Richard is an exiled Scottish drummer and musical director who has lived in London for the last 25 years. He came up through the ranks playing cabaret shows around the UK’s holiday parks which is where he learned to read music – on the job!

“Learning to read while you’re on stage is something I probably wouldn’t recommend but being shouted at does make things sink in quicker!”

After his move to London, he started getting into freelancing, playing and touring with many different artistes.

His varied CV includes :  Take That, ABC, RENT the musical (West End), Acoustic Alchemy, Go West, Annie Lennox, Rick Astley, Hugh Cornwell, Marc Almond, Tinchy Stryder, Nik Kershaw, Candi Staton, The JB horns, Rick Wakeman, All Saints plus a host of others.

As well as his playing work, Richard also works as a musical director.

“I never set out to be a musical director – I fell into it completely by accident!”

He has MD’d for artistes such as - Jimmy Somerville, the international “REWIND” festival house band, Gary Barlow (Film project), Holly Johnson (Frankie goes to Hollywood) and The “Cool Britannia” full orchestral show.

For the last 17 years, Richard has been head of drums at the LCCM music school based in Waterloo, London UK. He designed the BMus drum course and is a tutor on the MMus masters course.

Another string to Richards bow is his remote drum studio based in the Surrey countryside. Producers such as Kipper Eldridge (Sting), Ossi Bashri (FPN music), Marcus Byrne (E.L.O), Mike Stevens (Take That), SONY music and Iain Shaw (Nik Heyward) have all used Richard on many of their productions.

www.richard-brook.com