Richards musical career started at the age of seven when he picked up a pair of his mums knitting needles and started to bang out rhythms whilst listening to tunes on the radio. This progressed to a love of all things percussive and in his teens started playing kit in various local bands.
He started gigging in Brighton and London before moving to Manchester to study with Nigerian master drummer Tommy Odueso. This coincided with the ‘Madchester’ era and soon his flat in Hulme was booming to the sounds of C-Charge , the reggae band he played kit for. This escapade took him on tours to Germany twice and all over the UK supporting bands such as African Headcharge, Selecter, and getting mixed by Adrian Sherwood as well as landing a Radio 1 Maida Vale recording session.
His next band was Inner Sense a UK-Brazilian percussion orchestra with whom he played in diverse countries such as Egypt, Oman, Palestine, Uzbekistan, Malaysia (for Commonwealth Games 1998). He produced an album with them and licensed tracks for the Acid Jazz label.
He has been to Cuba and Brazil various times to study percussion and has played in these countries also. He is now band leader of renowned Afro-Cuban band ‘Mojito”.
As a session player he has played with The Doves (featuring on their No. 1 single ‘There goes the fear’) and The Charlatans amongst others. He produces music under the name 2FO and has released tracks on the highly respected Mettle music house/samba label.
He is engineer at Gorse Hill studios and is currently working on ‘Pulse’ a live dubstep project which will soon be shaking the foundations!
