Gyp Mills (born David John Mills, 9 July 1946 – 18 June 2019), Chris Murray, "Gypsy Dave Mills 1946–2019", ''Govinda Gallery'', 20 June 2019
Retrieved 1 September 2019 also known as Gypsy Dave, was an English sculptor and songwriter. He was first in the public eye as the companion to the singer-songwriter,

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

. He was also a well-known sculptor with

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

s in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Early years

Mills was born in

Peckham Rye Peckham Rye is an open space and road in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. The roughly triangular open space lies to the south of Peckham town centre. It is managed by Southwark Council and consists of two contiguous areas, wit ...

, London, before moving to

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. In his early days in Hertfordshire he became friends with many art students, including Dave Richards, Julian McAllister and Donovan. In 1963 he made a pivotal journey to St. Ives, Cornwall with Donovan.Donovan interviews
musicOMH.com; accessed 11 March 2016. He lost touch with Donovan and moved around the UK including

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. In late 1964 Donovan had been signed up to a record label and asked Mills to accompany him on his first

tour Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

with his other friends

Mac MacLeod Keith MacLeod (popularly known as "Mac" MacLeod) (9 July 1941 – 16 November 2020), was an English musician who was a part of the Hertfordshire Folk music, folk and blues scene from 1959 onwards. He played in St Albans alongside Mick Softley a ...

and John Lock. Donovan wrote "

To Try for the Sun "To Try for the Sun" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. The "To Try for the Sun" single was backed with "Turquoise (song), Turquoise" and released in the United States in January 1966 through Hickory Records (H ...

" and "

Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness) "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)" is a song by Donovan. He based it on "Can I Do It For You", a song by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. The name "Gyp" refers to Donovan's best friend, Gyp Mills, known then as Gypsy Dave, and is one of many songs t ...

" about his time with Mills. Mills was

tour manager A tour manager (or concert tour manager) is the person who helps to organize the administration for a schedule of appearances of a musical group (band) or artist at a sequence of venues (a concert tour). In general, road managers handle tour deta ...

for Donovan for many years, and appeared alongside Donovan in the

TV film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, ''A Boy Called Donovan''. In 1968 they both journeyed to be with the

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (born Mahesh Prasad Varma, 12 January 1918

and

The Beatles in Rishikesh ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, India. Mills wrote a few songs which appeared on Donovan's album, ''

The Hurdy Gurdy Man ''The Hurdy Gurdy Man'' is the sixth studio album (seventh overall) by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released in the US in October 1968 (Epic Records BN 26420 (stereo)), but not in the UK, because of a continuing contractual dispu ...

''. The uncredited tracks "A Sunny Day" and "The River Song" according to BMI records were collaborations with Donovan, but the song "Tangier" was written solely by Mills under its original title of "In Tangier Down a Windy Street". Altogether he has 20 songs registered at BMI.com under his real name of David J. Mills. ''"Gyp was Donovan's right hand man and a great job he did of it too"'' –

talking about Donovan's first tour in 1965 from

KFOK-LP KFOK-LP (95.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Georgetown, California, United States. The station is currently owned by American River Folk Society. See also *List of community radio stations in the United States This is a list of FCC-license ...

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

interview on 14 June 2005.

Sculpture and beyond

From 1968 to 1971 Mills studied sculpture including personal tuition with David Wynne. At this time he moved away from his

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

connections towards the visual arts. In the years that followed he restored a farm house and set up a studio on the Greek island of

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

. His works were exhibited in Gordons Gallery,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

; The Fulham Gallery,

Fulham Road Fulham Road is a street in London, England, which comprises the A304 and part of the A308. Overview Fulham Road ( the A219) runs from Putney Bridge as "Fulham High Street" and then eastward to Fulham Broadway, in the London Borough of Hamme ...

, London; Doves Gallery,

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

, and The Welsh House Gallery,

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

. In 1979 he wrote a children's book entitled ''Sandy Lea'' for which Rita Schmeiser provided the illustrations. The 1986 film ''

Castaway A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore. While the situation usually happens after a shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island, either to evade captors or the world in general. A person may also be left a ...

'' with

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...

and

Amanda Donohoe Amanda Donohoe (born 29 June 1962) is an English actress. She first came to attention as a 16-year-old living with pop singer Adam Ant, appearing in the music videos for the Adam and the Ants singles "Antmusic" (1980) and "Stand and Deliver" ( ...

used his song "Tangier" extensively. By 1997 Mills turned his attention back to sculpture, and became a well-respected artist and writer in Greece.

Later years

In 2006 Mills married his partner Pannee in

, and finished building a school of sculpture and an artist's retreat. He was working on his autobiography and a few of his early adventures are to be found in Donovan's book ''The Hurdy Gurdy Man''. Before the release of his book Donovan stated in an interview in musicohm.com ''"So I've been doing this book for quite a long while! It's almost complete, I've got it in my bag, I'm doing the last corrections. Gypsy Dave my road buddy has been helping too. In Greece last year we spent quite a lot of time working on it."'' Mills died in Thailand in 2019.

References

External links

Official website

Interview with Gypsy Dave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Gyp 1946 births Modern sculptors English songwriters People from Peckham People from Hertfordshire 2019 deaths