David Brown – Rhythm Guitar. Harmonica. Vocals.

David wrote his first song (The Paperboy’s Lament) at fourteen with Glen Reid and ended up performing it on TV on a BBC programme called Parents and Children.

His fourteen minutes of fame over, he spent the next fifteen years or so as a bedroom busker, until he was encouraged by his friend George Smith (The Fans, George and the Dragons), to write his second song (More Money).

Together, Smith and Brown began to write for George’s main project at the time, The Trainspotters and several of their early songs made it on to the BBC Radio 2 play list (albeit at about 3 in the morning).

Eventually, David joined the line-up of The Trainspotters and enjoyed a couple of years playing harp and singing to enthusiastic audiences around Bristol, until George relocated to France and the band split.

Without his long-term writing partner, David found himself in the unfamiliar position of having to come up with both halves of songs on his own. The fruits of this new hermaphrodite existence appeared on the 1999 album Shopping Trolley Full of Dreams, recorded at a fledgling Lakeside Studios with Dave Lewis, Guy Prichard and Tim Fish. Although he used his own name on the cover, this is often viewed as the very first Shrinks album.