The David Mackin Music Show

A Brave New Start

2025 will see a massive change for me. Having played in the top Teesside band The Beer Pigs for 30 years I feel that it is time to step out on my own. Over the last year I have thoroughly enjoyed taking my solo show on the road and it has been a big success in the bars around Teesside. I will be stepping away from The Beer Pigs in February and taking my Solo Show further afield. I have discussed my reasons behind my decision in more detail in my latest block entry. You can read this by clicking here

I have some exciting dates booked throughout Teesside, The UK and Ireland over the year. I would like to thank the many Landlords, Corporations, Wedding Couples and Party People who have booked The Beer Pigs and supported us over the last 30 years. It has been an honour to play for you all and I have made a lot of great friends along the way.

Something A Bit Different

I believe that my show is unique. As musicians we all tend to perform a series of songs that go down well with an audience and many groups play the same sorts of things. I have really dug into the classics from the last 60 years and realise many have been overlooked. As I have triend them in my show the reaction has been astonishing. You can see a full list of the evolving set I am working from by clicking here. I perform these incredible songs on either my guitar, trumpet or keyboard with a video backdrop behind me. I perform songs from classic artists such as: Billy Joel, Elton John, The Beatles, The Verve, Gerry Rafferty, Harry Nilsson, Tears For Fears, Oasis, Human League, George Michael, A-Ha, The Beautiful South.....to many to list. Any backing tracks I use have been created by myself and many of my performances on the various instruments on the tracks are captured are in the videos projected behind me.

A One Man Band

I am the ultimate "one man band" that nobody understands. I play classic synth pop songs by bands like Everything But The Girl, The Pet Shop Boys and The Human League. I will really make your venue sing and dance armed with only a keyboard, guitar and a trumpet.

If you are interested in booking me for your venue please reach out to me on the contact tab above. I am looking to fill my diary throughout the year.

If you would like to see a list of the huge range of diverse songs I perform in my sets please Click Here to download the list.

Original Material

Behind all of this I am actually a singer songwriter with a lot of original material developed. Throughout the resot of this site you can explore my output from the last 30 years in preparation for my next album 'The Ring Of Gullion' that I will begin recording in the summer. I have also created a Music Manifesto to focus my creative pursuits. I will totally enjoy making music on my own terms and look forward to an exciting future doing so.

The Hermitage Suite

My latest album The Hermitage Suite is available worldwide on all major digital streaming platforms. Over the coming months I will be releasing various new videos to accompany the release and some low key live shows are being organised.

The Hermitage Suite is an enhanced re-release of my first album that I originally released twenty five years ago. This is, most certainly, my most intimate and personal album. You can read more about the album and the songs involved over the coming months on my blog and podcasts from this website.

I have thoroughy enjoyed the creative process of enhancing my original 4-Track recordings from 25 years ago. The Beatles have recently released 'Now And Then' with the tape recording of John Lennon brought back to life with AI and finally making the song fit for release.
I used the same technology to enhance a recording of my Dad, Laurence Mackin, also from 1978 which was the keystone of this album. The original release in 1998 could never have achieved what is possible today.

I have always been a fan of album sleeve notes as I feel they really enhance the listeing experience. Mindful of this, I have created a small book to accompany the album. Please feel free to download it here to enhance your listening pleasure on your preferred streaming platform. Click here to download the pdf.

Latest Blog Entry

Murder In The Rain Video

As a slight intermission to my Hermitage Suite releases, I couldn't let the 22nd December 2023 go unmarked. The date just happens to be a hundred years since my fictional character of Albert McGuinness was brutally murdered whilst walking home to his family from work on December 22nd 1923. To mark the occasion I have spruced the video with some new images and footage, along with a brand new mix of the song.

I will never know why I picked that date back in 1987 when I wrote that song. Back then, the 1920s were a very long time ago. I couldn't even envisage what the 2020s would be like and, here we are in a heartbeat!

The song was a condemnation of violence in all its forms. The gangster crimes of the 1920s compared, at the time, to the violence in Northern Ireland and then later the Middle East.

Now in 2023, I am ashamed to say that our planet can never learn the lessons of the past to make the future a better place for our children. What is currently happening on planet Earth at the moment sickens me to the core of my soul: especially Ukrane and Gaza. Violence is never the answer to anything. Innocent people are always caught up in these matters as the great money machines of war spin on. I truly hope that 2024 can bring peace to these lovely people........ Click Here To Read More

Concert At Saabat Art Gallery

On 7th December 2023 I played my first solo concert in twenty years to a full house in the glorious Saabat Art Gallery in South Bank. I have never enjoyed performing as much as I did this magical night. It was intimate and very personal and I loved it.

The Saabat Art Gallery is an incredible hub for an exciting new art movement that I have been keen to support since I discovered it during the Covid 19 Lockdown era. It was a real honour to be asked to perform my songs at the first of many concerts at this very special place. Over the coming months I will release some videos from the performance but, for now, here is a recording of one of my newest compositions that will appear on my next album 'The Ring Of Gullion'. The song is inspired by stories that my Uncles told me of a horse tethered to the back of a Cinema in South Bank called The Majestic. As the horse would throw every child who tried to ride it straigh off, they all believed it Was Roy Roger's Horse.

My Vision As A Musical Artist

I firmly believe that music is a serious art form and can encompass all the disciplines of traditional and modern art. From the fantastic artwork created for posters and album covers to the stunning filmmaking and photography that has gone into the production of Music Videos. Wonderful words have been written in articles, revues and analytical essays on the classics. I bring all of these elements to my original music and hope to use this website as a showcase for each of them.

I hope to achieve all of these aims with this website and make this a place where a deeper and more intellectual exploration can occur on the many subjects surrounding music-making. I hope to write about influential songwriters, analyse songs and production techniques, create stunning cinematic videos and present my music in its most digestible formats for my audience.

To survive and flourish, music has evolved over the last few hundred years and presented itself in the most accessible and innovative mediums. From simple sheet music that has allowed us to play the musical ideas of the great composers to the first recordings, we have been able to interpret the most amazing music in new and exciting ways. Libraries of brilliant articles have been written on music, artists and production methods that have allowed music to become a completely immersive experience. We are now living in a world where spatial audio can be experienced on a pair of headphone buds. We can view movie resolutions of stunning clarity surpassing 4k which now looks as good as real film. And all of this can be created on a computer by just one person with the knowledge to create anything an imagination dictates.

This website will allow me to do all of this. I can present my music, videos, podcasts, live shows and blog all from the one place.

More Blog Entries

New additions will be added every Friday. My journal will grow and grow.

A Haunting Glimpse into Nature's Reclamation

Imagine, if you can, that humans no longer occupied Planet Earth. What would happen to the remaining infrastructure?

In a hauntingly beautiful visit to Inishark, situated off the rugged West Irish Coast, my family and I were granted a unique and privileged view of nature's indomitable power to reclaim a once-thriving human infrastructure. Our expedition, for a video shoot of my Hermitage Suite track 'As Wise As A Serpent,' presented an awe-inspiring spectacle of a world where humans no longer occupied the planet.......Click Here To Read More

Nick Drake

I first heard the haunting sound of Nick Drake during my early twenties when a few friends, Bob Bruce and Ian McElroy, thought that I might appreciate his music (given my taste for bohemian-styled folk music). Nothing could have prepared me for the deeply meaningful messages conveyed in the songs of this stunning enigmatic songwriter. I was hooked from that moment on.

Bob introduced me to a few individual tracks on a mixtape along with songs by a contemporary of Nick Drake, John Martyn. Ian on the other hand, on loaning me 'Five Leaves Left', made me realise that to fully appreciate Nick Drake, one should only ever attempt an initial listen on the basis of a consuming a full album............... Click Here To Read More

If you have any comments that you would like to make about my website, please pop along and leave a comment on my social media areas. It will nice to engage with you on your own opinions.