The David Forbes Band

Cammy (David) Forbes - vocals, guitar, keyboards

Brian McNiell - keyboards (84 - 85)

Robert McGinley - keyboards (85)

Scott Ramsey - bass

Eddie Walton JR - lead Guitar

Davie Edgar - drums, vocals

In April 1984 Cammy Forbes set up a new band after the sudden split a few months earlier of the hugely successful Glasgow band The Dolphins. effectively going solo he called his new band ‘David Forbes’ changing his name to David (his middle name). The name change was (among other reasons) representative of a change in direction and a new era for Cammy who was still in his mid 20s, still had record company interest from The States and a publishing deal with Rondor Music. The David Forbes Band had Cammy on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards, Davie Edgar (the original Dolphins drummer) on drums & backing vocals, Brian McNeill on keyboards & vocals, Scott Ramsey on Bass and Eddie Walton jnr (ex Underhand Jones) on lead guitar. around ten Dolphins tracks carried over into the David Forbes set, classics such as… ‘Best Years of my youth’ ‘Tonight’ ‘Just another mother’ and ‘Running’ - which was originally an Underhand Jones song. New songs were brought in… ‘Save our sons’ ‘Runaway girls’ ‘Towels and razors’ ‘Walk away’ ‘Run against the tide’ and more. David Forbes music was clever, melodic rock, similar to The Dolphins but some of the new songs had a heavier slightly edgier guitar sound, add to that mix, classically trained Brian McNeill who showed amazing dexterity and speed on keyboards on tracks like ‘Let the reasons be known’ and ‘Me and no one else’ and drummer Davie Edgar who was one of the most talented and accomplished drummers in Glasgow from that era. Most of the crowd who had followed The Dolphins went on to follow David Forbes with the band playing in front of thousands at The Mayfair and the late night gig at Kelvingrove on Glasgow Fair Friday 1984, other venues the band played were ‘The Doune’ on the Clydeside, ‘Shadows’ on Bath street, The Kelvingrove Festivals in 84 and 85 as well as gigs all around Scotland. In February 1985 Robert McGinley took over on keyboards replacing Brian McNeill who had left David Forbes to join China Crisis, Brian played keyboards on the next two China Crisis albums, ‘What Price Paradise (1986) and ‘Diary of a Hollow Horse’ (1989) as well as a couple of China Crisis Live albums, he was also involved in the writing, string arrangements and production with the band. The David Forbes band split up in August 1985 when Cammy suddenly decided to quit the band just as they were about to take the gear off of the bus at a gig in Shadows. Quote from Cammy Forbes - 2007 Interview. - "I've been round this block so many times, in fact I thought I caught myself coming out of a gig when I was going into it! you know that sort of thing? So I decided then to pack the band in." . In 1987 Rondor music were still showing interest in Cammy’s material so he moved to London living in a house provided by Rondor Music owner Gerry Bron, He started recording songs for an album at The Roundhouse studios in London, one notable track from those sessions was the song ‘Loser in love’ a distinctively new sound for Cammy with thick multy tracked backing vocals assisted vocally by his mates from the Stoke based band ‘Mad Hatter’. Unfortunately the Rondor deal fell through and Cammy moved back to Glasgow in 1988. Brian McNeill carried on playing gigs with China Crisis into the 90s then opened a recording studio called Gravity Studios in Glasgow. Scott Ramsey worked as the musical director for Glasgow comedian Gary Moir, In 2012 Scott played guitar in a Dolphins reunion gig at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow and now gigs under the name “Stixx Diamond”. Davie Edgar went on to play drums in the final line up of ‘H20’ in 1986 and is still playing and involved with the live scene in Glasgow today. Apart from a brief couple of charity gigs in 1993 and two Dolphins reunion gigs in 2012, Cammy Forbes - singer, guitarist, piano/keyboard player and one of the best songwriters to come out of Glasgow, retired from the music scene aged just 28. In 1989 Cammy started up a P.A. business with his brother Kieth (Ski) called Hyper P.A. were he worked as a sound Engineer until his retirement in 2021.