Rich Batsford profile picture

Rich Batsford

Rich Batsford

About Me


"his music displays amazing beauty in repetition and minimalism. Definitely a performer to keep your eyes on."
Evening Mail
"Each piece brimmed with an inherent sense of poignancy ... Batsford created a spectral ambience which made him stand out from other composers. Utterly spell-binding."
Birmingham Post
    Check out "Sucking Up" - an exclusive vocal release:
    available right now on my facebook musician page

Im currently in Australia on a six month visit, spending most of my time in Adelaide with my partner chilling, composing and practicing. I’ll be attending the Adelaide Fringe and the Melbourne Comedy Festival with a view to possibly getting involved in them in the future in some way.
On my return to the UK in June I’ll be playing some more gigs performing my solo piano music, my original songs and the odd Brian Wilson number. You can download a whole album of my music including the songs on this profile by visiting my website
In addition to taking bookings for live performances of my original music, I am also available for hire as a pianist playing mellow contemporary, classical and neo-classical music for corporate events, restaurants and the like.
I’m also available for session work and I teach piano in a contemporary, but structured style.

As co-founder and core member of the creative network Project X Presents , joining with up to 90 other creative individuals, I help design and produce our unique "omnimedia experiences" in which I coordinate the music for the events, perform a solo piano spot and collaborate with other forces as diverse as Einstellung (instrumental guitar band), a string quartet, solo cello, live drums and bass, triggered electonic sounds and samples (specially recorded by Howard Marks).
I am also heavily involved in the world of stand up comedy, booking acts for the Comedy Central comedy club in Liverpool and the Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham and at times I have also performed, promoted, reviewed and acted as an agent for some excellent acts including Reginald D Hunter, Janice Connolly and on occasion, Robert Newman and Howard Marks. I am proud to count Reginald D Hunter and Paul Provenza (two of the finest comics Ive ever seen) as close friends.
As a major Beach Boys fan, I have the tremendous good fortune to perform some of my favourite songs regularly to crowds of thousands as a member of ex-chart Beach Boys and Four Seasons band, Gidea Park and in the past have sung classical and choral music with the National Youth Choir and the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) Chorus as well as being lead singer and main songwriter with Indie guitar outfits Serene Machine and Maroon.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 3/18/2006
Band Website: richbatsford.com
Band Members: Just me for the moment, tho I enjoy collaborating with other people.
Influences: Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, Nitin Sawhney, Steve Reich, UNKLE, Nick Drake, Fatboy Slim, Breakbeat, Smashing Pumpkins, Suede, Beethoven, Thomas Tallis, Vaughan-Williams, Satie, Poulenc, Bill Hicks, Richard Dawkins, Ghandi, The Buddha.
Sounds Like: Much of my music is meditative in tone, but I hope within each piece and as the album emerges as a whole, to take the listener on a journey, visiting places that may be intense and passionate and covering a range of emotional states, whilst retaining the overall mood of calm and focus.
Record Label: looking
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Debut Vocal release on my Facebook Artist Page

An exciting development!  I’ve finally gotten around to listening properly to the recordings Marc Reck made of my solo concert at the Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham in Sept 07 - and ...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:17:00 PST

Completion - live

Hello thereive just posted up a new video - its actually a live performance, tho you wont see or hear any audience because I was actually playing in a studio in Adelaide Australia, whilst the audience...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:39:00 PST

Namaste - a video

Hi Folksjust put up some video of a performance of my track Namaste, shot and edited by Leon Trimble (VJ Chromatouch).Please check it out and enjoy it!RichXx
Posted by Rich Batsford on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 02:40:00 PST

Project X Presents

Im taking part in a rather special event taking place in a warehouse in birmingham on Saturday Nov 3rd fusing many kinds of music including electronica and breakbeat, minimalism, qawwalia, ska, classi...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 07:20:00 PST

Old Joint Stock Theatre - Sept 27th

Hi Folksim performing my first full length solo show at the Old Joint Stock Theatre in central Birmingham on Sept 27th.I will be performing most of the meditative piano music from my Valentine Court a...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:46:00 PST

Completion - new track added to this site

Hi Folksive just added Completion to this site - I really hope you like it.Don't forget you can listen to the whole album and download it for free at www.richbatsford.comthank youRichXx...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:38:00 PST

Free album to download!

Hi FolksI'm making my current recording of my album of piano music "Valentine Court" available for free download.Essentially all you have to do to qualify is send me an email, but please visit the pag...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:48:00 PST

New Website

Hi FolksI'll probably still throw up the occasional post on here, but Im now blogging much more regularly at my new website www.richbatsford.complease come over and visit for news, reviews, random tho...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:28:00 PST

Music by Candlelight - Thursday evening

Music by Candlelight Thursday June 28th, 8pm, St Marys Church Moseley, Free entryAs part of the ever-enjoyable Moseley Festival which started this weekend with the street fair and finishes next weeken...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Wed, 27 Jun 2007 03:56:00 PST

Bohemian Jukebox Tuesday June 19th

I'm very pleased to be performing on Tuesday June 19th at the Bohemian Jukebox event in the upper room of the Bulls Head in Moseley, Birmingham.The night is organised and booked by a strong local acou...
Posted by Rich Batsford on Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:08:00 PST