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Richard Sinclair | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Richard Stephen Sinclair |
| Born | 6 June 1948 |
| Origin | Canterbury, England |
| Genres | Popular Music, Canterbury scene, jazz fusion, experimental rock, psychedelic rock |
| Instrument(s) | Bass guitar, vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Website | Richard Sinclair BandCamp |
Richard Stephen Sinclair (born 6 June 1948) is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.
Born in Canterbury, England, both his father (Dick Sinclair) and grandfather (also named Dick Sinclair) were musical entertainers around Canterbury. [1] Richard was introduced to the ukulele at age 3 and the guitar at 6, and was only 15 when he met Hugh and Brian Hopper when they came to see his dad's danceband. By the following year Sinclair was playing guitar (and occasionally singing) in the root Canterbury band The Wilde Flowers. In 1968 he became a founding member of Caravan, switching to bass guitar and sharing lead vocals with Pye Hastings. His compositional output came to the fore on the band's third album, the classic In the Land of Grey and Pink, on which he wrote and sang the title track, "Golf Girl" and the epic "Winter Wine". Sinclair left Caravan in 1972 to form Hatfield and the North with ex-Delivery members Phil Miller and Pip Pyle, lending his distinctive, quintessentially English voice and increasingly impressive bass playing skills to their two albums, and writing some of their best-loved songs, "Share It", "Let's Eat (Real Soon)" (both with lyrics by Pip Pyle) and "Halfway Between Heaven And Earth".
In 1974, he participated in Rock Bottom , the second solo album by former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt. The album was produced by Pink Floyd´s drummer Nick Mason.
After Hatfield broke up in 1975, Sinclair moved back to Canterbury, starting a carpentry/kitchen-fitting business while maintaining low-key musical activities, often under the humorous moniker Sinclair & The South. He came out of this semi-retirement in 1977 when he was asked by Camel to replace their departed bass player. This stint lasted for two studio albums and half of the live set A Live Record.
In the 1980s, his activities were sporadic. He recorded a collaborative album with Phil Miller and Alan Gowen, Before a Word Is Said, in 1981, reunited with Caravan for the 1982 reunion effort Back To Front, sang on one track of National Health's swansong D.S. Al Coda (also 1982), and joined Phil Miller's In Cahoots, for a residency at the London jazz club the Bull & Gate and, in 1984, a European tour. He left before the band undertook its first recordings. His voice or bass were barely heard until the end of the decade, save for a low-key Dutch tour in 1986 and a guest spot of Phil Miller's album Split Seconds (1989). In 1990, there was a one-off reformation of Hatfield and the North and a long-term one of the original Caravan line-up in 1990-91.
At this point, Sinclair formed his own group Caravan Of Dreams, with ex-Camel drummer Andy Ward and former Hatfield roadie Rick Biddulph on bass (live gigs only), plus occasional participation from cousin Dave Sinclair and sax/flautist Jimmy Hastings. The project's eponymous album came out in 1992. Sinclair's next effort, R.S.V.P. (1994), was recorded with a fluctuating line-up including Pip Pyle, Tony Coe and former Happy the Man keyboardist Kit Watkins. Regular touring stopped in 1996 as Sinclair moved to the Netherlands for a few years. He reappeared in 2002 with occasional concerts and archival live releases, but the most exposure came with the reunion of Hatfield and the North in 2005-06, which came to an abrupt end when Pip Pyle died in August 2006. Shortly after that, he left his longtime Canterbury home to move permanently to Italy, living in a trullo in Martina Franca.[ citation needed ] In 2010, he joined the trio douBt (Alex Maguire, Michel Delville and Tony Bianco) on the album Never Pet a Burning Dog (Moonjune Records) and toured Japan and Europe with the band. In 2013-2014 he toured Italy with the Italian band PropheXy, recording two live bonus tracks (Disassociation, Golf Girl) for their album Improvviso.
In 2023 Richard listed his entire catalog on BandCamp, including many previously unreleased recordings from Caravan, Camel, and Hatfield and the North.
| Year | Artist | Title |
| 1962 | various artists | Canterburied Sounds (four volumes, released 1998) |
| 1965 | The Wilde Flowers | The Wilde Flowers (released 1994) |
| 1968 | Caravan | Caravan |
| 1970 | Caravan | If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You |
| 1971 | Caravan | In the Land of Grey and Pink |
| 1972 | Caravan | Waterloo Lily |
| 1974 | Hatfield and the North | Hatfield and the North |
| 1974 | Robert Wyatt | Rock Bottom |
| 1975 | Hatfield and the North | The Rotters' Club |
| 1977 | Camel | Rain Dances |
| 1977 | Camel | Unevensongs |
| 1978 | Camel | Breathless |
| 1978 | Camel | A Live Record |
| 1980 | Hatfield and the North | Afters |
| 1981 | Alan Gowen, Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair & Trevor Tomkins | Before A Word Is Said |
| 1982 | National Health | D.S. al coda |
| 1982 | Caravan | Back to Front |
| 1983 | Hugh Hopper & Richard Sinclair | Somewhere in France (released 1996) |
| 1988 | Skaboosh | Freetown |
| 1989 | Phil Miller | Split Seconds |
| 1990 | Hatfield and the North | Live 1990 (one-off reunion, with Sophia Domancich subbing for Dave Stewart |
| 1990 | Hatfield and the North | Classic Rock Legends (DVD) (same show as above) |
| 1990 | Caravan | Classic Rock Legends (DVD) |
| 1992 | Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams | Richard Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams |
| 1993 | Caravan of Dreams | An Evening of Magic |
| 1994 | Richard Sinclair | R.S.V.P. |
| 1996 | Richard Sinclair, David Rees & Tony Coe | What in the World |
| 1998 | Pip Pyle | 7 Year Itch |
| 2002 | Richard Sinclair | Live Tracks |
| 2003 | Camel | Live Tracks |
| 2003 | Dave Sinclair | Full Circle |
| 2003 | Dave Sinclair | Into The Sun |
| 2003 | Theo Travis | Earth to Ether |
| 2005 | Hatfield and the North | Hatwise Choice: Archive Recordings 1973—1975, Volume 1 |
| 2006 | Hatfield and the North | Hattitude: Archive Recordings 1973-1975, Volume 2 |
| 2006 | In Cahoots | Conspiracy Theories |
| 2010 | Doubt | Never pet a burning dog |
Hugh Colin Hopper was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands.
David Lloyd Stewart is an English keyboardist and composer known for his work with the progressive rock bands Uriel, Egg, Khan, Hatfield and the North, National Health, and Bruford. Stewart is the author of two books on music theory and wrote a music column for Keyboard magazine (USA) for thirteen years. He has also composed music for TV, film and radio, much of it for Victor Lewis-Smith's ARTV production company. He has worked with singer Barbara Gaskin since 1981.
Andrew John Ward is an English progressive rock drummer.
Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter.
The Rotters' Club is the second album by the English Canterbury scene rock band Hatfield and the North, released in March 1975. It was also in part an inspiration for the 2001 novel of the same name by Jonathan Coe.
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboards. Part of the Canterbury scene, he featured in Soft Machine, among others.
National Health were an English progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band featured members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, including guitarists Phil Miller and Phil Lee and bassist Mont Campbell as original members. The band was named after Stewart's National Health spectacles. Bill Bruford was the initial drummer, but was soon replaced by Pip Pyle. Campbell was replaced by Neil Murray and then John Greaves. Alan Gowen left the group before its first album, but returned for their final tours, replacing Dave Stewart, who resigned after their second album. Amanda Parsons sang with the group in its original lineup but also appeared on the first album only as a guest; the group never had another full-time vocalist, although Richard Sinclair appeared a few times as a guest vocalist, and Greaves sang on one track of the second album and occasionally in concerts. Guitarist Phil Miller was National Health's only constant member.
Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield and the North and National Health.
Philip Paul Miller was an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist and a central part of the Canterbury scene.
Short Wave Live is the only album by Short Wave, a UK band related to the Canterbury Scene, consisting of Hugh Hopper (bass), Didier Malherbe (sax), Phil Miller (guitar) and Pip Pyle (drums).
Delivery was a British blues/progressive rock musical group, formed in the late 1960s. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene.
Alan Gowen was an English fusion/progressive rock keyboardist, best known for his work in Gilgamesh and National Health.
Soft Heap was a Canterbury scene and jazz-rock supergroup founded in January 1978 and active throughout the Eighties.
In Cahoots was a Canterbury scene band led by guitarist Phil Miller, their main composer.
Mark Hewins is an English guitarist known for his connections to the Canterbury scene, a group of English progressive rock musicians during the 1960s.
Caravan of Dreams were a British progressive rock band from the Canterbury scene. Led by Richard Sinclair, it evolved from the short-lived Going Going.
Live 1990 is a 1993 live album released by a reformed line-up of Canterbury scene band Hatfield and the North. This marked the band's first manifestation since its 1975 break-up. Original keyboard player Dave Stewart declined to take part and was replaced by French jazz pianist Sophia Domancich, at the time a member of drummer Pip Pyle's band Equip'Out. This line-up's activity was limited to this one appearance on Central TV's "Bedrock" series. In addition to a number of tracks from the band's classic repertoire, a large part of the concert was devoted to more recent material. This was to be Hatfield's swan song until the 2005–06 reformation.
Progman Cometh Music Festivals were two Canterbury scene music concerts held at the Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington, USA, in 2002 and 2003.
Patrice Meyer is a French electric guitarist active in Jazz, Jazz rock, Progressive rock and Canterbury scene bands.
Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (2015) is the third in a series of feature-length documentaries about Progressive rock written and directed by Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder. This one focuses on the music of the Canterbury scene.
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