In October 1996 Dave Early died tragically in a car accident. He worked with Mary since August 1992. From this point I would like to express my deepest regrets to his family, friends and collegues.

The following description of Dave Early comes from one of Mary's tourbooks:

Ask Garvan Gallagher which bands he's played with in the past, and he'll tell you that you won't have heard of them.

Ask Dave Early ths same question, and he'll say that there's no doubt you'll know their names, but he won't tell you what they were.

Thirty-nine year-old Lewisham-born, Belfast-resident Dave, is the group's drummer and percussionist. He's toured Europe, America and Japan with some of the biggest multi-million selling bands in the rock-industry, but since settling in Nothern Ireland nine years back he's discovered an increasing interest in Irish traditional music, and prefers not to recall his days drumming for big name bands.

That's expressed itself in his current commitment to producing and developing work with traditional musicians from Belfast. And of course since joining up with Mary Black in August 1992, he's had the opportunity to experiment - combining his rock skills and his roots enthusiasm into an uniquely exciting conjunction of styles.

Dave's musical appenticeship took him through the south London pub cicuit, on into the studio and session work and finally major national and international tours. He sees himself as a jobbing musician, but has never lost sight of the fact that what is most important to him about the whole business is that it should always be "serious fun". Working with Mary Black has certainly provided him with a chance to enjoy that elusive marriage of potently dynamic opposites.