Blown away by global success

WHISTLER supreme: Dave Morris

MARTYN MEETS... Dave Morris, Oldham’s champion whistler
WHISTLE while you work is a well-known refrain — and Dave Morris’s beguiling ability to whistle a little tune has turned his life round.

The charming, bubbly, infectious imp of a man — with his permanent cheeky-chappy smile — is a genuine Oldham celebrity.

Last Friday the Chronicle celebrated 10 years of Pride in Oldham, our annual accolades recognising and rewarding hundreds of people who have done their bit for this grand old place.

To the best of my knowledge, Dobcross Dave has never even been nominated and it’s an omission that should lead to a public inquiry. How many world champions have we, after all?

Yet this is a title that Dave — 61 going on 40 — can rightly claim after a stunning triumph in the world whistling championship in that bustling hub of lip puckering — Louisburg in North Carolina.

That was back in 2002, not too long after he was “outed” as a whistler supreme following a closet career in the dining rooms of Saddleworth.

“I used to whistle to myself and felt I was quite good, but for a long time I just did it for pleasure. A few close friends knew I could whistle and would ask me to perform after dinner and at parties but it wasn’t until I went on holiday to Rhodes that I decided to do something about it.”

Dave’s eureka moment came while lying on a hotel sun lounger with his wife Helen alongside, poolside.

“I picked all the songs in my head, worked out who would play as accompaniment and then turned to Helen and laid bare my plans,” he told me at his home in the centre of Dobcross village.

He and Helen live in the little house at the top of hill, the one with Saddleworth Bank on the front. It’s one of those properties I have been running past and driving by for nigh-on 40 years — and always wondered about the interior. It’s a veritable rabbit warren — had the old bankers of Saddleworth hidden the money upstairs any potential burglars would have been lost in a maze. But just like its owners, the house oozes charm, including a shower inside an old red telephone box!

Helen is obviously as patient as she is gracious for when Dave, who was earning a living as health food salesman — area sales manager for Potter’s Health Foods in Wigan — announced his plans for a whistling CD his wife was the very embodiment of support.

And so a career was launched on the bonny banks of the Aegean.

“Whistling Down the Wind” was recorded at studios in Ripponden, supported by hand-picked musicians from Dave’s brass-band background, and was the precursor of a stellar career.

“I don’t sell bog rolls or vitamin pills anymore,” he smiled over his coffee mug from his comfy armchair at the very top of the cute gingerbread house.

It is a somehow very appropriate setting for a tale of, well not exactly rags to riches but certainly pills to pennies.

Dave has just recorded his fourth CD — a collection of Christmas songs — and now makes a living as a whistler supreme and private tuition in his first love, the cornet.

The major change in his life came about when he discovered, via the internet, the World Whistling Championships in the States.

He and Helen planned a two-week holiday around his participation and so they found themselves in America’s Deep South — not quite “Deliverance” country but not far off — performing against 70 other wannabes.

Dave was the only Brit in the competition but the opposition was blown away and he found himself one of the chosen few in the whistle-off.

In the classical category he whistled the last movement from Hadyn’s trumpet concerto followed by Trumpet Triplets as his populist offering.

“The final was in a huge theatre, live on CBS Television, in a front of a packed audience,” said Dave, adding: “I started with Monti’s Czardas and then whistled Stars and Stripes Forever. The crowd went wild.”

He recalls collecting a “trophy and a bit of cash” which he had Helen spend on their American road trip through Memphis, Nashville and New Orleans.

A friend in Saddleworth had used his influence at the BBC to send out a one-woman film crew to capture Dave’s world triumph and once the footage found its way back to Manchester he was being interviewed live on “North-West Tonight” by legendary broadcaster Gordon Burns.

That triumph also led to appearances on national television with the likes of Des O’Connor and Philip Schofield, and allowed him to claim what is now one of his greatest treasures — a “Blue Peter” badge.

“I’ve been on the radio four times with Chris Evans — he seems to like me because I was voted his second most popular phone-in guest. I was beaten to top spot by a banjo player from Brighton. Can you believe it?”

Within 12 months of him carrying off the world title, Dave — who was born in Greenfield and has lived in the valleys ever since — had given up his life on the road, cast aside his car full of herbal remedies and turned professional.

Prior to elevation to the world stage, Dave made his living as a salesman, initially with Kimberley Clark as their northern sales rep — that’s where the toilet rolls came in — and latterly with Potter’s.

In between, he worked as a peripatetic music teacher with the Rochdale Music Service. He clearly enjoyed these times, but the work was sporadic and for an inveterate musician the frustration grew.

For it has to be remembered that whistling is Dave’s second career. His first was brass bands and Dave is the former Great Britain champion cornet player.

It is from the brass bands of the Saddleworth hills that Dave has mined his love of music, starting as a teenager when his father Harry was the non-playing secretary of Boarshurst Band.

“Dad came home one night after band practice and told me they had a few spare instruments if I fancied going along.”

The rest, as they say, is history. The Hulme Grammar pupil was hooked on the cornet and inspired by the conductor, Mr Gibson, he practised hard and often. Then Hulme Grammar formed a school orchestra. One of his pals was in the brass section and asked to help him one lunchtime with a difficult piece.

Dave said: “I was showing him how when the music teacher heard me and he shouted ‘Morris — I never knew you could play, you’re in!’”

Dave was far from in, rejecting Hulme’s overtures in favour of his Boarshurst commitments. His career took off and in 1975, having been mentored and coached by legendary cornet player Norman Ashcroft, musical director of the Fairey Engineering Band, he was persuaded to enter the national championships.

The contest took place in Oxfordshire and Dave’s rendition of Fantasia Brilliante by Arban in front of hundreds in the Morris Motors Social Club at Cowley carried him to the title.

“It was unforgettable — I could hardly breathe and my eyes were stinging. There wasn’t a smoking ban then!”

Dave has retained his love of music, having been musical director at Boarshurst on two occasions, and now offers private tuition while concentrating on his whistling career.

Since turning professional he has performed in the United States — Chicago is his favourite city — 10 times and has also had concerts in New Zealand as well as performing all over the country.

In addition to these performances he also takes after-dinner bookings, whistling and relating anecdotes I suspect come as naturally as his nascent talent for whistling.

I lost count of the number of times during out 90-minute chat that he burst spontaneously into a rendition of what ever tune we were discussing.



Listen to sample tracks from Dave’s website at www.davidmorris-whistler.com.

Martyn Meets will return in January when Debbie Abrahams MP will look back on her first 12 months in office.