Full biography

Dr. RICHARD NILES' career spans pop, R&B, rock and jazz as a recording artist, composer, producer, songwriter, arranger, conductor and musical director. He has also been a presenter, writer and producer of music documentaries for BBC Radio 2 since 1994. He has been called "one of the most versatile men in modern music"(Sound On Sound Magazine).

Niles was born into a creative Hollywood family. His father Tony Romano was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who worked with Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Tony Bennett. His mother Pat Silver-Lasky is an actress, author, teacher and screenwriter for film and television. (Her book Screenwriting for the 21st Century is considered a definitive text.) His stepfather Jesse Lasky Jr. was an author, poet, playwright and screenwriter of over 60 films including The Ten Commandments and Samson and Delilah.

After touring Britain as a teenager with his band Pure Wings(1969-1971) Niles got his degree in Composition from the Berklee College of Music in 1975 where he studied with Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Michael Gibbs  and Herb Pomeroy. The picture (left) shows (l-r) Mike Stern, Jay Azzolina, Mitch Coodley and Pat Metheny performing Niles' EMPATHY QUARTET for four guitars at the Berklee graduation concert 1975. The piece was commisioned by Metheny, and the word "empathy" is an anagram of "Pat Metheny".

Since 1975 Niles has lived and worked in London.

Niles was awarded a PhD from Brunel University for his thesis The Invisible Artist - Arrangers in Popular Music (1950 - 2000).

music

Niles' musical credits include work with Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Cher, Mariah Carey, Dusty Springfield, Cat Stevens, Grace Jones, Swing Out Sister, Kid Creole, James Brown, Michael McDonald, Pet Shop Boys, Tears For Fears, The Troggs & Oliver Reed, Wet Wet Wet, Take That, Ronan Keating and Kylie Minogue. He has maintained a parallel career in jazz having worked with Pat Metheny, Martin Taylor, Bob James, Michel Legrand, Ray Charles, Jane Monheit, Guy Barker, Bob Mintzer, The Yellowjackets, Silje Nergaard, John Patitucci, Jim Mullen, Janek Gwizdala, Nelson Rangell, Gwylim Simcock and Gary Husband. He has even arranged and conducted for classical artists Kiri Te Kanawa, Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe.

Niles was said to have “helped define the sound of the 1980s” (Discogs.com) with his groundbreaking work with producer Trevor Horn (Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm), Swing Out Sister - Breakout, Tears For Fears - Sowing The Seeds Of Love. But Niles's work cannot be confined to one decade. In the '90s he contributed to many hits for The Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue, Boyzone and Westlife. Recently in the '00s, Niles has been working with the superb British pop band The Feeling.

the story so far ...
Niles began his professional career in 1976 in London as staff arranger for EMI MUSIC. After arranging & conducting for Cat Stevens he soon became Musical Director on TV series for Leo Sayer and David Essex. On these series he arranged & conducted for such stars as Twiggy, Kate Bush, Ronnie Spector and Denny Laine.

In 1978 he arranged the hit I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper for Sara Brightman & Hot Gossip (#5 in the British charts). Niles discovered Brightman and recommended her for this record, her first recording and the beginning of her illustrious career.  In 1980 Niles produced and co-wrote Space Invaders for Arlene Phillips' Hot Gossip which became a cult hit among players of the early video game of the same name, and lovers of the rather naughty dance group.

Niles co-wrote Sunset on Sunset for Tina Turner (1978).

In 1979 he co-produced the album American Garage for the Pat Metheny Group. The album was the group's most successful recording to date and reached the top 30 of the pop album charts.

The '80s began with co-writing songs with Spike Milligan for his album Songs from a Chicken's Laundry. He later worked with Milligan on a TV commercial for Lyle's Golden Syrup.

Niles also arranged and co-produced the cult hit The Disco Sound of Music, again featuring a performance by Sarah Brightman. The record was championed by broadcaster Terry Wogan. Interestingly, Julie Andrews threatened to sue the producers for using her voice until she learned that the singer was a brilliant sound-alike, Sharon Campbell.

In 1981 he formed his first jazz combo Hi-Tek featuring future saxophone star Chris Hunter. He also produced and wrote two albums for the group Hubbard's Cubbard featuring Hunter and British trumpeter Guy Barker.

In 1982 he produced and wrote songs for The Morrissey-Mullen Band album It's about Time.

Dick Morrissey (sax) and Jim Mullen (guitar) were ex-members of The Average White Band and seminal figures in British jazz-funk. Niles also produced Mullen's solo album Thumbs Up. and would go on to produce many albums for the Scottish guitar genius including Thumbs Up, Burns and Animation.

Niles also arranged the Randy Edleman album On Time and the Gilbert O'Sullivan album Life & Rhymes produced by Edleman. Edleman's nickname for Niles was "Shmeckle", a rather naughty Yiddish word suggesting something grossly untrue about Niles.

1985 was a busy year beginning with producing & arranging "Like Butterflies" for Dusty Springfield.

Niles began his association with producer Trevor Horn when Anne Dudley was unavailable to do the song "Date Stamp" for the ABC album "Lexicon of Love". Niles also arranged Why Does it Have To Be This Way?" for Horn's production of Anne Pigalle.

He then arranged the Horn/Lipson production Slave To The Rhythm for Grace Jones. For this still groundbreaking album, Niles assembled an 85-piece orchestra and a full jazz big band, dubbed "The Strictly Unreasonable Big Beat Colossus". This later became Niles' own ensemble, a monster of a band named Bandzilla.

Other arrangements included Jaki Graham's hit album Breaking Away and the hit duet single "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love" for Graham and David Grant.

1986 saw hit arrangements for Holly Johnson ("Americanos"), Berlin ("Sex Me Talk Me") and Curiosity Killed The Cat ("Ordinary Day").
In 1987, after arranging Liverpool for Frankie Goes To Hollywood ("Watching The Wildlife")

Niles arranged the US/UK #1 single and album It's Better To Travel by Swing Out Sister featuring the #1 hit single "Breakout".

He also arranged albums for Roger Daltrey (Can't Wait To See The Movie) and Sheena Easton (Madness Money and Music).
In 1988 Niles arranged the hit single "Spy In The House of Love" for Was Not Was and albums for Anita Baker and the boy-band Five.

This year saw the beginning of a long association with the Pet Shop Boys. Niles arranged "Left To My Own Devices" produced by Trevor Horn.

Niles also arranged and co-produced the track "Prove To Me" sung by Perri for the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing.

In 1989 Niles discovered the brilliant young singer Clive Griffin and produced and co-wrote his debut album Step By Step. Griffin went on to record the duet with Celine Dion "When I Fall In Love" featured in the film Sleepless In Seattle.

In this year Niles also arranged the worldwide hit "Sowing The Seeds Of Love" for Tears For Fears.

Having heard Slave To The Rhythm, Paul McCartney asked Niles to produce two tracks for his wife Linda McCartney's 45th birthday. The song "Linda" had been written for her when she was seven and had been a hit for Buddy Clark. McCartney was accompanied by Niles's big band, Bandzilla in both a swing and a latin version of the song.  The recordings were never released but were played at her funeral.

Bandzilla had been featured as the resident band on Don't Miss Wax, the British Channel 4 TV series presented by Ruby Wax (1987). Niles then produced and arranged a number of tracks for an as yet unreleased McCartney album Cold Cuts.

In 1990 Niles released the album Blue Movies. His 19-piece jazz orchestra Bandzilla played Niles compositions and new versions of "Breakout" and "Slave To The Rhythm". Singers Clive Griffin and Tessa Niles were featured on the album along with the cream of London's young session musicians. The expensive band performed two sellout gigs at London's Jazz Café with guest singers Pat Kane and Richard Darbyshire. Niles conducted with a selection of root vegetables.

For the Gloria Gaynor album The Hit Collection, Niles arranged new versions of current hits.

That same year, Niles discovered the Norwegian singer Silje Nergaard, introduced to him by Pat Metheny.

The album Tell Me Where You're Going produced and co-written by Niles, reached #1 in Japan and Norway with the hit single "Tell Me Where You're Going". The album featured a version of the song performed as a duet for Silje and Pat Metheny. Niles went on to produce a further two albums Silje (1991) [featuring a "Where You Are", duet with Morten Harkett of AHA] and Cow On the Highway (1992). All three albums were released by Lifetime Records co-owned by Niles and partner Graeme Perkins.

In 1991 the Pet Shop Boys asked Niles to compose and produce "Overture To Performance", a medley of eight PSB hits arranged for 85-piece orchestra, recorded live and featuring American bassist Nathan East. It was used as the overture to their world tour featuring 20 dancers staged by David Alden. Instead of using these phenomenal dancers, PSB staged the Overture with a single spotlight shining on a red couch. As Neil Tennant explained, "When the piece begins, the audience quiets down when the see the spotlight be cause they are expecting something to happen.  By the end of the piece, something HAS happened: they've listened to your fantastic Overture!"

That same year Niles arranged "World in Union", the theme for the Olympics sung by Kiri Te Kanawa. He also wrote the lyrics for an album by Russian singer Valeria, The Taiga Symphony. In 1992 he produced, arranged and co-wrote Valeria's Russian hit "Merry Christmas To The World" featuring the Moscow State Symphony and the Russian National Folk Orchestra.

In 1992 he produced the frankly bizarre record "Wild Thing" for The Troggs featuring actor Oliver Reed and Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. This track alone serves as proof that no artist is too emotionally volatile for Niles' production skills!

He also arranged the album Grrr! It's Betty Boo for Betty Boo. For "I'm On My Way" Niles was asked to write a sax section to sound like The Beatles' "Lady Madonna". As Niles was working for McCartney at the time, he asked his office who played on the original track, and reassembled the section : Ronnie Scott, Harry Klien, Bill Povey and Bill Jackman.  As the four men sat down together for the first time in 24 years, Ronnie Scott quipped, "Oh no! Not This bloody thing again!"

Niles arranged Clive Griffin's 2nd album Clive Griffin most of the songs by Niles/Griffin.

In 1993 he arranged Through the Years for Cilla Black featuring duets with Barry Manilow, Cliff Richard and Dusty Springfield. He also produced and arranged The Michael Ruff Band for American singer/songwriter Michael Ruff who has worked with Chaka Khan, Bonnie Raitt and David Sanborn.

That year saw another hit arrangement for the Pet Shop Boys, "Go West". Niles performed the song with PSB at the Brit Awards conducting 300 Welsh miners showing off their shiny helmets. He also performed it at the 1993 Equality show at the London Palladium conducting the London Gay Men's Choir. Oddly enough, no helmets were in evidence at this performance.

Niles also arranged the #1 singles "Angel Eyes" & "Wishing I Was Lucky" for Wet Wet Wet's album End Of Part 1. In 1994 he arranged Wet Wet Wet's album Hold Back The River.

He also arranged "Dangerous Game" for Kylie Minogue. This was to be the beginning of a long and (unfortunately) strictly professional relationship with the singer. (Niles' relationship with her producer Steve Anderson was much naughtier!)

In 1994 Niles produced, arranged and co-wrote the Hue & Cry album Showtime featuring the radio hit "Just Say You Love Me", co-written by Niles. This began a long relationship with singer Pat Kane who was the featured singer on many Bandzilla concerts.

That same year he conducted a concert for Ray Charles accompanied by Bandzilla at London's Earl's Court.

As Musical Director for The Michael Ball Show, (Carlton TV) Niles arranged & conducted for Michael Ball and his guests James Brown and Montserrat Caballe.

In 1995 the Pet Shop Boys asked Niles to produce and arrange two songs, "If Love Were All" and "Can You Forgive Her" featuring Neil Tennant and Bandzilla. He also arranged "Decadence" for their album Alternative.

Niles also arranged the #1 debut album Nobody Else for Take That.
Niles wrote a musical with the great singer Deniece Williams. Follow Your Dream was performed and broadcast on BBC Radio 2 June 1996 by Williams accompanied by the BBC Big Band arranged and conducted by Richard Niles.
Niles continued to arrange hits for boy bands such as Damage ("Forever"), East 17 (E17) and Right Said Fred (Smashing). He also arranged Tina Turner's album Wildest Dreams and Cher's album It's a Man's World.

That year marked a very proud moment in Niles' career as he arranged and co-wrote three songs ("Everybody's Handsome Child", "All She Wants To Do is Love Me", and "No Time To Waste Time") for Ray Charles' album Strong Love Affair.  In 1997 he conducted a concert for Ray Charles accompanied by Bandzilla at The Louvre in Paris.

That year Niles also arranged the hit album Between The Lines for Five, the hit "Somewhere" for the Pet Shop Boys,

the album Alphabet City for ABC (including the #1 hit "When Smokey Sings") and the album Much Afraid for Jars of Clay.

In 1998 he arranged the #1 album Where We Belong for Boyzone,

and the single "What A Fool Believes" for Peter Cox.

Niles also produced and composed his first album as a guitarist/bandleader, Santa Rita featuring Danny Gottlieb, Mark Egan, Nelson Rangell, Steve Hamilton, Chris Hunter and Hamish Stuart (of the Average White Band).

In 1999 Niles produced tracks for Gary Husband's album From the Heart. He also conducted a concert for Ray Charles accompanied by The BBC Big Band at The Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, broadcast by BBC Radio2.

Back to pop, that year he also arranged the hit singles "I Love The Way You Love Me", "You Needed Me" and "When The Going Gets Tough" for Boyzone.

He also arranged the #1 debut album by Westlife, Coast to Coast featuring the hit singles, "Angel's Wings" and "Against All Odds" featuring Mariah Carey.

2000 was also a very busy pop music year for Niles. He arranged the #1 single "Proud" for Heather Small which became the theme for the London Olympics 2012. He also arranged the hit "Lately" for Samantha Mumba and the #1 Westlife album Westlife. The Niles arranged song "I Don't Wanna Fight" was featured in the film Maybe Baby. For Westlife solo projects, he arranged "If I Don't Tell You Now" for Ronan Keating featured in the film Boys & Girls and "I Believe" for Steven Gately for the film Billy Eliot.

Not forgetting the jazz world, Niles released his 2nd album as a guitarist/leader Club Deranged featuring Danny Gottlieb, Steve Hamilton, Nigel Hitchcock and vocals by Kid Creole (lamentably without Coconuts).

The album is available through this site.

He also arranged Sooner or Later for The Hamish Stuart Band and produced and arranged the album Good Vibrations for Kate Dimbleby. He also found time to arrange the Joe Cocker single "Soul Rising".
In 2001 Niles re-mastered and released an album close to his heart, Never Before, Never Again. This album had been recorded in 1954 by Niles's father Tony Romano with the great jazz violinist Joe Venuti. He later edited and released a book of transcriptions of Venuti's solos available from Mel Bay, "Never Before, Never Again". Here is the first track on the album, "You Know You Belong To Somebody Else".:

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He also arranged "Better The Devil You Know" for Kylie Minogue. This big band arrangement featuring Bandzilla was used on her 2003 World Tour.

In May of 2003 Niles was asked to become Musical Director/Conductor/Arranger directing a 33-piece orchestra for Michael McDonald - Live at the Mermaid Theatre, broadcast by BBC Radio 2, June 16.

In 2004 Niles did another Bandzilla arrangement of The Locomotion for Kylie Minogue's Showgirl Tour and her 2006 Homecoming Tour.

For Westlife's 2006 Tour Niles wrote a big band version of their hit single Uptown Girl - a record he had arranged for their Children in Need release.

In 2006 Niles produced Laughing at Lonely for American jazz singer Katherine Gang.

The album could have been titled The Richard Niles Songbook. Gang describes Niles' writing as "songs of schism and blues".

That year he also produced Love Songs & Longing for the lovely and talented jazz pianist Gary Husband (who also happens to be one of the greatest drummers on the planet).

In 2007 he arranged and conducted for the acclaimed Scottish pianist & composer David Newton's album Portrait of a Lady.

This unique album may best be described as "ravishingly gorgeous" and also features Jim Mullen.

That year, Niles produced and arranged Triptych - Shulgin's Songbook. The Richard Niles Quintet features acclaimed drummer Gary Husband, bassist Janek Gwizdala, British sax star Snake Davis and Niles on guitar. Guest soloists on this unique album include Billy Cobham, Bob James, John Patitucci, Bob Mintzer and Gregoire Maret. The album was released 2009.

Niles was contacted by excellent British band The Feeling in 2007 to do two arrangements ("This Time", "Without You") for their hit album Join With Us. In 2008 he arranged their Christmas single "Is It Christmas?" for chamber orchestra.

In 2009 Niles arranged the album "God's Apology" for the talented pop phenomenon Marti Pellow. Of Niles' arrangements, Pellow said, "Frank Sinatra had Nelson Riddle, I have Richard Niles!"

In 2008 jazz pianist and composer Bob James recommended Younee, a Korean singer/pianist/composer to Niles. Niles produced and co-wrote the album True To You available through CD Baby, and the artist's website www.youneeversal.com. The single "Home To You" was released to US radio September 2008 and reached the Top 20 of the Indie charts.  The album and single are available through CD Baby. Niles & YOUNEE won the 2009 Music Aid Award for Best Songwriter.

songwriter
Niles' songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Deniece Williams, Clive Griffin, Kid Creole, Hue & Cry, Katherine Gang and Silje Nergaard.

cds as leader/composer/guitarist

Bandzilla (1990), Santa Rita (1998), Club Deranged (2000)

television commercials
Composer/Producer/Arranger of music for over 100 television commercials including McDonalds, Max Factor, Euro-Disneyland, Toshiba, Nescafé, Texaco, Walls Ice Cream…

film

Score to The Strike, Comic Strip Films (1988) starring Peter Richardson, Ade Edmonson, Rick Mayall, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Alexi Sayle, Winner of the Golden Rose Of Montreaux and Honorable Mention for Music.

Christmas Carol: The Movie - Lyricist
Do The Right Thing (1988), Boys & Girls (2000), Billy Eliot (2000) - Arranger/Orchestrater

published features & interviews
Richard Niles has been the subject of the following featured articles:
Sound On Sound - Richard Niles - The Professional Touch - Mike Senior (June 2000)
Berklee Today - Richard Niles -Cover Story "England's Jazz Crusader" - Mark Small (Spring 2000)
La Porta Classica - Richard Niles El Procés de Composició de la Banda Sonora - Roger Juliá Satorra (2004)

See 2009 & 2010 interviews with Richard Niles at

http://musicconnection.com/digital/

and http://guitarinternational.com/wpmu/2009/10/31/17146/

Richard Niles has been an interviewee on the following programs:
The Quincy Jones Story - BBC Radio 2 (2003)
What Makes Pop Songs Work - BBC TV (2008)
“So What” Radio 4 (2008)
Key Matters - D Minor - BBC Radio 4 (2008)