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Steve RickardInstrument: Drums Born: 7 November 1950 Place of Birth: Romford
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Steve Started playing drums in 1963 when he formed a group called the Aerials . Over the next few years he played with various line ups under the names, ‘ The Sunsets' - The Reasons Why – Four ? 4.4 and Strange Daze.
His first taste of playing professionally came in 1967 when he spent three months touring France with The Crew. The following year he joined forces with John Hawkin from the Nashville Teens and pedal steel guitarist B J Cole. In 1969 he joined Still Life and took a day job as a paint sprayer at Baldwins Guitars where he spent his days spraying Burns guitars.
Steve returned to the professional scene when, in 1970, he joined Heatwave . The band featured Richard Stein on lead guitar, Peter Allet on lead vocals, John on Bass and Terry on Rhythm Guitar. They signed to the Penny Farthing label under which they released the single Sister Simon . After a year Heatwave changed their name to Sensations taking on Dave Mayes in place of John on Bass. At the same time they moved away from Penny Farthing and signed to MCA. releasing three singles: I Hear a Melody – Let's get a Little Sentimental and Shame on You.
The group were regulars on Radio 1 where they would feature as the ‘live' guest band of the week on shows hosted by the likes of David Hamilton and Jimmy Young. Because of the limitation on ‘needle time' (the amount of minutes per hour allowed for the playing of records) popular groups were paid to record cover versions of well known hits by other bands. The recording sessions would be from 9 till 12 on a chosen weekday and during this three hour slot the band would have to record five covers. These ‘live' recordings were subsequently played out one a day throughout the guest week.
In 1973 Steve was invited to join Pebbles . (See Brian's biog for more info. on Pebbles ).
When Angel split at the end of 1974 Steve went to work for a glass making company before taking a job with a local authority where he still works as a supervisor.
