David Gates

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gates

There are several other photos of David Ashworth Gates under the Media Tab Above. The following article is from the July 9, 1997, issue of the Los Angeles Times, entitled, "70's Hit-Maker BREAD to Serve Slices of Past", written by John Roos, as a special article to the Times, and reads as follows:

Pop Music: It was the chance to play abroad that gave rise to the band's 25th anniversary tour, an opportunity for front man, David Gates, in Costa Mesa on Friday, says 'was just too good to pass up.'

When singer-songwriter-guitarist David Gates bid adieu to the L.A. rat race 10 years ago, it wasn't long before he grew fond of the slower-paced, rural lifestyle provided by his 6,500-acre ranch near Lake Shasta. Spending more time with his wife--and up to 550 head of cattle--felt like a natural transition to the Oklahoma native.

Sure, once in a while Gates got the urge to write some new songs. In 1994, he was coaxed out of semi-retirement to record a solo LP titled "Love Is Always Seventeen" (Elektra Records). But a reunion of his old band--'70s soft-rock hit-makers Bread--was the furthest thing from his mind.

Then a phone call a couple of years ago from a South African-born, Los Angeles-based concert promoter named Selwyn Miller changed all that. The longtime Bread fan was the catalyst behind the group's ongoing 25th anniversary world tour, which arrives at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Friday night.

"Selwyn called me and said, 'Ya know, Bread is still very popular worldwide. Have you ever thought about doing any touring outside of America?' " recalled Gates during a recent phone interview. "And I told him we always wanted to, but we broke up before we ever got the chance."

After mulling it over, Gates began to like the idea more. In February, all four members gathered (for the first time in 17 years) in a Nashville hotel room and agreed to a reunion tour. Miller became the group's manager.

"I really had no great desire to play in the States again," Gates said. "But to do the tour we never got to do, and play our hit songs in all of these foreign countries, was just too good to pass up."

At first glance, some may mistakenly lump Bread into the let's-milk-our-oldies circuit frequented by America, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Chicago and the like. Sure, they too offer plenty of oldies. But the quartet hasn't performed them live since it disbanded for a second time in 1978, and its current tour materialized only because of Gates' desire to finally play abroad.

Before committing to this reunion, Gates--the group's leader and principal singer-songwriter--wanted one thing understood. This was to be a low-pressure, two-year commitment to tour in celebration of the group's 25th anniversary. The band, which also features singer-songwriter-guitarist James Griffin, drummer Mike Botts and multi-instrumentalist Larry Knechtel--plus touring lead guitarist Randy Flowers--was not re-forming to make records and tour like they once did.

That agreed to, David Gates & Bread is performing selected dates in 12 U.S. cities while between legs of an extended world tour. The trek began in the fall in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and moves later this year into Southeast Asia and Europe.

At 21, Gates was itching to leave college back in '62 to make a name for himself as a musician. So he struck a deal with his father, musical director of Tulsa's public school system. He had two years to make something of himself in the music business, or he'd return to his studies as a music major at the University of Oklahoma.

Gates packed his wife, Jo Rita, and two small children into a beat-up, 10-year-old Cadillac and drove to Los Angeles. Before long he was a string arranger and pop songwriter, and he got his first big break by writing the Murmaids' 1963 hit song, "Popsicles and Icicles."

Gates also composed and/or arranged songs for the Monkees, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Connie Stevens and Shelley Fabares. But it was a growing desire to sing his own songs that lead him in 1969 to form Bread, which was originally a trio consisting of Gates, Griffin and vocalist-guitarist Robb Royer. A year later, the band crashed the pop charts with its first No. 1 single, "Make It With You."

Bread's smooth, mellow love songs and ballads, which subsequently included "If," "It Don't Matter to Me," "Baby I'm-A Want You," "Diary," "Aubrey," "Guitar Man" and "Everything I Own," among others, were radio staples in their heyday, charting 11 Top 40 hits between 1970 and 1974. Their hits still can be heard today on classic rock and adult-contemporary radio stations, and so far this summer, the group's been consistently filling 2,000-seat concert halls.

What's behind the enduring appeal? Gates believes that "each tune's sing-a-long structure" keeps Bread's catalog from gathering mold. Or simply put, it's those darn catchy hooks. "The quality song survives because the melody and chorus . . . make you want to hear it repeatedly without getting tired of it," explains Gates, 57, who wrote all of the band's Top 10 hits. "Timeless songs are those that are hummable without wearing your ear out."

Yet by 1974, Gates broke up the band because Bread was "unable to match the quality of songs we'd had on our first five albums." (The foursome did reunite for one more album, 1977's "Lost Without Your Love," and its supporting tour.)

"We just couldn't write anything that was worthy of the 'Bread' name, so instead of tarnishing our reputation, I felt it was time to call it a day," said Gates, who lists Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Sophie B. Hawkins, Clint Black and the Wallflowers' Jakob Dylan as being among today's top songwriters. "It's always meant a lot to me to write good songs and have them recognized by my peers as well as the public."

Gates does have a personal favorite of the group's hits. Because the romantic "If" has been covered so many times and played at countless weddings, Gates considers it to be his best song. He's heard it in the oddest of places. "I was standing in the men's restroom at this rodeo one time, and the guy in the urinal next me was whistling 'If,' " Gates recalled with a chuckle. "I didn't say anything, but I thought, 'Well, I guess I've made it.' "

"Success is not about money. To realize that something you've done is known and enjoyed by so many people, boy, that's the ultimate reward."

David Gates & Bread perform Friday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Livingston Taylor opens. 8 p.m. $34-$50. (714) 556-2121.

THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FROM WIKIPEDIA:

David Ashworth Gates, born December 11, 1940, is an American signer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the group Bread, which reached the tops of the musical charts in Europe and North America on several occasions in the 1970's. The band was inducted in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Gates was surrounded by music from infancy, as the son of a band director and a piano teacher. He became proficient in piano, bass and guitar by the time he enrolled in Tulsa's Will Rogers High School. Gates joined local bands around Tulsa. During a concert in 1957, his high school band backed Chuck Berry. Later, Gates released his first local hit single, "Jo-Baby," a song he had written for his sweetheart, Jo Rita, whom he married in 1958 while enrolled at the University of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma he became a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.

In 1961, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Gates continued writing songs, and he worked as a music copyist, as a studio musician, and as a producer for many artists, including Pat Boone. Success soon followed. His composition, "Popsicles and Icicles" hit No. 3 on the U.S. Hot 100 for the Murmaids in January 1964. The Monkees recorded another of his songs, "Saturday's Child". By the end of the 1960's, he had worked for many leading artists, including Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Merle Haggard, Duane Eddy and Brian Wilson. In 1965, Gates arranged the Glen Yarborough hit, "Baby the Rain Must Fall". In 1966, he produced two singles on A&M Records for Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band which were hits in the Los Angeles area.

In the meantime, Gates had been releasing singles of his own on several labels in the early 1960's. On Mala Records, he released "Manchester 101", "There's a Heaven/She Don't Cry", "you'll Be My Baby/What's This I Hear", "The Happiest Man Alive/A Road That Leads to Love", and "Jo Baby/Teardrops in My Heart". On Planetary, he released "Little Miss Stuck Up/The Brighter Side," and "Let You Go/Once Upon a Time" under the Pseudonym of "Del Asley" in 1965. On Del-Fi, he released "No One Really Loves a Clown/You Had it Comin' to Ya". he also released a single under the name of "The Manchesters" in 1965 on the Vee Jay Label.

In 1967, Gates produced and arranged the debut album of a band called The Pleasure Fair of which Robb Royer was a member. A little over a year later, Gates and Royer got together with Jimmy Griffin to form Bread. The group was signed by Elektra, where it would remain for the eight years of its existence. It released its first album, Bread, in 1969, which peaked at No. 127 on the Billboard 200. The first single, "Dismal Day," written by Gates, was released in June 1969 but did not sell well.

Bread's second album, On the Water (a play on Ecclesiastes 11:1), with a new drummer, Mike Botts, was released in 1970, and became a breakout success. It contained the No. 1 single "Make It with You" and was the first of seven consecutive Bread albums to go Gold in the U.S. Bread's next three albums, Manna (1971), Baby I'm-a Want You (1972) (featuring Larry Knechtel as a new member of the band, replacing Royer), and Guitar Man (1972) were also successful, with more chart singles and gold records. From 1970 to 1973, Bread charted 11 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, all of which were written and sung by Gates. That caused some antagonism between Gates and Griffin, who was also a significant contributor to Bread's albums as a singer and songwriter. Bread disbanded in 1973, much to the surprise of fans and the music industry. Their last concern was performed at the Salt palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gates recorded and produced his solo album First in 1973. The single "Clouds," an edited version of the album track "Suite Clouds and Rain," peaked at No. 47 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The full album version was played extensively by Radio Caroline Presenter Samantha Dubois at the end of her early morning radio program and became her closing theme. A second single, "Sail Around The World," reached No. 50 on the singles chart and No. 11 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album reached No. 107 on Billboard's album chart. In 1975 Gates released the album Never Let Her Go. The title track was released as a single, and reached No. 29 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The album itself reached No. 102 on the Billboard 200.

Bread reunited in 1976 for one album, Lost Without Your Love, released late that year. The title track—again written and sung by Gates—reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. Bread then disbanded again, and at the end of 1977, Gates released what would be his most successful single as a solo artist, The Goodbye Girl, from the 1977 film of the same name. It peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978. To capitalize on that success, Gates put an album together in 1978 that featured material from his first two solo albums mixed with some new material. It yielded another hit single, "Took the Last Train," which reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 but the album itself made it only to No. 165 on the Billboard 200. Botts and Knechtel from Bread, along with Warren Ham and his brother Bill Ham and their band, continued to record and tour with Gates. On one tour they were billed as "David Gates & Bread," which brought a lawsuit from Griffin, and an injunction against the use of the name Bread. The dispute was resolved in 1984.

Gates released the albums Falling In Love Again (featuring "Where Does the Loving Go"), which peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1979, and Take Me Now, which peaked at No. 62, in 1981. He recorded a duet with Melissa Manchester, "Wish We Were Heroes," included in her 1982 album Hey Ricky. Gates was less active in music during the remainder of the 1980s. He concentrated on operating a cattle ranch in Northern California, located on land he purchased in the 1970s. He returned to music in 1994, when he released Love Is Always Seventeen, his first new album in thirteen years.

Gates and Griffin put aside their differences, and reunited for a final Bread tour in 1996-1997 with Botts and Knechtel. With the deaths of three of the other principal members of Bread, Gates is the sole surviving band member from their heyday, although Royer still successfully works in Nashville.

The David Gates Songbook, containing earlier hit singles and new material, was released in 2002. Frank Sinatra covered the song “If” in a live performance at Madison Square Garden on October 12, 1974 ,which was recorded by Rhino Records. Gates's songs have been recorded by many artists, including Telly Savalas, who had a UK No. 1 hit with "If" in 1975; Vesta Williams, who made a rendition of "Make It With You" in 1988; the band CAKE, which covered "The Guitar Man" in 2004; Ray Parker Jr, who also recorded "The Guitar Man" in 2006; and Boy George, who took "Everything I Own" to No. 1 on the UK chart, when he covered the Ken Boothe reggae version of Gates's song, which itself had been a UK No. 1 in 1974. Jack Jones recorded a Bread tribute album, Bread Winners (1972) including the Gates' standard, "If", which has long been a staple of Jones' live performances.

According to a 1996 article in People, Gates has remained married to high school sweetheart Jo Rita, with whom he raised four children: three lawyers and a cardiac surgeon.

• SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gates
• YouTube: (Best of Bread, 1973): Very Best of Bread (1991)

More information here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/deanadshead/bread/gates.html

which is listed as David Gates & Bread - The Unofficial Site