The divergent paths of art and commerce were much in evidence as the end of Dave’s EMI deal coincided with a period of unprecedented creativity on his part. Disillusioned by experience but also suddenly inspired, Dave built a home studio and began recording there with writing partner and co-conspirator, Clune. Pausing for a summer tour of Ireland (where Dave’s popularity had risen steadily since his first single) the two wrote and recorded the songs that became White Ladder.

"I came to a cross-roads," says Dave, "where I had to let other people in or just wither and die. Clune reared his head and we started writing songs in a different way. It became a more light-hearted enterprise.It took us a while to get our shit together. I suppose it’s about confidence and I realised that the vocal stuff I was doing was the best I’ve ever done. I always liked home recordings, they were raw but more importantly they were done in the absolute moment when you were thinking of it, but you’re not quite aware what 'it' is. Capturing that spark was the absolute central thing of my recording philosophy. That bit that you want that you don’t yet know about."

It’s an old story-label hiatus sparks creative opus - it happened with The Beasties and Paul’s Boutique (the definitive Hip Hop album of the time, a world away from it’s predecessor and recorded under their own auspices between spells at Def Jam and Capitol) and it happened with White Ladder. Convinced, like most who hear it of it’s intrinsic merits and unwilling to entrust what had in effect been seven years in the making to the forces that had frustrated him before, Dave formed Iht records, and released it himself.

What takes place between then and now is nothing short of phenomenal, but then this record is a remarkable piece of work. Born into an era obsessed with the organic, the decidedly unmodified White Ladder, without advertising, promotion or marketing flowered into a true phenomena. Anybody with a soul who heard it knew that this was one from the heart. With support from London’s acclaimed music station GLR, live shows and the occasional play on national radio the word was out. In Ireland, groundswell turned to apotheosis. Within a year of White Ladder’s Iht release (autumn 98) Dave had supported Robbie Williams (an instant convert) at Slane Castle before 80,000 people, sold out his own show at The Point (8,500), and eventually top the album charts for six weeks this year, outselling everyone from Travis and Macy Gray to Westlife.

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