A musician, turned novelist, David Lennon's music career began as a high school student in Armidale, New South Wales. After leaving the city in the late 1970s Lennon joined The Jumpers (1979-1980), possibly the first Australian band to dedicate itself to ska music. He later joined the newly-formed Melbourne-based ska band, Strange Tenants, which quickly established a popular following in the city. Accorded favourable reviews for the release of its self-titled debut mini album (recorded only weeks after the first gig) Strange Tenants began receiving airplay on alternative radio and soon afterwards started touring nationally. Lennon left Strange Tenants in 1983 to join The Allniters, a Sydney-based ska band that had already established a formidable live reputation within the city's mod revival scene. His association with that band was during its peak commercial period, which began with the release of 'Montego Bay' (a cover of the classic Bobby Bloom song). This was followed by the LP D-D-D-Dance and another single, 'Love and Affection.' All three releases went into the Australian Top 40, with 'Montego Bay reaching #10. The band released two more singles before disbanding in early 1985. During his career Dave Lennon has played with all the major Australian ska bands, the only musician to have done so. His other affiliations include The Igniters (an Allniters offshoot) and Club Ska.
In 2000 Bantam Books published Lennon's Rude Boy Train, a first person (gay) sex, drugs and music romp that centres on Connery, a drummer with ska band The Intensifiers. Drawing on his own (and other's experiences) Lennon takes the reader back to the Australian pub rock era of the early 1980s. As the band bounces between success and failure while constantly touring the country, so too Connery bumbles and stumbles his way through a succession of boyfriends.
[Source: 'David Lennon' Northern Tablelands Music Industry Archive]
