres magazine. In 1992 the chance came to promote a concert for Roy in Brighton and a steep learning curve resulted in a near sell-out crowd at the 600 capacity venue at the University of Sussex Mandela Hall venue; as well as the formation of the Natural Transport Co. concert promotion project by Dave and Dr. Simon Taylor.

In the short time that the Natural Transport Co. existed Dave and Simon promoted a variety of gigs and appeared on the Folk show on Radio Sussex:-

The Natural Transport Co. never made any money, but then that wasn't really the point, it was more about bringing great music to a wider audience in Brighton.

To which end they agreed to help out on the second stage at the Heineken Music Big Top in August 1993. The idea was that in exchange for running the stage, then they could book local acts and provide them with a platform. Despite one very wet day (which resulted in them having to drill holes in the stage to drain away the collecting rain water, in order to prevent them getting electrocuted) the weekend was a great success and at one point Dave introduced a band to around 17,000 people, as well as making a television appeal to help to track down a missing girl.

Wildflower
Pan
Mandragora
U.R.U.
Altogether Elsewhere
Nick Harper
The Hoffners
The Wild Turkey Brothers

Dave and Simon also helped to organise a short U.K. tour as a favour to Captain Sensible.

Simon went into a teaching career and Dave tried his hand at engineering and mixing on a Tascam Portastudio (producing the album 'Long Journey' for Dr, Space Toad) and continued to help organise Brighton gigs for Roy Harper and Nick Harper.

In 1998 Dave helped out old friends by organising a short U.K. tour for the Dayglo Pirates - The U.K.'s Premier Jethro Tull tribute band and dual headline with Brighton-based folk rockers The Fold.

As work commitments increased Dave reluctantly stepped back from involvement in the world of music promotion in 2000, but continues to catch Roy and Nick Harper in concert, as well as going to summer festivals and local gigs, and maintains a lifelong love of music.

By now he was developing the collage that he had started at University into a unique style of collage (partly inspired by the work of Dalí, Magritte, Wes Wilson, Rick Griffin and Martin Sharp.) Several of these works have been used by local bands for album covers and one ('Journey') was displayed in Vienna at an exhibition of album cover art.

A trip to Kenya in 1993 rekindled his interest in photography and the website (www.djburnham.com) is playing host to a steadily increasing gallery of projects and shoots, both current and past.

With a considerable resurgence in his love of Sci-Fi literature, Dave was introduced to the work of William Gibson, Ian M Banks, Arthur C Clarke and especially Philip K. Dick (via 'Blade Runner' - his favourite film - & original rarities lent to him by Jon Wood of The Fold). He began to outline the plan for a novel of his own and over the course of several years he found the time and space to relax and write it on the Greek islands. He continued to write steady flow of new short stories, which are started to be published on the internet by Webzines such as Silverthought.com, BewilderingStories.com and Aphelion.

In 2005 one of Dave's stories - Anthropomorphs - appeared in print, as part of a speculative fiction anthology Silverthough: Ignition. (which made the semi-finals of the Fantasy/Science Fiction category of this year’s Independent Publisher Book Awards).

In June 2006 one of Dave's stories - The Spoils of War- became his first PODCAST, appearing on Variant Frequencies narrated by Rick Stringer.

In October 2006 Dave appeared on BBC2's Gardeners' World as part of their Chilli Trial.

In February 2007 one of Dave's stories - Thriskia's LifeBank - appeared in print in Vol. # 1, Issue # 1 of The Literary Bone.

In August 2008 another of Dave's stories - Mortal Coil - appeared in print, as part of an anthology edited by Mark R. Brand and published by Silverthought Press , Thank You, Death Robot.

In 2008 Dave and Sue were interviewed about their love of Roy Harper's music and their involvement in promoting gigs for him and his son Nick Harper in The Roy Harper Podcast Episode 8 and Episode 10

In January 2009 Ad Astral published the first regular podcast of Dave's (DJ Burnham's) short stories.

In August 2009 Episode 26 of the Roy Harper Podcast featured Dave interviewing Roy Harper after a gig at the Half Moon venue in Putney

Dave's (DJ Burnham's) debut novel 'Flux' was published in 2010.

June 2012 was Dave's 50th Birthday and The Doctors of Philosophy kindly played a brilliant concert for the occasion 50th

In December 2011 Dave found himself briefly on stage with the cast of Spamalot at the Theatre Royal in Brighton

Dave's father, Jim, passed away in 2015 and Dave took early retirement from the Health Service to help with caring for his mother, Rene.

In May 2016 Dave organised a Tribute fundraiser Concert in memory of his father, Jim Burnham.

Many of the bands that Dave had worked with over the years generously gave their time to perform: Joe Hinchliff, SimonneWeeks, Jules Lawrence, Linda Game, Simon Taylor, Jon Wood, Cat Cox, Adrian Truman, Paul Stenner, Steve Harrison, Tom Andrews, Steve Holland, Hanna Burchell and Nick Pynn.

In December 2017 Dave joined a group for Music Against Brexit for a flashmob performance of The Fairy Tale of Brexit at Brighton station

In January 2018 Dave released an epic poem and video called Brexit means Brexit, with musical contributions from Dave, Martyn Ford, Adrian Truman, Paul Davison, Jon Wood, Jules Lawrence, Nick Pynn and Hanna Burchell. It highlighted some of the problems that would occur, as well as drawing attention to some of those responsible for one of the biggest scams in history.

In October 2018 Dave briefly came out of concert-promoting retirement.
Robyn

An old friend had booked a concert at the Rialto Theatre in Brighton for Robyn Hitchcock and needed someone to oversee the running of the concert. Knowing that Dave is a huge fan of Robyn's music he asked him if he'd help. Dave leapt at the chance and spent a magical evening with one of his musical heroes.

The Ad Astral Podcast continues to broadcast Dave's short stories adapted into an immersive radio theatre style with a host of voice actors and is downloaded across the globe.

Dave continues to write Sci Fi stories and poetry