RICHARD BLACK a Short Biography:
by: Rick Siegel, a friend
Richard Black and I were friends since before we were teens. We created a lot of things in our time including, fraternities, gangs, football teams, bands, and lots of fun and, of course, trouble.
We both can thank my mother for pushing me to the Old Towne School of Folk Music to learn chords and how they worked. Little did I know the greats I had learned from back then. But the parents bought me a guitar and I started playing all the time. I left for a summer camp and left it with Richard Black to practice with. When I came back we were both ready and starting to create a band. We called our first the Nightcrawlers. It was great, we had a lot of fun.
We grew up with the blues and The King. Not that fake Micheal Jackson guy, no the real King, Elvis. Mixing in the amazing sounds of Mike Bloomfield, and the screaming James Brown, we were surrounded by a cacophony of great music.
I had to leave the country for the Vietnam war and it would be over a decade before our paths would cross again. We stayed in touch for a couple years but my travels to the far east made it hard to communicate and we lost touch for a long time.
Richard has grown in so many ways it never ceases to amaze me.
What follows is a brief list of what he has accomplished over the years. What it does not have are the releases that will be coming out in 2015 and 2016 as the art and creativity of Richard Black will not live on forever.
- *released recordings in more than a dozen countries worldwide;
- * has done multiple tours of England, USA, Wales, Japan & Korea and toured Okinawa, Taiwan, The Philippines and Canada;
- * represented the USA at The International Guitar Festival of Great Britain;
performed on “opening day” at THE WORLD CUP games at Soldier Field [Chicago]
Giant Stadium [New Jersey] and The Pontiac Silverdome [Detroit]; - * performed as band leader/guitarist for Rock Hall of Fame inductees THE DRIFTERS and
Martha & The Vandellas, was lead singer and band leader for the 1960’s British Rock Icon Spencer Davis; - * performed for PRINCE ANDREW AND THE DUCHESS OF YORK via master producer Michael Butler, etc., etc.
- * appeared on WGN-TV [National/International Superstation broadcast [Chicago] WTTW [PBS, Chicago], BBC-Radio [London], BBC-Radio-Midlands [UK], Red Dragon Radio [Wales], WLS-Radio [Chicago], BBC-Radio [Wales], CLTV [Tribune Broadcasting, Chicago], The Woods Communication Network [USA], WLUP [ABC – Chicago], WPYX-Radio [London to New York transoceanic broadcast featuring Jack Bruce], KCBC-Radio [England], Swansea Sound – Radio [Wales], AFKN- Radio [Korea], AFJN – Radio [Japan], US Armed Forces Radio and television worldwide;
- * hosted and performed weekly on TERMINAL GROOVE television program on the Woods Communication Network,
**** more to come