For the Jesuit, see Richard Strange (Jesuit)
| Richard Strange | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 1951 London U.K. |
Richard "Kid" Strange (born January 1951) is an English writer, actor, musician, curator, teacher, adventurer, and the founder and front man of seminal mid-seventies protopunk art rock band Doctors of Madness.
Contents |
Strange's first band was Doctors of Madness, formed in 1975, recording three influential but non-commercial albums. The band was supported by the Sex Pistols, The Jam and Joy Division. He disbanded the band in 1978, after Dave Vanian of The Damned briefly joined him on vocals.[1] Richard toured Japan in 2005 and 2007 with multi-instrumentalist David Coulter and the Japanese band Sister Paul, playing a selection of Doctors of Madness songs.
He subsequently recorded as a solo artist, releasing two albums The Live Rise of Richard Strange (Ze Records 1981) and The Phenomenal Rise of Richard Strange (Virgin Records 1981) before further releases with The Engine Room up to the early 1990s.[1]
Strange has collaborated on recordings by International Noise Orchestra, Anni Hogan, and Jolie Holland. He has produced records by Way Of The West (Don't Say That's Just For White Boys), Tom Robinson (Martin's Gone), and The Nightingales album Pigs on Purpose
In 2007 he was part of Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown Festival, at the Royal Festival Hall, in an evening of songs from Walt Disney movies; performed with the producer/arranger Hal Wilner in Brooklyn; and performed at The Barbican, alongside David Byrne, Tim Robbins, Steve Buscemi, Shane McGowan and Suzanne Vega.
In 2009 Strange performed at Glastonbury Festival, performing his 1981 political concept album The Phenomenal Rise Of Richard Strange live, in its entirety. He also played Port Eliot, Hay-on-Wye and Fenton Festivals.
Strange founded the hugely influential mixed-media Cabaret Futura club in Soho in 1980,[3] which he reopened after a thirty year hiatus in 2010. Guests artists have included Michael Nyman, Gary Kemp, Sarah Jane Morris, Stella Duffy and boyleANDshaw. Cabaret Futura has subsequently been commissioned to curate a number of national and international live art events, including New Moves-The International Festival of Live Art in Glasgow (2011) and Festival of Art and Ideas in Hay On Wye (2011).
In November 2011 Strange was invited by the Tate Gallery to curate an evening as a response to the exhibition "John Martin and The Apocalypse." Working with his partner Kelly Dearsley, he created Cabaret Apocalyptica, a live event with installations, performances and films, staged in The Historic ROOM 9 (pre-Raphaelites and 19th Century masters) of Tate Britain. For this event Strange was joined by artists Gavin Turk, [[Richard Wilson}} and Sean Dower, plus dancer/choreographer Rene Eyre, Poet Kate Tempest and singer/cellist Bonfire Madigan.
Alongside Cabaret Futura Strange hosts his own "live Chat Show", A MIGHTY BIG IF, in London's Soho. A monthly event, Richard interviews guests from the world of art, music, literature and film. Recent notable guests have included Mike Figgis, Gavin Turk, Robert Elms, Cornelia Parker, Michael Nyman and James Rhodes.
Strange has worked as an actor since 1984, appearing extensively on stage, in films and on television. His numerous movie appearances include Batman by Tim Burton, Mona Lisa by Neil Jordan, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, and Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese. He can be seen in the Harmony Korine movie Mr Lonely, playing the part of Abraham Lincoln, and in the movie Inkheart, with Helen Mirren and Paul Bettany. He can also be seen in the final Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 under the directorship of David Yates. In summer 2011 he was cast in the British Film "Theatre Of Dreams" alongside Brian Cox. He has been in TV programmes Men Behaving Badly, Trial and Retribution, The Bill and Footballers Wives.
Between 1989 and 1990 Strange toured the world with a production of Hamlet, directed by the Russian Maestro Yuri Lyubimov. He played A Gravedigger, one of the Players, and The Ghost.
Throughout 2004-7 Strange worked with Marianne Faithfull on the Tom Waits/William Burroughs/Robert Wilson collaboration The Black Rider, singing and acting in this stage musical in theatres in London, San Francisco, Sydney and Los Angeles.
His collaborations include work with Sam Taylor Wood for the giant banner XV Seconds (2000) that covered the facade of the London department store Selfridges for 6 months in 2000. More recently he has worked with the Anglo-Pakistani artist Haroon Mirza on several projects including A Sleek Dry Yell (London, Dundee and Hamburg) and Regaining a Degree of Control (2010), (Hayward Gallery London, Chisenhale Gallery London, New Moves, Glasgow, and Vivid Gallery, Birmingham). He frequently works with the Live Art collective boyleANDshaw, performing with them notably at the Calvert Gallery, London in 2010, and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 2011.
In March 2011 Strange was invited by the New Moves International Festival of Live Art to curate an evening of events and to premiere a new performance work, I've a Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore which he devised with the photographer and academic Kelly Dearsley. The work was shown in Glasgow in March 2011 alongside other artists including Liliane Lijn, Richard Wilson, and Haroon Mirza
As a writer and journalist, Strange has contributed to The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent, Tatler, The Art Newspaper, Art Monthly, The European, Time Out, GQ, The London Standard, and Travel and Culture, among other publications.
In June 2011 he presented This Is Not Magritte, a programme on the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte, on BBC Radio 4.
In July 2011 Strange chaired a Tate Gallery discussion on watercolours at The Camp Bestival Festival.
Richard's memoir Strange- Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks, was published to critical acclaim by Andre Deutsch in 2005.
Richard is a guest lecturer and teaches "Creativity in Context" at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London.
In November 2011 he was invited to be CREATOR IN RESIDENCE at The Hong Kong Design Institute
Strange lives in London with his wife, the photographer, lecturer and academic Kelly Dearsley. He has a son, Eugene.