DAVE WARNER was born in Bicton, Western Australia, went to Aquinas College and grew up an ardent supporter of the East Fremantle Football Club. He attended the University of Western Australia, graduating with a B.A. (Hons.), majoring in Psychology.
The first of Dave’s seven crime novels City of Light won the 1996 WA Premier’s Award for Fiction and his most recent Before it Breaks, the 2016 Ned Kelly award for best crime fiction.
In 1973 Warner formed Pus, Australia’s first punk band. Influenced by bands like The Fugs, The Velvets and the Mothers Pus played early versions of Suburban Boy, Girls Wank and Hot Crotch – songs that he would late record with his very successful outfit Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs.
In 1975, Dave went to London and wrote many new songs which expressed a clearly-defined vision of Australia, including tracks such as Convict Streak and Oklahoma. Combined with the Pus material these became a style of music he dubbed “suburban rock”.
Dave formed The Suburbs in October 1976. The group developed a huge underground following, which led to Dave signing with Australia’s Mushroom Records in 1978. His first album, Mugs Game, went gold within a month of release. Dave’s second album, Free Kicks, was released in 1979. Travelling Australia at this time, Bob Dylan announced Warner and Richard Clapton his favourite Australian songwriters.
After the original Suburbs disbanded, Dave followed up with Correct Weight (1979), This is My Planet (1981 – reissued as This is Your Planet in 1996), Meanwhile in the Suburbs (EP – 1989), Dark Side of the Scrum (1989), Suburban Sprawl (1990), Surplus and Dearth (1995) and Loose Men, Tight Shorts (1996). More recently Dave released a soundtrack of his musical The King and Me, a combination of 2015 material and tracks recorded through the 90s and adapted to the stage show.
2016 album When marks the return to recording of Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs. Working with original Suburbs Tony Durant and John Dennison, and long-time Suburbs and recording collaborators Martin Cilia, Lloyd Gyi and Greg Macainsh, the album features a blend of new material and re-recorded original Suburbs songs. A legendary line-up includes musicians from bands Mental As Anything, Midnight Oil, Kevin Borich, Weddings Parties Anything, Loaded Dice, Little River Band, The Fingerprints and Mondo Rock.
The reason for the paucity of recordings is that since the early 80s Dave Warner has thrown his energy into writing plays, novels and screenplays.
In 1992 Dave was the inaugural inductee into the WA Rock’n’Roll of Renown.
Warner has always been interested in musicals. In 1982, he created The Sensational Sixties, an enormously successful revue which toured through large suburban hotels with Warner directing, producing and compering. After another trip overseas came comedy revues with Suburbs’ stalwart Johnny Leopard, Australia’s first Murder Mystery Weekends and in 1985 Warner wrote, and appeared in, the barn-storming musical The Sixties and All That Pop.
The show ran for six months, appearing at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and then doing a country tour of Western Australia. Later that same year, Warner’s rock musical, Planet Pres, was produced by the WA Theatre Company. One reviewer called it the “best Australian rock musical ever”.
Dave has written extensively for television and feature film. His first feature, Cut, was released in March 2000 and has been sold into every overseas territory.
2003 saw Dave co-write the screenplay for the feature film Garage Days with filmmaker Alex Proyas (I Robot, The Crow, Dark City). He has written for TV drama series McLeod’s Daughters, Rescue Special Ops, Wild Boys, Packed to the Rafters et al.
At various times Dave has acted on stage and in film and has called AFL football for radio.
Dave currently has a number of other feature film screenplays at various stages of development.
Dave lives in Sydney with wife Nicole, daughters Violet and Venice and son Gus.