WARNING: This is gonna be long, but very interesting..!! Everything I'm saying is the truth.My names Rich, I'm 28, a singer/songwriter. I'll start from the very beginning.....enjoy! I suddenly realised I could sing when I was 14 and my old music teacher tried to get a choir together. I ended up joining and from there did several musicals at school (with starring roles). Went on to College and did Performing Arts and joined my first band after auditioning in London. I left this band to join another 'East meets West.' Did several tours including Ireland and Iceland, although we couldn't secure a deal and this fell apart. During this time I modelled for Michiko Koshino at London Fashion Week!I then saw an advert on Richard and Judy's This Morning Show to try and find a boy band, with Simon Cowell and Nigel Martin Smith (ex Take That manager) as the judges along with telephone votes to choose 4 guys. The prize being a major record deal!! I was chosen along with 3 others - Will Young, Lee Ryan and Andy Scott-Lee. I was over the moon! However, after 6 months of silence we never received our promised record deal, gutted! What a farce! I stayed in touch with Lee Ryan and we became good mates forming a duo and trying to get a deal.I ended up going for another audition in London, thinking it was for 'just another boyband' and got into the band.......now known as Blue. At the start there was myself, Duncan James, Anthony Costa and a guy called Spencer. I was asked if I knew of another singer, as I was working with Lee I suggested he try out (this proved to be a big mistake as you'll find out!). After a month of me pestering him to try he reluctantly agreed and sailed through the audition, as I knew he would. After 6 months of rehersals we had secured a deal with Innocent Records. It was such an exciting time and we also agreed to sign the contract on my 21st birthday! It couldn't get much better! However, 2 days before the signing I was told by the manager I was no longer in the band. I couldn't believe it and never received a real explanation. They replaced me and Spencer with Simon Webbe (Lee's best mate at the time!). Tried to keep in touch with the guys for a few years but things sizzled out as they became a big group.After a year the manager of Blue told me about an audition for another band 'Fixate'. To be honest with my run of bad luck I was a bit reluctant to go but I had nothing to lose, again! I ended up joining the band that day, replacing a former member. We were signed to E-park records, an independent label and things were looking good! We did numerous gigs with bands including Westlife, Blue (!!!!), S-Club 7 and Liberty X and a 34 date sell out arena tour supporting Hearsay, who at the time were massive. It was a great experience, especially singing at Wembley Arena - 6 times! The week after the tour we were supposed to be filming our video for our first single when the manager called to say the record company had lost their funding. With no money available it was back to the building site for me!!Not wanting to let all this get me down and with my love of music I joined a 4 piece band with my brother, an excellent drummer, called QED. The manager was former East 17 and Pet Shop Boys manager, Tom Watkins. Once again I thought my time had come with such an established manager!! After writing about 20 songs together as a band we had every major record company come to watch us perform in my Mum and Dads garage!! We were offered a deal by Sony (Woo!) but the manager didn't think the money was enough and turned it down, what??!! This, understandably, caused friction between band and manager and things abruptly ended. So close again...The past two years I have been writing and producing with my brother. We are now running our own recording studio www.regalhousestudio.co.uk in East Anglia. Facing facts: I am 28 years old (getting on a bit in music industry terms!) and am now just enjoying writing and singing for pleasure without the pressure of trying to 'make it.' Although I'd never say never........
Hope you like the tunes, Rich x x
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