Dave Baumber, photo by Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission
Some sad news. Dave Baumber, ace sound recordist and dubbing mixer has died after a short illness. My Pebble Mill friends will be shocked, as I was, but for those of you who think they don’t know him, well, I’ll remind you of his work. My Doctor Who friends will have heard his work as a grams operator on the 1966 adventure serial The Moonbase.
Dave was a BAFTA award winning sound supervisor for Boys from the Blackstuff in 1983, but fans of cult TV will have heard his work as a sound recordist on Tom’s Midnight Garden and Torchwood and as a dubbing mixer on Artemis 81, Gangsters, Spyship, various ‘Play for Today’ editions including Nuts in May, Red Shift, Penda’s Fen and Licking Hitler.
Dave looked after the sound on many of the major series to come out of Pebble Mill including Anna of the Five Towns, All Creatures Great and Small, All Quiet on the Preston Front, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dangerfield and Dalziel & Pascoe.
By 2004 Dave had itchy feet and was keen to get back to doing more location sound. He was my sound recordist on Casualty Saved My Life. He had stints on the real thing, Casualty in Bristol and then the aforementioned Torchwood.
Apart from being brilliant at his job, he was a really nice guy.
Paul Vanezis
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook Page:
Ray Holman: ‘So sad. I worked with Dave on several series, some at Pebble Mill such as All Creatures and the last one was in Cardiff on Torchwood. What a shock and what a lovely man, I’m so sorry.’
Steve Weddle: ‘A true professional who made everything he did seem deceptively easy. Happy times.’
Jeff Matthews: ‘I am devastated and totally saddened by this terrible news. I worked with Dave on Torchwood and had many a ‘soundman’s’ type chat with him. He retired and went to drink wine in France. I hope he had lots of fun. A very sad loss.’
I CONSIDER IT A PRIVILEGE TO HAVE KNOWN AND WORKED WITH DAVE ON MANY SINGLE CAMERA SHOOTS AND STUDIO DRAMAS. HE WAS A PROFESSIONAL PERFECTIONIST AND SUCH AN EASY GOING MEMBER OF ANY CREW WITH ALWAYS AN APPROPRIATE CALMING WORD OR TWO WHEN THINGS THREATENED TO GET OUT OF HAND.
THE WORLD IS A SADDER PLACE WITHOUT HIM BUT WE HAVE ALL THE MEMORIES OF HIM TO CONSOLE OUR LOSS.
EVERY BLESSING TO HIS WIFE AND FAMILY.
PHIL WILSON ex Pebble Mill Camera Supervisor.
Lovely Blog Paul for a lovely chap. One of the most self-effacing people I had the pleasure to know. He was very humble about his brilliance, but this tends to be the case with truly talented people. My rule of thumb has always been the larger the ego the smaller the talent! One of the Pebble Mill greats.
Dave Baumber, a name to conjure with…. a consummate professional who made the most complex dub seem easy; unflappable and so talented, you always knew he’d make the worst of tracks sound perfect.
He was and will always be, a Pebble Mill star.