Mangadoo

David was born near Bristol, England and was raised in a village called Mangotsfield, South Gloucestershire. After leaving school at sixteen he successfully gained an electrical apprenticeship at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station.

During his teens, David learnt to sing and play guitar and performed in local bands throughout his apprenticeship years. After the completion of his apprenticeship, he later became a solo artist (aka – Lee David) and for three years played the UK cabaret circuit with some moderate success regularly supporting many of the major recording artists and comedians of the time.

In 1982, David migrated to Perth, Western Australia. He worked as a professional musician for twelve months. In 1984 he moved to the Pilbara region in the far North West of Western Australia to work on the then new Burrup Peninsula Gas Plant with Woodside.

In the Pilbara, David became actively involved in the administration of junior and senior sports; he became a committee member of the Nor West Jockey Club at Roebourne; and managed and played bass guitar in the very successful ‘Mugshots’ band which regularly toured around the Pilbara towns in the late eighties.

To David, the Nor West Jockey Club became one of his passions after the entire race club facilities were destroyed 1989 by Cyclone Orson.  After the cyclone he became one of a small band of committee members who raised the funds to rebuild the club and many weekends were spent throughout the following years working at the hot and dusty Roebourne Racecourse.

The race club was rebuilt and David, in his role as the Promotions and Marketing Manager for the Nor West Jockey Club, set about re-marketing the club.  He convinced the committee to market the club from the ‘heritage angle’. He conducted extensive research on the history of the race club which he was able to use in promotional activities.  David’s vision proved very successful because the club soon became one of the best supported country race clubs in Western Australia.

Following his success with the Nor West Jockey Club he identified the need for a magazine to promote Country Racing in Western Australia. He self funded, edited and managed a quarterly publication initially known as ‘Country Racing WA’ and within twelve months it developed into a very successful racing magazine called ‘Racing West’.

In 1994 David looked for a career change and subsequently moved to Adelaide, South Australia, to take up the role as the manager of an ailing plastics factory in Elizabeth. He successfully turned the business around in three months and became the company’s National Operations Manager and developed a long standing reputation for re-engineering manufacturing businesses.

On a return visit to the Pilbara during 1994 David attended the Roebourne Cup.  In was at this event he was bestowed a ‘Life Membership’ to the race club which he humbly regarded as a great honour.   As a result of this award and a racing article he read on the return flight to Adelaide, David was inspired to start writing ‘Mangadoo’ – a book that had its roots back in the days he spent researching the race club’s history. 

Some time later, David returned to Perth to assist with the setting up of an asset management business in the booming mining industry of Western Australia. Once again David enjoyed success and the business became a leader in its field. 

Over the next fifteen years David continued to enjoy success with his employment and at the same time continued his research for the book.  He credits family holidays in Coral Bay in Western Australia as a time and place where he found the most inspiration to write. 

In 2008 David fulfilled another dream to record a CD of his songs about the Pilbara. Over the previous few years he had written the words and music for ten songs about his beloved Pilbara. His main inspiration was that he had always watched, jealously, the musical attention the Kimberley’s regularly received in Australia and wanted to put the Pilbara on the map. 

With ex ‘Mugshots’ band friend, Steve Spouse, they flew to Sydney and over two weeks recorded the album ‘Nor West Friends’ at Rocket Studios where they were assisted by some of Australia’s best musicians.  David set up his own independent label and managed the design, production, marketing and distribution of the CD.

David and Steve formed the ‘Mesa Band’ (www.mesaband.com.au) and toured Western Australia to promote the CD.  The band enjoyed some moderate success with one song ‘Kanaji Binbaku’ which was nominated for a West Australian WAMI award.  Several of the tracks from the ‘Nor West Friends’ CD have since appeared on promotional DVDs and foreign documentaries. Perhaps the biggest accolade is having the song ‘Fly In, Fly Out’ listed on the ABC Radio, ‘Top 100 - Australia All Over’ CD.

David also wrote and recorded the song ‘Warlu Way’ for an international Australian North West tourism campaign.

He successfully registered the Vietnamese copyrights to his songs and a CD called ‘Hello Vietnam’ was released in Saigon in August 2012. The CD did much better than expected and three of the songs made the ‘cultural playlist’ of Saigon FM.

In 2014 David wrote and recorded a song called ‘Forever We Will Run’ for the Vietnam Swans Aussie Rules team. The song tells the story of how Aussie Rules football was first played by the Aussies in Vietnam in 1967 and has been enjoyed by many of the Vietnam Vets who played footy in Vung Tau during the Vietnam War period.

David may be contacted direct on mobile - 0437 469 500 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .