David Conway (born 1963) is an Irish author and former musician. He was the original vocalist of the

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band My Bloody Valentine, which he formed in 1983 with guitarist

Kevin Shields Kevin Patrick Shields (born 21 May 1963) is an Irish musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, who achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine (band), My Bloody Valenti ...

and drummer

Colm Ó Cíosóig Colm Ó Cíosóig (; born 31 October 1964) is an Irish musician and songwriter, who achieved international fame as the drummer for the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. Their studio albums '' Isn't Anything'' (1988) and ''Loveless'' ...

. In 1987, during their minor underground success, Conway left the band and was replaced by Bilinda Butcher. Since 1991, Conway has written four novels, including 2009's ''Tokyo Gothic'' and 2010's ''Celebrity Bedlam'', published numerous short stories and contributed his writing to a selection of

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

s. His writings are published by Radical Robot Books—his own publishing company—and Double Dragon Publishing. Conway lives in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Early life

David Conway was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1963. He was raised in both Ireland and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and attended

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics () are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland, defined by their adherence to Catholic Christianity and their shared Irish ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heritage.The term distinguishes Catholics of Irish descent, particul ...

schools, including Christian Brothers and

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

institutions. Conway

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

of school and spent a number of years working in Dublin.

Career

Music career: 1983–1987

In 1983, Conway formed My Bloody Valentine with

and

. He performed vocals, originally under the pseudonym Dave Stelfox, and suggested the name of the band, which was taken from the 1981 Canadian slasher film of the same name. Shields later claimed he was unaware of the film when Conway suggested the name, which was chosen ahead of other potential band names including The Burning Peacocks. My Bloody Valentine experienced a number of line-up changes in their initial months and in 1984, Conway's girlfriend Tina Durkin was recruited as a keyboard player. On the suggestion of Shields, Conway contacted

Gavin Friday Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes. Early life Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin an ...

, lead vocalist of the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

band Virgin Prunes, for advice on succeeding on the Dublin music scene and was given a list of contacts to secure the band shows in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. The band emigrated to the Netherlands in early 1984 but due to a lack of correct documentation, they had to relocate again to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, where they released their debut mini album, '' This is Your Bloody Valentine'', in January 1985. The album failed to receive much attention and the band returned temporarily to the Netherlands, before settling in

, United Kingdom in the middle of 1985. Conway was featured on the band's debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) '' Geek!'' (1985) and the follow-up EP '' The New Record by My Bloody Valentine'' (1986). ''The New Record by My Bloody Valentine'' was the band's first minor success, peaking at number 22 on the

UK Independent Albums Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the r ...

upon its release. His final recording with My Bloody Valentine was the 1987 single " Sunny Sundae Smile", which peaked at number 6 on the UK Independent Singles Chart and secured the band a support slot with

The Soup Dragons The Soup Dragons are a Scottish alternative rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Named after a character in the 1970s children's television series ''Clangers'', the group is best known for its cover of the Rolling Stones' song " I'm Fre ...

. In March 1987, after the final date of the tour, Conway announced his decision to leave the band, due to a gastric illness, disillusionment with music and ambitions to become a writer. He was replaced by Bilinda Butcher.

Writing career: 1991–present

During his time working various jobs in the late 1980s, Conway began writing. His short

horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...

stories appeared in various Creation Books anthologies, including ''Eloise'' featured in 1991's ''Red Stains'' and ''Black Static'' featured in 1994's ''The Starry Wisdom: A Tribute to HP Lovecraft''. In 1998, ''Metal Sushi'', a collection of his short

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

stories, was published by Oneiros Books. Critical reception to ''Metal Sushi'' was positive and author Grant Morrison referred to Conway as "the most powerful and distinctive writer of horror fiction since

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...

." In addition to his short stories, Conway contributed his writing to a number of

s, including ''Vampirella'' for Harris Comics, ''Vampi'' for Anarchy Studio and '' X-Men Unlimited'' for

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

. In 2009, he self-published his debut novel, ''Tokyo Gothic'', on his own publishing company Radical Robot Books and Double Dragon Publishing. He has since published further three novels: ''Death Disco'', ''Kinky Kabuki'' and ''Celebrity Bedlam''.

Bibliography

*''Tokyo Gothic'' (2009) *''Death Disco'' (2009) *''Kinky Kabuki'' (2010) *''Celebrity Bedlam'' (2010)

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conway, David 1963 births Living people Irish gothic rock musicians Indie pop musicians Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom Irish horror writers Irish rock singers Irish science fiction writers Irish male singer-songwriters Irish singer-songwriters Musicians from Dublin (city) My Bloody Valentine (band) members Post-punk musicians Singers from London Writers from London