Biography

Niles has contributed to a steady stream of pop hits since the 1970s, and had a parallel carreer in jazz. He is an acclaimed broadcaster for the BBC. He has flirted with classical music, had a sleazy affair with rock and molested a number of orchestras around the world. This explains why Sound On Sound magazine felt impelled to call Richard Niles “one of the most versatile men in modern music.” Born in Hollywood, Richard’s father is Tony Romano, a composer, singer and guitarist who worked with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Ray Heindorf, Joe Venuti and Cole Porter. Richard’s stepfather Jesse Lasky Jr. wrote more than 60 Hollywood films (inc. The Ten Commandments) and was a respected poet and playwright. Richard’s mother, Pat Silver Lasky writes films, books, and plays, and lectures in screenwriting.Richard came to London as a child in 1962 and absorbed Britsh 60s culture like a sponge absorbing oven grime. Having survived his teens, it took two years of touring Britain with his band Pure Wings (1969-71) to make him realize that studying might be better than driving to badly paid gigs in a van leaking carbon monoxide. Niles received his Degree in Composition from Boston’s Berklee College of Music (1975) where he studied with jazz greats Pat Metheny, Gary Burton, Michael Gibbs and Herb Pomeroy. After an initial period of musical humiliation Richard enjoyed Berklee immensely. Returning to London in 1975, he signed to Essex Music as a writer. Expecting to become an overnight success as a songwriter and jazz composer, Richard accidentally became an overworked success as staff arranger/producer of songwriter demos for Essex and EMI Music. This indirectly led to becoming Musical Director and Arranger for Cat Stevens. On British television series for David Essex and Leo Sayer he arranged and conducted for many marvellous guest artists including Ronnie Spector, Twiggy, Kate Bush and Denny Laine. In 1978 as staff arranger for Hansa Records he discovered Sarah Brightman (then with sexy dance troupe Hot Gossip) and arranged both his and her first hit I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper. Since then he has composed, arranged and produced music for some of the world’s most creative and successful artists. Niles has arranged for great female stars Pet Clark, Cilla Black, Kim Wilde, Lulu, Randy Crawford, Anita Baker, Deniece Williams, Gloria Gaynor, Heather Small and Samantha Mumba. He arranged a swinging big band version of Better The Devil You Know for Kylie Minogue’s 2001 tour. His arrangements helped define the sound of the 80s for groups like Swing Out Sister, Living In A Box, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Was Not Was and the legendary Grace Jones album Slave To The Rhythm. His pen has also gone to work with male stars as diverse as Cliff Richard, James Brown, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles, Stephen Gately, Ronan Keating, and contributed to hits for many generations of boy bands including Wet Wet Wet, ABC, Damage, O Town, OTT, Take That, Boyzone, and many number one hits by Westlife including their duet Against All Odds with Mariah Carey. Anoracks and other prospective employers can get details of all this and more in the Complete Discography section.