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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:-
Roy Harper
Edgar Broughton
Lenna and the Snakemen
The
Moonflowers
Rose Madder
Maddy Prior and the
Carnival Band
Buttermountain Boys
The Groundhogs
Kathryn
Tickell
Sonja
Kristina
Altogether Elsewhere
The Fish Brothers
June Tabor
Mazlyn
Jones
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.
Amongst those appearing on the second stage where:-
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 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, 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 decoupage (partly inspired by the intent 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 on the Greek islands. His debut novel
'Flux' is nearing completion, with
a cover already designed - for his own work, for a change. He is also writing
a steady flow of new short stories,
which are beginning to be published on the internet by Webzines such as Silverthought.com,
BewilderingStories.com and Aphelion. "Test
Drive" Volume 1 of DJ Burnham's collected short stories was published
in 2007.
In December 2005 a MySpace Profile was set up to compliment this website.
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 VariantFrequencies.com, narrated by Rick Stringer. In December 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 January 2009 Ad Astral published the first regular podcast of DJ Burnham's short stories
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.
