Dave the Taxi Driver's London Guide

OK, I admit it. I have been moonlighting. Though most real web-designers would scoff at my abilities I have spent the last couple weeks helping my friend Dave put together a website guide for London. What makes it unique is that Dave is a London taxi driver. He wasn't always a taxi driver. When I met him he was a hippy with a VW van traveling with two musician friends, Trevor and Derek, around Greece. Well that was their plan but they did not get very far because they met us in the Plaka at the Golden Key and I introduced them to my friend Dorian and they started a band that they called Monty Python's Flying Circus, named after the TV show which back in 1970 nobody had ever heard of. (That's Trevor and Dorian in the top photo.) They took Jethro Tull as their model, Derek played keyboards and flute, and they stuck around for several months playing teen center dances for the American kids of which there were many in those days when we still had military bases in Greece. I can honestly say that Dave and his pals were the most powerful musical influence on me and my friends, introducing us to bands like Jethro Tull, Traffic, Yes, Spirit (12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus), Family, Blodwyn Pig and several others. But eventually they all went back to England and were never heard from again.  

Until several years ago when I got an e-mail with the subject "I Don't Believe It" and it was Dave who found me, probably through my CCBLUESKING website since back then I was Econopouly, not Barrett. It did not take long before we were all reconnected and we actually went to Sifnos twice to play a reunion show with Dorian which was not really a reunion of Monty Pythons, just an excuse for me and Dorian to play and us all to get together. Trevor the drummer came and Steve Vagnina, another member of the band came too and we has a wonderful time and have stayed in contact. Somehow, during one of our drunken dinners I must have gotten serious for a moment and suggested that Dave, as a London Taxi driver, had a unique perspective and should write a guide to London. A few weeks later he began sending me articles and photos by e-mail which I put in a folder titled 'London' with the assumption that one day I would put it all together for him or he would lose interest and I would be off the hook.

What happened was that eventually I had so much material from Dave that I started thinking that if he was so prolific, maybe I should read some of what he had written because I may have discovered the next Paul Hellander or Marc Dubin (Lonely Planet and Rough Guide travel writers). Sure enough his writing was pretty good and with a lot less spelling and gramatical mistakes than mine. So several weeks ago I put everything aside except the daily answering of e-mail and the updates that needed doing and began work on Dave's Guide to London. There is still a lot of work that needs to go into it but I am pretty pleased with it right now (though I am going to change the front page once I have a more clear idea of how big the site is going to be). But there is no reason why people who use my site can't take a peek, especially if they plan to go to London and need a taxi driver.

Visit Dave's London Guide and let me know what you think.