One way to extend a career built on Pop. Did it really Eat Itself?
 |
| Photo Credit: Nick Sayers |
Richard has been in a huge array of bands and projects in his 30 years or so as a working musician. I first met Rich when he was in the much loved Rhino and The Ranters; but he cut his teeth with 80s legends Pop Will Eat Itself and then Bentley Rhythm Ace, and now he's a member of Swampmeat Family Band, and, oh yes, let's not forget the Boom Operators. with other projects bubbling away nicely. Some of those projects come up in this podcast.
Five years ago, I wrote a Radio To Go blog post about
Richard's walking bass saga. His standup double bass
was stolen from outside his house, along with a lot of PA kit. The bass was returned intact – it was found in the street, unlike the
stolen kit. In short order a fundraiser was launched to help Rich
replace everything.
It hit its target very promptly, which let Rich replace at least his PA kit, with the
remaining £400 going to Nordhoff Robbins, the music charity. These guys could
not be better - as it says on their site, they use music to 'enrich the lives of people
with life-limiting illness, disabilities of feelings of isolation'. Coping with our Covid nightmare lockdown. Ugh...
This podcast post covers very different ground, the likes of which we could not
have imagined in 2016. Most of this series of Lives in Music was recorded remotely,
in lockdown. If you listen hard, you can tell who has, by far, the poshest
microphone.
I'm particularly interested in how creativity can flourish in lockdown, and we touch
on all sorts of ways that performers can hit their audiences. We cover some of the
ways – largely on YouTube. At the bottom of this post, I've I listed quite a few
examples that you can go see and enjoy.
The Tonight Matthew colabs
I used two excerpts in the podcast, taken from the collaborative videos in the
Tonight Matthew series, where Richard and pals covered Sex and Drugs and Rock
and Roll, and Life During Wartime. To check out the full personnel, search these
titles on YouTube. The series has raised some £5000 for Help Musicians – another
great cause. Why not look in and bung them a few quid?
Videos First off, here's links to the Tonight Matthew series, with Rich on guitar or bass
on all of them:
Good Morning Britain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8trboFpo4
Mr Blue Sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcKnRRrghQ
Life During Wartime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA4Te8xEWfg
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM6C2CunuRc
Blue Monday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PgHG2g315k
Echo Beach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0SxQQ1kIO0
Another Girl Another Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuztPWamE-k
Love Cats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkt3fGDg6-4
Our Lips Are Sealed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y034nUVqfLc
Another Girl Another Planet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA06fj76yDo
For What It's Worth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y-1xGIvfsAThen there's others. More than I can list. But anyway, here's some suggestions
Suzi Dian doing Bill Withers' Lean on Me solo and with some friendsThe life-affirming Bolero from Juilliard students and alumni
Peter Gabriel and friends worldwide reprising Biko
Jimi Somerville and Rick Astley Wishing You Well, also for Help MusiciansThe great Vo Fletcher does weekly live shows on his Facebook PageI'll stop there. I know there's a lot more, and I apologise if I've missed anyone out.
But if you have any recommendations, drop me a line in the comments section :-)
This week's episode
The Lives in Music Podcast series
I've been doing this for about two years now. These are interviews with local
musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories.
To see who's in the series of artists, here's a link to see every episode.
One further footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo himself. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.
The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through a series of convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. Over the years I expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts in that time, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog.
________________________________________________________________________
Subscribe to the mailing list!
