Biography

Dave Sheriff is probably more recently best known for his knockout performance on the 2025 series of the ITV show Britain’s Got Talent where he received the unanimous maximum vote by all four judges when he performed his self penned song ‘Blackpool By The Sea’ at the live auditions from the Blackpool Opera House and received a standing ovation from the 2800 strong audience with everyone including Simon Cowell singing along (still available to view on YouTube), but he has been making a living from singing and playing his songs since turning professional 1972

Dave was born in the heart of the country on the Doverdale Estate near Droitwich in Worcestershire, England where his father worked as a gamekeeper. The family then moved to the Reading area of Berkshire where he made his first public appearance at Bradfield Village Hall back in 1958 playing the harmonica before moving to the village of Gallowstree Common and attending Chiltern Edge Secondary School where he was an active member of the school choir and after school ‘beat group’.

After teaching himself to play the drums, he progressed to guitar and then started playing all three instruments together to become a very popular ‘One Man Band’ 

During the 1970s, he worked as a session musician playing harmonica and keyboards on TV shows with Kelvin Henderson and Pete Sayers and whilst working at the prestigious Wembley Country Music Festivals in London, worked with some of the top American Country Artistes of the time and went on to play piano & harmonica on the 1977 international tour with Country legend Slim Whitman which concluded at the prestigios London Palladium.

Dave then went back to his one man band routes raising money for charity by attempting and gaining nine world record entries in the Guinness Book of Records between 1982 and 1989 by playing the most musical instruments at the same time and also his three instruments at the same time, for the longest time (9 days & 8 nights) raising much needed funds for Hospices. 

This led to TV appearances across Europe as well as two appearances with Roy Castle on BBC TVs 'Record Breakers'

He began writing and recording in 1991 and his debut CD album ‘One Man Band Extraordinaire’ containing sixteen of his own songs was awarded ‘Best Album’ at the 1993 ‘UK Country Music Radio Awards’. He then went on to write his well known songs Best Of Friends and Red Hot Salsa and then to record in Nashville with his own personal choice of A list musicians including the legendary 'Jordanaires' known for their association with Elvis Presley. 

One of the songs that he recorded was a tribute to his dad called ‘I Couldn’t Find The Words To Say Goodbye’ where he was joined by Grand Ole Opry stalwart Porter Wagoner who truly conveyed the emotion in the special verse that Dave had written.

Porter was so impressed with his talent that he invited him to appear Live at the Grand Ole Opry in June 2000 which can be seen by searching ‘Dave Sheriff Grand Ole Opry’ on YouTube or clicking this link https://youtu.be/cxRIvfQ7f3Q?si=5pEvfuX8wo4HNxj8

Dave returned to Nashville in September 2005 to start recording the highly acclaimed ’Overworked & Underpaid’ album.

Included on this album is the song ‘I wish I had a Bassman like The Jordanaires’ which is a tribute to tremendous contribution made by the group, and its bass singer Ray Walker, to the music business stretching right back to 1950s - they claim to have backed over 3000 artistes during their career! - you can purchase this album now from the CD page 

Although now living at Telford in Shropshire, Dave Sheriff is known in Ireland for writing hit songs after popular Irish singer Ann Breen had tremendous success with his song ‘Best Of Friends’ and Frank McCaffrey made ‘Your Special Day’ the title of his 1995 album for Ritz Records bringing his music to the attention of the Irish Country Music scene and many of their top singers have had great success with his songs including ‘Where’s the Party’ and ‘All Friends Together’ for Declan Nerney, ‘Will Ya Dance’ for Michael English, ‘Let it Shine’ for Brendan Shine, A Friend In Need and ‘Hey Ho Away We Go’ for Robert Mizzell and ‘Best Of Friends’ for Mike Denver, ‘Waltz Of A Lifetime’ for Irish Queen Of Country Philomena Begley and many others.

He has been inducted into both the Line Dance and British Country Music Hall of Fame as well as receiving the Hot Country TV award for his contributions to the Irish Country Music industry.

Dave has now semi-retired after a successful career spanning more than five decades where he has performed his record breaking One Man Band show for Guinness Book Of Records from Inverness in Scotland to France, Holland, Austria, Finland and

Rome in Italy, followed by his Country Music and Line Dance appearances in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, USA, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Denmark.