David McComb
Australian musician (1962-1999)
David Richard McComb (17 February 1962 – 2 February 1999) was an Australian musician. He was the singer-songwriter and guitarist of the Australian bands, The Triffids (1976–89) and The Blackeyed Susans (1989–93). He also had a solo career including leading David McComb and The Red Ponies.
Over his career McComb had bouts of alcoholism, and amphetamine and heroin abuse. He developed cardiomyopathy and in 1996 underwent a heart transplant. David McComb died on 2 February 1999 "due to heroin toxicity and mild acute rejection of his 1996 heart transplant", according to the coroner.
In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Wide Open Road" by The Triffids – written by McComb – as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. On 1 July 2008 The Triffids were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame with McComb's contribution acknowledged by a tribute performance.
Biography
Early years in Perth
David McComb was born in Perth, Western Australia, on 17 February 1962, the youngest of four boys. His parents were both doctors, his father, Harold McComb, a plastic surgeon and his mother, Athel Hockey (AO), a paediatrician and later
the head of the Genetics Department at the University of West Australia.
“David McComb” enters the record as australian musician (1962-1999). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what David, McComb and Australian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“David McComb” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, David, McComb and Australian provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5237300. VIAF identifies the subject as 19880230. The Library of Congress control number is no2007097626. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1999, 1976 and 1989.
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This entry incorporates text from “David McComb” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.