Left Charterhouse in Dec 1963. Worked briefly for Seismograph in Keston, Kent contributing in the search for Oil in the North Sea. Then went to Denmark and worked on a Pig Farm for a short time. Sept. 1964, joined E.M.I. Records as Managerial Trainee. Left E.M.I. Records April 1967 to become a professional musician. Formed own band in 1968, which operated full time until Jan 1st 1974, during which time extensive tours were made of the U.K., Finland, Germany, Norway and Holland. After leaving E.M.I. he assumed the stage name of Dave Travis, which continues to this day. Also during this period, (1971) he lived for one year in Norway. Played also in the Faroe Islands.

Jan 1972, in addition to the band business, he was appointed as a consultant on a freelance basis to Southern Music, an American music publishing company with an office in London, in order to advise them on their specialist music catalogues. This situation continued until he left them on December 31st 1981, having acquired a very considerable knowledge of the music publishing business and the laws of copyright. During this first year period at Southern, he was still free to play concerts and tour and this period took him to places such as Trinidad, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bahrain, Oman, Dubai, Ras al Khaimah, Switzerland, France, Belgium and Sweden. In addition, he visited the Far East travelling through Thailand, Malaya, Singapore, Brunei and Sarawak, as well as Morocco and Tunisia in North Africa. In 1980, he also made his first visit to the U.S.A., representing England in an International Festival in Tennessee.

In 1979, he bought his own music publishing company called Ridgetop Music and, after leaving Southern Music, this became of prime importance. Further visits to the U.S.A. have helped to see the company catalogue of songs grow at a tremendous pace and partners in Sweden, Germany and Holland have been especially helpful. In 1981, a second company All Rock Music was formed in partnership with a Dutchman from Rotterdam and there are several companies in the U.S.A., which have exclusive agreements with Ridgetop.

The artistic side still continues, but there are less performances and more time given to record production and sale or that product.

His first LP record was issued in 1968 and since then around 20 LP's have been issued both here and abroad. EP's/singles and cassettes have been issued as well and the current project is for an LP release on Compact Disc in Switzerland. Many appearances on T.V. and radio again, both here and abroad.

As the band leader he was the "front man" acting as singer/guitarist. The band specialised in playing Country Music and Original Rock 'n Roll Music. During the period 1965-70, he was also very much involved with the Folk Song Revival in this country, performing shows with many artists such as Paul Simon and Al Stewart, who became very popular in later years. In this field of music, he was always considered a very accomplished guitarist. He has also had two books of music published.

Reprinted from: Lidderdale, Halliday Adair, The Descendants of John Lidderdale 1783-1845, 1988 unpublished manuscript.