The David Nolte Story
Apparently, this gig, and perhaps the wild punk crowd, was too much for original bassist Dave Harbison, who quit later that night. Fifteen-year-old David jumped at the chance to join the band and forced Joe to teach him to play bass. His first gig with The Last was a mere two weeks later, at the famed Whisky-a-Go-Go.
The Last began a series of changes, either caused by or resulting in a long string of personnel changes. At one point, in 1981, a close friend of Joe and David joined the band - Tom Underhill. Things didnšt work out, and Tom left two months later. David left The Last a month after that, joining Tom in a new band called Hector and the Clockwatchers - a great, but short-lived, band with a powerful keyboard prevalence - a sound that would later become synonymous with later 80's pop bands.
After the breakup of the Clockwatchers, David became involved with a number of local bands. L.A.'s local underground music scene at the time was basically a large, extended family - with band members often finding themselves in more than one band - often at the same time. One of these bands that David found himself involved with was Wednesday Week, a band fronted by Kristi Callan, David's future wife.
It was during his time with Maria McKee that David Gray performed as the opening act during a 1993 tour of the U.S. David Nolte caught his show and was immediately impressed. By the end of the tour, David had played a few times in David Gray's band. A few months after this, in early 94, David Gray contacted David about joining the band to record his album Flesh. The next year, David Gray asked David to join them on a tour of Ireland, which was followed by a tour with Radiohead. David officially joined the band in 1995, soon after producing David Gray's release Sell, Sell, Sell.
There were troubles with the record company at the time, which led to David Gray asking to be let out of his contract. Unfortunately, it was the record company who was paying David Nolte to fly to and from the U.S. So David stopped playing in the band at this point, with David Gray promising, I'm sure we'll play together again.
Now, some years later, David Nolte is back in the band for the current world tour, playing guitar, keyboards, and a few other instruments I can't even pronounce...
Many thanks to Dan Nolte, David's brother for taking the time to write this for us all.
David Nolte hails from Hermosa Beach, California, the fourth of five Nolte brothers. Oldest brother Joe formed a band called The Last back in 1976, which became an anchor in the local Los Angeles music scene in the late 70s and early 80s. Heavily influenced by the sound of sixties psychedelia and 70s punk rock, The Last played their first gig in January of 1978 at the famed LA punk institution The Masque - a true underground club which was really just the stinky concrete basement of a Hollywood porno theatre. They shared the bill with The Dils, The Avengers and F-Word.
Along with experimenting with different bands and their different musical styles, David also experimented with different instruments, learning guitar and keyboards. Among the varied artists hešs performed with are The Wondermints, Maria McKee, Rufus Wainwright, and Dave Davies.
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