Richard Oakes (guitarist)

For other people named Richard Oakes, see Richard Oakes (disambiguation).

Richard Oakes

Richard Oakes (born Richard John Oakes 1 October 1976, Perivale, West London) is an English musician. He was formerly the guitarist, songwriter and occasional pianist and backing vocalist of the English band, Suede.

Early life

Richard Oakes was born in London and raised by his parents in Poole, Dorset, in the South-West of England. His first contact with a guitar came when he stumbled upon a Spanish guitar owned by his sister, Katy. The record that influenced him to pursue a career in music was "The Story of the Clash", which he heard when he was 12. Before he joined Suede, he played in a band called "TED" along with his friend, Peter.

Suede

Oakes' first gig was one of Suede's. He then heard that Bernard Butler—Suede's former lead guitarist—had left the band, and knew he could do something for them. He recorded a demo using a Yamaha keyboard as backing and sent it to Suede along with a letter saying, "Take me or leave me," which the band really liked. While Brett Anderson was listening to the demo, Simon Gilbert walked in and thought that it was a long forgotten Suede recording, such was the quality of Richard's playing. In his first audition, he played "Heroine", and in the second, he performed "The 2 Of Us", as a result revealing that he could also play the piano. Richard was convinced that he'd got the job, even though the band members told him to return the following week. "Their eyes were saying that I'd got the job", he said.

At the age of 17, and after beating thousands of candidates, Richard officially joined Suede on 17 September 1994 (exactly 2 weeks before his 18th birthday), replacing Bernard Butler. Oakes first played with Suede on Top of the Pops, while his first full live appearance in the UK was at a secret fan club gig at London's Raw Club on 10 October 1994. The first song he performed live, and the first video he appeared in, was "We are the Pigs".

In his early days with Suede, he solely played covers of Bernard's material. Eventually, he was forced to write a song by the other 3 members (Brett, Mat and Simon), who locked him in a bedroom while they went out for a drink. Richard came up with the music for two songs which featured on the 'New Generation' single in January 1995, "Together" and 'Bentswood Boys'. Both are included on the album Sci-Fi Lullabies, and 'Together' was considered as a potential single.

As the band continued, he co-wrote songs with the other members, some of which proved to be big hits in the UK. By the time of Suede's split in 2003, Richard had managed to outstay Bernard's tenure in the band.

Current Activities

In 2008, writer and producer Sean McGhee confirmed on his Myspace site that Richard is working with him on new material. No further information has yet been disclosed, although McGhee confirmed in a March 2009 blog entry that sessions are ongoing and that they now have 11 songs written.

In 2009, Sean McGhee posted a blog entry saying that he and Richard already have 14 songs to date. He disclosed 3 of the 14 songs' titles namely: "I Keep on Walking," "Forever in Negative" and "You."

Co/Written Songs

Most songs are co-written with Brett Anderson.

SINGLES:

New Generation (30 January 1995)

1. Together

2. Bentswood Boys

Trash (29 July 1996)

1. Trash

2. Every Monday Morning Comes

3. Have You Ever Been This Low?

Beautiful Ones (14 October 1996)

1. Beautiful Ones

2. Young Men

3. Money

Saturday Night (13 January 1997)

1. Saturday Night

2. This Time

3. Jumble Sale Mums

Lazy (7 April 1997)

1. These are the Sad Songs

2. Feel (Anderson/Codling/Oakes/Osman/Gilbert)

3. Sadie

Filmstar (4 August 1997)

1. Filmstar

Electricity (12 April 1999)

1. Electricity (Anderson/Codling/Oakes)

2. Popstar (Anderson/Gilbert/Osman/Oakes)

3. Killer (Anderson/Oakes)

She's in Fashion (21 June 1999)

1. Bored

Everything Will Flow (6 September 1999)

1. Everything Will Flow

2. Leaving

3. Crackhead (Anderson/Osman/Gilbert/Oakes/Codling)

Can't Get Enough (8 November 1999)

None

Positivity (16 September 2002)

1. Positivity (Anderson/Oakes/Gilbert/Osman/Codling)

2. One Love (Anderson/Oakes/Osman/Hoffer)

3. Superstar (Anderson/Oakes/Codling/Gilbert/Osman/Lee)

4. Cheap

Obsessions (18 November 2002)

1. Obsessions

2. Cool Thing (Anderson/Oakes/Osman)

Attitude (6 October 2003)

1. Oxygen

ALBUMS:

Coming Up (2 September 1996)

1. Trash

2. Filmstar

3. She

4. Beautiful Ones

5. Picnic by the Motorway

6. Saturday Night

Head Music (3 May 1999)

1. Electricity (Anderson/Codling/Oakes)

2. Everything Will Flow

A New Morning (30 September 2002)

1. Positivity (Anderson/Oakes/Gilbert/Osman/Codling)

2. Obsessions

3. Beautiful Loser (Anderson/Lee/Oakes)

4. Untitled

5. One Hit to the Body (Anderson/Oakes/Codling)

6. Oceans (Anderson/Osman/Gilbert/Oakes/Lee)

References

• Essential Suede
• Suedecrazy