Richard

In the Daytime's I can be found studying Composition at Bretton Hall University. In the evenings I play RnB and Big Band and Orchestra and modern improvisation.

What being in the SRB means to me...

It's being able to pretend that I could have possibly once been able to take Lesh's place in the Dead. That's obviously a silly dream, but to play with a lead guitarist like Tim, and be able to feel the spirit of adventure pass between us in a similar fashion to the way it passed between members of the GOGD is something that I wouldn't wish to be replaced by anything else.

It's a whole lot of fun too - especially when Ian or I manage to completely fulfil the 'Bobby' role by forgetting the words to Truckin' or El Paso. One day I hope we can put a good CD together of what we think we sound like. It's not exactly like the Dead, but it's more like the Dead than most of the Dead cover bands I've heard.

On a personal note, I think we should be trying to give people a bit of the Dead at every show we play. That's why at shows we organise ourselves I'm usually found trying to get some bit of sound equipment working.

We really need a sound engineer we can trust who can get my bass sound the way I like it. Even I can't do that so maybe I'm living in cloud cuckoo land...

An engineer like Healy who knows when to put the Keyboards a bit in the mix, or put a weird effect on the voice for The Other One...

I love playing in the band 'cos I love playing in any band, but especially in a band where I don't know what's happening next. If you're reading this, you know what it's like to guess the next song from the tune-ups, and that's fun for us as well.

I've enjoyed playing with the Charlies, Laffin Bones and Merl as well as the SRB, and if anyone else has a gig going for me and can cover my transport, I love to be a tart and jam.

I'm thinking of putting a dedicated Phish cover band together in the north of England too, so If anyone is interested... get in touch

... oh, and I ride an MZ now as well

Richard