Mark Richardson (musician)

Mark Richardson
Birth name	Mark Richardson
Also known as	Rich
Born	May 28 1970 (1970-05-28) (age 37) Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Genre(s)	Rock Pop Soft rock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Drums
Years active	1991-present
Label(s)	Echo, EMI
Associated acts	Little Angels b.l.o.w Skunk Anansie Sunna Feeder Alistair Cowan
Website	http://www.feederweb.com

Mark Richardson (born 28 May 1970, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) is a British drummer, of the UK rock band, Feeder. He came in to help out after the death of Jon Lee, but had already been good friends with the band. Richardson played in Little Angels, with his most well known appearance with the band being on the 1993 Jam album; as well as drumming for b.l.o.w. and Skunk Anansie. Both of which Feeder supported in their earlier days. 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. His favourite Feeder track is "My Perfect Day", from the band's 1997 album Polythene, which he first heard when Feeder supported Skunk Anansie. Richardson's first album appearance with Feeder, was the critically acclaimed Comfort In Sound (2002), which soon became a platinum seller and elevated Feeder to the Arena level. Their previous album Echo Park, released in 2001 had lifted the band into the 'mainstream'. A few of the tracks on Comfort In Sound had Jon Lee originally drumming on the instrumental demos, so Richardson had to copy what Lee played. In September 2003, he also infamously appeared on an episode of the BBC Two music quiz, Never Mind the Buzzcocks. During his appearance he managed to do what many other musical guests before him have done, and get a question related to one of his band's songs wrong, in the 'Next Lines' round. The song in question was "Buck Rogers", and to his defence, he was never involved in the recording of it. His excuse for being incorrect was 'I don't read into his lyrics, I just sit there and play drums!'. In 2004 Richardson made a guest appearance on Guildford Singer/Songwriter Alistair Cowan's 'Why Can't I See Stars' Album on the track 'Unconditional.' The next Feeder album Richardson appeared on was 2005's Pushing The Senses. This was often described by their lead vocalist Grant Nicholas, as the band's "recovery album", and it gave the band their highest placing in the UK Albums Chart, when it made #2 in the first week of February that year. The set also got the band's name out even further across Europe, despite the uneven reviews the album received. Recently, the band released a singles album titled The Singles to high critical acclaim. The album quickly went platinum in the UK. Richardson is also known for headlining the event "Drumfest", and for teaching students at music colleges in Guildford, Surrey and Brighton, Sussex. He recently completed a 2,500km bike ride across South Africa to raise money for the charity, Riders For Health.