David Austin

Born David Mortimer (14th July 1962), other pen-names: David Michael, Lord Monty

David is a lifelong friend of George Michael - if you listen to 'Round here' he's mentioned: "....just me and David and a football that gloved in the dark..."

George actually named himself Michael because he liked Davids fathers name: Michael Mortimer.

 "This was the time that I changed my name. I knew I was going to have to change it but they started pressing "Wham Rap!" and I still hadn't chosen a name. So there are about twenty-thousand pressings of that first record with my original name on, with Panos on the label. At that stage I knew I would have to choose something. I don't remember how long I had been trying to chose but I was sitting in David Austin's living room and I said - I like your dad's name, Michael Mortimer. I really like Michael and my dad's brother is called Michael. Also I had a friend from school, a Greek kid, whose name was Michael. So - what about George Michael? I thought it was a nice name. It rolled off the tongue and I didn't have to give up the Greekness totally. I didn't drop the Greek thing entirely, although most people ended up thinking that it was a Jewish name. I still get called George Michaels to this day by so many people. It's like Bruce Sprintstein. And David said - I like that name, I want to be... But that was when I decided it and immediately I was convinced it sounded right and I didn't have to think about it at all." (from 'Bare' 1990)

...-1981

David was a member of George and Andrews first band 'The executives' together with Andrew's brother Paul and a guy called Andrew Leaver. Andrew Leaver later died of cancer. You can see a dedication to Andrew Leaver on the cover of WHAM!'s album 'Fantastic'.

1982-83

After the split of 'The executives' David joined a Dutch based band called 'Kudos' where he played guitar and was the lead-singer. At this time he called him self David Michael.
'Kudos' released the album 'Kudos' and had some succes in the Thailand(?). On the album plays some of the musicians who also appears on WHAM!'s Fantastic album.

1984

After 'Kudos' David tried to go solo. He released the single 'Turn to gold' – co-written and produced by George Michael. David had some success in Japan - where he also released the single 'Love while you can'. The B-side was another David Austin/George Michael song called 'Are you just using me'. This song was later recorded by George's cousin Andros Georgiou's band 'Boogie box high' and by dutch artist 'Richenel'.

David released an EP/mini-album in Japan called 'Turn to gold'.

1985

In Europe David released the singles 'This boy loves the sun' and 'Kiss and tell'. The last one was released under the name 'David Austin Band'. There was a video for this single.

At this point another mini-album was released in Italy called 'Kiss and tell'. It's almost the same as his Japanese album - but instead of the extended version of 'Turn to gold', which appears on the Japanese version – this one contains the extended version of 'Kiss and tell'

At this time David was recording an album produced by 'Human League'-producer Martin Rushent - but this was never released.

David Austin & WHAM!

Although David wasn't a member of WHAM!, he appears on most of their albums. He did some of the shouting on 'WHAM! Rap' - played guitar on 'The edge of heaven' and appeared on stage at The final concert on Wembley. David also appears in the videos 'WHAM! Rap' and 'The edge of heaven'. He also appeared on their first performance on BBC's Top of the pop, where they played 'Young Guns'.

1987

Then David did some work with 'Boogie box high' - writing the songs 'Gave it all away', 'Nervous' and 'Are you just using me'. He also sang one of the songs on their album 'Outrageous'. He was using the pen-name Lord Monty on their single 'Gave all away' The same name he used as guitar-player on the song 'Look at yours hands' on George Michael's album 'Faith' - a song David wrote with George. From this album the single 'I want your sex' was released. The songs first title was 'Johnny sex' and was written by George Michael for David Austin – but George changed his mind – rewrote the song and recorded it himself.

At the same time David worked with Dutch star Richenel. David produced three songs on Richenels album 'Deep as blue'. It was in Wisseloord Studios in Holland Where he also worked with American artist Beth Nielsen Chapman - with whom he wrote and produced the great song 'Walk my way'.

1990

David has also written some songs with Andrew Ridgeley. The songs appear on Andrews's album 'Son of Albert'.

1996-2004

George Michael and David Austin wrote the songs 'You have been loved' and 'John and Elvis are dead' – both recorded by George

2006-

In 2008 George Michael released a new Christmas-song called December Song (I dreamed of Christmas) - to members of his website. The song is written by George Michael and David Austin. It was released on CD-single in December 2009 - and the song was played live at the finale of X-factor in the UK in 2009 - Daivd playing the piano.

In December 2009 the DVD Live in London by George Michael was released. There's a documentary called I'd know him a mile of, which is filmed by David through George Michaels 25Live-tour from 2006-2008 - with a lot of bakcstage footage.

Some of David's songs has been recorded by other artists:

Rita Guerra (Portugal) 'Pastures'

Anita Lipnicka (Poland) 'Mosty'

Billie Myers 'Tell me'

Billie Myers 'Flexible'

See the complete list of songs written by David Austin:

ARE YOU JUST USING ME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), GEORGE MICHAEL

CHRISTMAS TOWN

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

CRY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), JAY HENRY

DANCE FOR YOUR SOUL

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN

DO YOU LOVE ME?

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

DON'T WORRY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

FIRST CLASS FOOL

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

FLAME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), ANDREW RIDGELEY

FROM TONIGHT

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

GAVE IT ALL AWAY

DAVID MORTIMER (MONTY, LORD)

I KNOW MY WAY AROUND A BROKEN HEART

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), DENNIS MORGAN

IF YOU LOVE ME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), PAUL YOUNG

IF YOU LOVE ME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

KISS AND TELL

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

LOOK AT YOUR HANDS

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), GEORGE MICHAEL

LOVER

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

LOVING YOU

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), JENNY FITZGERALD

LUCKY FOR ME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN

MOSTY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), MAX ELLIOTT, ANITA LIPNICKA

NERVOUS

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

NEVER GET LONELY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

PASTURES

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

QUICKER THAN THE HEART

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), ROY FREELAND

RIGHT TIME FOR ME

BEN I GREEN, DAVID MORTIMER

RIGHT TIME FOR ME

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BEN GREEN

SHAKE

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), ANDREW RIDGELEY

TEN OUT OF TEN

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

THIS BOY LOVES THE SUN

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

TRUE ROMANCE

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), ROY FREELAND

TURN TO GOLD

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), GEORGE MICHAEL

UNFOLDING

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN

WALK MY WAY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN

WHAT A FEELING

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

WHAT AM I GONNA DO

BEN I GREEN, DAVID MORTIMER

WHAT AM I GONNA DO

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), BEN GREEN

WHAT THE WORDS DON'T SAY

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID), ROY FREELAND

WHAT'S NEW

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE WHILE YOU CAN

DAVID MORTIMER (AUSTIN, DAVID)

BLOW YOUR HEART OUT

BEVERLEY MYERS (MYERS,BILLIE), DAVID AUSTIN

FLEXIBLE

BEVERLEY MYERS (MYERS,BILLIE), DAVID AUSTIN

GOOD TO ME

CAROLYN L KING, DAVID AUSTIN

LONDON NOT L.A.

BEVERLEY MYERS (MYERS,BILLIE), DAVID AUSTIN

NO MONEY NO HONEY

CAROLYN L KING, DAVID AUSTIN

PERFECT FAITH

BEVERLEY MYERS (MYERS,BILLIE), DAVID AUSTIN

POSH & BECKS (MAIN TITLE)

DAVID AUSTIN

SCONVOLTO COSI'

BEVERLEY MYERS (MYERS,BILLIE), LORENZO TERNELLI (TELONIO), DAVID AUSTIN

SERIOUS MUSIC

CAROLYN L KING, DAVID AUSTIN

SEXUAL

CAROLYN L KING, DAVID AUSTIN

TRUE ROMANCE

ROY FREELAND/DAVID AUSTIN