David trained as a pianist, later progressing to the Classical organ. Whilst a teenager he worked as a church organist
and choir master. Bored with the church organists life, he went on to study modern harmony and popular music.
This lead to his fascination with the cinema pipe organ.
Two Cinema organists were to influence him, Vic Hammett, who not only gave him a great deal of encouragement but
also arranged for David to try his first Cinema organ and Sydney Gustard, a pioneering cinema organist, who instilled
in David a love for the 'English' style of cinema organ playing.
By the late 1960's David could be found most weekends entertaining the east end crowds at the 'Rex' Stratford E15. Although a bingo hall when David played there, the building had been a cinema and still contained its Wurlitzer organ.
By the early 1970s he had become a full time electronic organ demonstrator for a chain of music shops stretching across East Anglia.
For the last thirty years David has travelled all over the country, performing in his very individual, vintage, English style.
He first played for the Cinema organ Society in 1972 and the Theatre organ club in 1973,
He has played for Granada theatres and the Rank organisation and occasionally gives recitals of British light music on church organs.
David has been the resident organist at the Mechanical Music Museum, Cotton since October 1982.
David at the Odeon, Leicester Square.
David Ivory
Organist /Entertainer