Mark Richardson (musician)

Mark Richardson
Birth name	Mark Richardson
Born	28 May 1970 (1970-05-28) (age 41) Leeds, England
Occupations	Musician, actor
Instruments	Drums
Years active	1991–present
Associated acts	Little Angels b.l.o.w. Skunk Anansie Sunna Feeder Globus

Mark Richardson (born 28 May 1970, Leeds) is an English drummer, of the UK rock band Skunk Anansie and formerly of Little Angels and Feeder.^[1]

Personal life

Richardson lived the first seven years of his life in Leeds and became a Leeds United F.C. fan, as highlighted by his LUFC drumhead at Feeder's Leeds Academy gig. He grew up playing golf and rugby from the age of 5 and went on to be a competent golfer and played rugby union for East Yorkshire.

Richardson was married to Maria Guzenina, a former VJ for MTV Europe. The couple divorced in 2001. Their son Alex was born in 1999. Guzenina was elected to the Parliament of Finland in 2007, re-elected in 2011 and appointed Minister of Health and Social Services in June 2011.

Richardson is a passionate biker and recently completed 'EnduroAfrica', a 2,500 km bike ride across South Africa to raise money for the charity, Riders For Health. Richardson has also competed in Dawn To Dusk 2007 as well as Enduro India and wants to compete in the Heroes Legend Rally (the original Paris-Dakar route).

Richardson makes a cameo appearance as a bouncer in the 2009 movie, Souled Out.

Music

Richardson first picked up drumsticks aged six at his friends house. Aged three whilst living in Dumblane, his grandmother bought him a tin drum for Christmas in 1976, (a Ludwig Junior). His first kit followed in'76. In 1986, when he first moved to Scarborough, he saw a band called "Mr. Thrud" (who later became Little Angels) at a local music venue, after the show Richardson asked if he could roadie for the band. They agreed and he roadied for them up until they got their recording contract. This association with the band led to him filling in for departed drummer Michael Lee, before claiming the drummer's stool permanently in time for the recording of their third album, Jam, and he remained with the band until their split in 1994.

In 1991 he moved to London. Richardson has a custom made 13x7" 11 ply oak snare hand made by himself at the Yamaha Factory in Osaka, Japan. He endorses drum products such as Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, London Drum Company, Protection Racket cases, Vic Firth sticks, Tuner Fish Lug Locks and Quick-Stick holder. Richardson has completed various drum clinics at events across the UK including Drum Fest 2004, Academy Of Contemporary Music (ACM) 2005, Scottish Drum Day 2006, Music Live 2006 to name a few. Richardson is also a regular tutor at music colleges in Guildford, Surrey and Brighton, Sussex. As well as this he also endorses Beached Academy which opened in his home town of Scarborough and was responsible for the involvement of JD Sports as sponsors in 2007/2008.

Richardson has recorded many sessions and played live with other artists including Globus, Sunna, Alistiar Cowan, Dollshouse, Mel B, Ronan Keating, ManOrMouse?, iMMa, Tony Iommi and Natalie Imbruglia as well as remixed singles for Ronan Keating and Earth the Californian Love Dream.

Little Angels	1991 - June 1994
b.l.o.w.	1994–1995
Skunk Anansie	June 1995 - September 2000
Feeder	Jan 2002 - April 2009
Skunk Anansie	April 2009–present

Skunk Anansie (1995 - 2001 and April 2009 - present)

Richardson joined Skunk Anansie in August 1995 after meeting them at the Kerrang! Awards. Skunk Anansie were looking for a permanent replacement for Robbie France so an audition was set up and Skunk were reborn. His first job with the band was to record some movie soundtrack music for the film Strange Days followed by the video for Charity. His first gig with the band was the Leeds Heineken festival. Skunk went on to tour extensively around the world, covering the globe many times over the next six years. Most notable support tours were Therapy? and Lenny Kravitz in Europe and Sevendust, Rollins Band, Rammstein in the US. Skunk Anansie enjoyed success in the UK Charts with three Top 20 albums. Richardson played drums on their second album Stoosh in 1996 and their third album Post Orgasmic Chill in 1999. These albums were both certified platinum and gold in the UK respectively, and both sold over one million copies in Europe. Richardson also plays on the tracks from Paranoid and Sunburnt at Skunk's live shows. Richardson has re-joined Skunk Anansie, after playing two gigs in April at the Water Rats venue in Kings Cross, London. A singles compilation Smashes and Trashes is due for release in November with an ongoing tour.

Feeder (March 2002 - April 2009)

In January 2002, Feeder's drummer Jon Lee took his own life in his Miami home. Richardson was asked by Feeder's frontman Grant Nicholas, to help the band out on drum duties. Richardson had previously worked with Feeder when they supported b.l.o.w. as well as Skunk Anansie. His first gig with Feeder was a warm-up for the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2002, at the Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms on 21 August. Richardson recorded drums on 2002's "Comfort In Sound", 2005's Pushing the Senses, tracks for 2006's The Singles album and 2008's Silent Cry. All of these albums including Comfort in Sound (his first album with Feeder) made the Top 10 of the UK Albums Chart. On 6 May 2009, it was announced that Feeder had 'ended their partnership' with Richardson after seven years.

References

1. ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Biography: Feeder". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p224868/biography. Retrieved 29 May 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Richardson, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	28 May 1970
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death