© Tracey Ganapathy

Guyana-born Richard Bailey spent his early years in Trinidad and still gets much of his influence from the rich culture and musical diversity he heard there. Like many musician he started playing at a very early age. His brother was already playing in a group and there were always instruments around. One day his sister played a rhythm on drums and bet him he couldn't play it a good as she could. So at seven or eight years of age Richard started to play the drums. He actually started his professional career at the tender age of nine, playing in Robert, his brother's band, which, at the time was Trinidad's top group. When Robert went onto become a founder member of OSIBISA, Richard, then aged twelve, came to settle in London with his family. His father, Emmanuel McDonald Bailey, was Olympic 100 meter sprinter, but rather than following in his footsteps Richard went on to build a reputation as an internationally renowned performer playing with a host of top-class Artistes. Richard's roots lie in West Indian music, with a mixture of Samba and Calypso and listening to such artist as Booker T and the MG's, Miles Davis, Buddy Rich and music from popular film scores around at the time. On moving to the UK artistes such as Joe Cocker, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson added to the mix.

Drummers who can master a variety of styles and be equally at home in each are, not surprisingly, in demand. Although with such a wide range of influences and his reputation for adapting to any contemporary style invites attention from every corner of the musical spectrum. Diversity of skills coupled with a widely acknowledged professional approach to studio and live work keeps Richard's name amongst the elite of truly world-class drummers. Richard was actually 12 or 13 when he first met Snowy. Snowy was playing in Valhalla UK along with Richard's brother Robert on Hammond. Richard saw Snowy around London and finally joined up with him again for "White Flames" album in the early 1980's Richard has worked both in the studio and on live tours with 12-piece UK-based jazz funk band INCOGNITO. And was on the world tour to promote best-selling artiste BASIA's solo album "The Sweetest Illusion" in 1994 He is playing with Linda Lewis in 2005, on her Japanese tour and some dates in the UK - although not all of them because of commitments with Incognito. He has also been filming a DVD celebrating the live of Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin along with Monty Alexander on keyboards and Phil Chen on bass (Richard played with Phil when he first started out and on Jeff Beck's "Blow by blow" and with Rod Steward) Richard involvement in many projects with many different artistes of differing styles just goes to show what a well respected and versatile player he is.

© Tracey Ganapathy

DRUM CLINICS As a drum tutor Richard is much in demand representing both ZYIDJIAN Cymbals and Sonor Drums as their endorsee both in Europe and America. A video has been released featuring Richard, Gerry Brown and Geoff Dunn demonstrating their varied drum techniques at a London drum clinic. I asked Richard what he would say to people wanting to become drummer.... "It's a way of life, you have to like it. It's like going back to the roots, back to Africa, with drumming. You can play and be a good drummer, but you have to treat it as a way of life"

JOAN ARMATRADING	TRACK RECORD	A&M
ASTER AWEKE	AWEKE	TRIPLE EARTH
BATTI MAMZELLE	I SEE THE LIGHT	CUBE
JEFF BECK	BLOW BY BLOW	EPIC
JEFF BECK	WIRED	EPIC
GARY BOYLE	ELECTRIC GLIDE	GULL
BROTHER RESISTANCE	RAPSO TAKEOVER	MASIMBA CONNECTION
PAUL CARRACK	NIGHTBIRD	VERTIGO
AL CORLEY	RIOT OF COLOUR	PHONOGRAM
BRIAN ENO	NERVE NET	OPAL/WARNER BROS.
SHARON FORRESTER	SHARON	ASHANTI
GONZALES	HAVEN'T STOPPED DANCING	EMI
INCOGNITO	POSITIVTY	TALKIN' LOUT (OCT '93 RELEASE)
LINDA LEWIS	NOT A LITTLE GIRL ANYMORE	ARISTA
LINDA LEWIS	FATHOMS DEEP	RAFT
ARTHUR LOUIS feat. ERIC CLAPTON	FIRST ALBUM	POLYDOR
MAX MIDDLETON/ROBERT AWAI	ANOTHER SLEEPER	EMI
JOHN MIZAROLLI	MESSAGE FROM THE FITH STONE	CARRER
DICK MORRISEY/JIM MULLEN	CAPE WRATH	EMI
JOHNNY NASH	THE JOHHNY NASH ALBUM	CBS
JOHNNY NASH	TEARS ON MY PILLOW	CBS
BILLY OCEAN	INNER FEELINGS	EPIC
RAVEN OHTANI	RAVEN EYES	SMS
GILBERT O'SULLIVAN	FROBISHER DRIVE	TELDEC/ULTRAPHONE
ANNET PEACOCK	PERFECT RELEASE	AURA
POLYSTYRENE	TRANSLUCENCE	UNITED ARTISTS
STEEL PURSE	EARTH CRISIS	ELEKTRA
STEEL BULSE	BABYLON THE BANDIT	ELEKTRA
JESS RODEN	JESS RODEN	ISLAND
SNIFF 'N' THE TEARS	THE GAMES UP	CHISWICK
PETE TOWNSEND	ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 'TOMMY'	POLYDOR
SNOWY WHITE	WHITE FLAMES	TOWERBELL
SNOWY WHITE	SNOWY WHITE	TOWERBELL
ZAHARA	FLIGHT OF THE SPIRIT	ANTILLES/ISLAND
SNOWY WHITE AND THE WHITE FLAMES BAND	THE WAY IT IS	WHITE FLAMES MUSIC
Plus: EDWIN STARR/ DESMOND DEKKER/ CLEO LAINE/ TERESA TENG

JOHNNY NASH feat. BOB MARLEY	REGGAE PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
ANNETTE PEACOCK	ASTER AWEKE
SNOWY WHITE	BILLY OCEAN (WORLD TOURS 1986/89)
LINDA LEWIS	PHASE II PAN GROOVE STEEL ORCHESTRA
DAVID ESSEX	TERESA TENG
RUBY TURNER	DONNA SUMMER (TV)
AVERAGE WHITE BAND	MICA PARIS
BUDDY GUY	ARROW
CHRIS MCGREGOR'S BROTHERHOOD OF BREATH	JAZZ WARRIORS
INCOGNITO	BROTHER RESISTANCE

THE BREAKFAST BAND	'DOLPHIN RIDE'	BREAKFAST MUSIC
THE BREAKFAST BAND	'WATERS' EDGE'	BREAKFAST MUSIC
A pioneering instrumental project embracing Caribbean influences which culminated in two albums and a dance hit single 'L.A. 14' plus several live tours both in Europe and Britain
RICHARD BAILEY	'FIRE DANCE'	MUSIC MAKER RECORDS
Richard's first instrumental solo project released to critical acclaim in 1989 accompanied by various live appearances including Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club, London