Foster was born in St Helens, Merseyside, he started playing guitar at age 6. In 1987 he started music college in Liverpool before moving to the Leigh College of Music after a year,[4][a] where he formed Mr So-&-So with Shaun McGowan (bass & vocals), Leon Parr (drums), Kieren Twist (keyboards) and Charlotte Evans (vocals). Who released three albums before disbanding in 2001.[4]
Prior to recording The Overlap, Foster met Steve Rothery of Marillion, who was a fan of Mr So-&-So and signed the band to his label Dorian Music.[4][6] Foster formed Sleeping Giant in 2001 with Charlotte Evans on vocals, Leon Parr on drums, Simon Crumley on bass and James Rimmer on keyboards. The band released two EPs (Primates and Embers) before disbanding in 2006.[4]
In 2008, Foster joined the live band for Steve Rothery's folk rock project, The Wishing Tree,[4] which also featured Marillion's Pete Trewavas.[7] In 2011 Foster released his debut solo album Gravity, which featured Dutch vocalist Dinet Poortman,[4][8] whom he met at Marillion weekend[1] and would regularly collaborate with.[2]
In 2013, Foster joined the Steve Rothery band, alongside Leon Parr (drums), Yatim Halimi (bass) and Riccardo Romano (keyboards) with Martin Jakubski (vocals).[4] Foster co-wrote Rothery's first solo album, The Ghosts Of PripyatI in 2014, which features guest appearances from Steven Wilson and Steve Hackett.[9]
In 2015, Foster joined Welsh progressive rock band, Panic Room, as their lead guitarist on their Wildfire Tour.[10] Appearing on their albums Essence (2015)[11] and Screens – Live In London (2018).[12] Foster left Panic Room in 2018 alongside bassist Yatim Halimi.[13]
Foster released his second solo album, Dreamless, in 2016, again featuring Poortman. He played his debut performance as the Dave Foster Band at the Panic Room Weekend in May 2016, alongside Mr So-&-So member Leon Parr and Poortman.[14] The band third album, Nocebo, was released in 2019[15] with some shows being played before COVID-19 stopped them.[4] His fourth album Glimmer was released in May 2023.[16]
In 2020, Foster joined the live band of Big Big Train,[17] as a replacement for Dave Gregory, who left earlier that year.[18] Appearing on their albums Common Ground (2021), Welcome To The Planet (2022) and The Likes of Us (2024) and their tours from September 2022.[4] He did not tour with the band in August and September 2023 due to commitments to the Steve Rothery band, for those dates he was replaced by Italian guitarist Maria Barbieri.[19] He is also not going to tour with the band for US tour dates in March 2024, due to travel costs so the band can have a trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist.[20] In June 2024 it was announced that Foster was leaving Big Big Train due to scheduling issues.[21]
2024 saw the release of the third Dave Foster Band album Maybe They'll Come Back For Us (2024) again featuring vocalist Dinet Poortman and drummer Leon Parr alongside various guests including bassists Mark King (Level 42) and Neil Fairclough (Queen + Adam Lambert) as well as piano players Carly Bryant (ex Big Big Train) and Anthony Hindley (ex Mr. So & So).
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