Rick Price

West Coast Music from Australian…

Rick Price History: 1960 – 1992
Rick Price was born July 6 1960 in Beaudesert, a small country town near Brisbane Queensland Australia. He began playing music at the age of nine appearing with his family band “The Orbits”. “It was kinda weird I guess. Up there with your Aunties and Uncles, brother and sister playing country music mixed with psychedelic rock covers!”

At eighteen Rick escaped to Sydney and continued working as a musician, playing bass with various inner city outfits and landing the occasional bit of studio and touring work. During the mid 80s Rick turned his focus more towards his singing. His highly distinctive vocals were soon in demand and in 1988 he was invited to sing “Celebration of a Nation”, the theme song for Australia’s Bicentennial. This opportunity helped lay the foundations for Rick’s solo career.

Rick began writing his own material in the late 80s “I really made a conscious decision to go out on my own. I’d been making music for as long as I could remember, music is the only passion I’ve ever had. I started getting into my own writing and my own songs and “Not A Day Goes By” was pretty much the first one I came up with”. This single released in February 1992 received saturation radio and video play, climbing to number 5 on the national charts where it spent 20 weeks in the Australian top 20. “When I was growing up and listening to the radio, I always used to love those tunes that got inside your head and stayed there That was the very thing that inspired me to write “Not A Day Goes By””. It was the beginning of a lifelong ambition for Price, in the space of less than 12 months, he went from relative obscurity to become one of the biggest names in Australian music.

Rick Price History: 1992 – 1993
In March 1992 the second single “Heaven Knows” was released in Australia. It was another top 5 hit going platinum and marking Rick as a singer with a truly remarkable voice. The song would go on to launch Rick’s international career but for the time being Australia was quite intent on enjoying the music. In May Rick was asked to join the “Wizard of Oz” show-case in Los Angeles where he performed alongside good pal Tina Arena amongst many other of the country’s leading artists. By June Australia had clearly fallen for the singer’s brilliantly-crafted music. His debut album “Heaven Knows” entered the charts at number 3 and stayed in the top 40 for the remainder of the year.

In August 1992 “Heaven Knows” was released in the following countries; Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, UK, Sweden, The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Holland, Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines, Portugal and Finland. Most with substantial chart positions. In September he toured Australia with his band giving people the opportunity to discover his abilities as a live performer. The tour was a success with comments like “His voice was clear and as strong as on the album – in fact the sound was near perfect” – West Australian and “Rick’s performance showed what a talented performer he is and that his name will be around for a long time”. – Beat

Following the tour was a month long promotional trip to Europe and the UK which involved over 100 interviews and 20 TV appearances, not bad for a boy from the country. In October he was invited back to Europe for further TV appearances and then a 3 week promotional trip to South East Asia.

In November 1992 Rick returned to Australia where he won the prestigious Song of the Year Award for “Heaven Knows” at the APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) Awards. This award recognised Rick’s songwriting abilities.

In December 1992 Rick was invited to Germany to perform on their biggest variety show there. He then made a 36 hour stopover in Manila where he managed to squeeze in six TV appearances, two radio interviews and a handful of press aswell.

“Heaven Knows” held the top spot in Malaysia for four consecutive weeks while “Not A Day Goes By” sat just behind it in the Top 5. In The Philippines, “Heaven Knows” sat at number 1 for all of November and December. During this time the album sold over 250,000 units alone in South-East Asia. “It was an exhausting experience” says Rick, “but it was stimulating at the same time. It was all new to me, going to places I’d never been and doing stuff I’d never done, so I certainly didn’t get tired of it. I particularly enjoyed going into radio stations around the world and just picking up my guitar and singing for them. I also played at a lot of press conferences in Asia. When you do these things on your own they can be very intimidating; it sounds corny, but it throws you back on your skills as an entertainer. I learnt a lot from it.”

Rick Price History: 1993 – 1995
In January and February 1993 Rick once again toured Australia to sell-out venues. In April he was nominated for 3 ARIA Awards and on the night performed a tribute to Peter Allen “Tenterfield Saddler” which blew the roof off. Later in May he was asked to perform the song on Good Morning America who were in Australia for 2 weeks. The performance was aired to 5 million people! Later that same month “Heaven Knows” was re-released and included the bonus CD “Rarities”. Rick spent 2 weeks travelling the country and promoting the re-release performing in acoustic mode.

In July 1993 “Heaven Knows” was released in America and Canada. Back home, Rick once again continued his heavy touring this time in the Northern Territory and northern Queensland area which he had not previously performed in. The tour was extremely successful, with all shows being theatres and all sold out.

During October of 1993 Rick performed some more concerts in South East Asia which incorporated 7 shows in 9 days. They were all sell outs. The Sentosa Music Festival in Singapore saw Rick perform in front of 15,000 people. Before returning to Australia Rick visited Korea for a short promotional and concert tour.

Rick once again joined the ‘Wizards of Oz’ show cases in Japan where the album was launched. Whilst in Japan Rick won ‘Song of the Year’ for “Walk Away Renee’ and ‘Album of the Year’ for “Heaven Knows” at the Australian Music Awards. On his return form Japan Rick was awarded with the 1993 Australian Export Award for recognition of his international success. During the month a new single “Where Is The Love” a duet with Australia’s Margaret Urlich was released.

In December 1993 Rick was invited to the Singapore Music Awards as a special guest. He picked up ‘Song of the Year’ for “Heaven Knows”, then came back home to Australia for more touring before being invited to perform on the numerous ‘Carols by Candlelight’ shows around the country. The year was topped off when Rick was presented with an Advance Australia Foundation award (in recognition of making an outstanding contribution to the growth and enhancement of Australia and its people).

During 1994 Rick spent the majority of time writing material for his anticipated follow up album. It would not be easy, after the success of the first album expectations would be high. From September to December Rick recorded his second album in Melbourne with a host of Australia’s leading musicians.

Rick Price History: 1995 – 1997
“When you grow up playing in pubs, you know it’s pretty hard to get people’s interest and attention. A lot of the time you’re jut background music. The great thing when you have a hit record is people stop and listen to you. That’s pretty satisfying.”

In April 1995 the long awaited single “River of Love” was released, the first from Rick’s eagerly anticipated album “Tamborine Mountain” which was later released in July. It’s an album where Rick digs deeper, exploring his talents as a songwriter and singer. “It was quite difficult”, Rick reveals “because I knew it was going to be a different album to “Heaven Knows”. I made that album as pop as I could make it, I wanted to be certain of airplay and all those kind of things. After the first album was released, I went out and played a lot of acoustic gigs. My audience tripled and people really liked it, which surprised me because I thought it would be a bit too internal, a bit too self conscious. But it worked, which gave me a lot of encouragement and the confidence to write more like that, just simple little stories. And that’s the kind of music I’ve always been drawn to – people like James Taylor and Carol King, great songwriters who have the ability to say something really simple”.

Rawer musically then “Heaven Knows”, “Tamborine Mountain” is an exploration of simple things: love, family and relationships. Of belief and belonging. Of giving depth and meaning to these things. It’s an album of discovery. “I’m trying to discover or rediscovery, myself spiritually”.

“At first my songs came in the shape of love songs, but I really feel like there is another perspective. Not just sadness or happiness, but exploring lots of different kinds of emotions and relationships”.

The album was produced by Rick and American Ben Wisch, who Rick was drawn to as a result of his production of Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis”. “I didn’t want the whole load of producing it myself, I wanted a partner to work with and Ben, being a musician as well, was the perfect choice.” Special guests on the album include Tommy Emmanuel on guitar and Tina Arena on backing vocals and the duet “Trust Me This is Love”.

“The whole writing thing is a bit of a mystery to me I feel I can only really take credit for expressing the song. I don’t really know where the creative process starts and stops, where it comes from..How it is all put together is still a mystery to me, a beautiful mystery. And the curious thing about songwriting is that as time goes by, a song has more and more relevance on your life. Though sometimes in this business it feels like hard work, it really is incredible what you get back, the opportunities that you are given to explore yourself – and get paid for it. It’s a very exciting time for me. Here I am given the opportunity to make records and commit my time to writing music and performing it. What can you say about life like that? It’s pretty amazing.”

After the success of the first single “River of Love” a second single “Bridge Building Man was released. The song is a standout track for Rick, written for his father and grandfather, the song speaks of building bridges not just those of the physical kind but also those in the emotional sense, about building emotional bridges with people. The album title itself is a reference to a small town near Beaudesert where Rick grew up. “We would go and play gigs in Tamborine, at the hotel. It was a beautiful place, a lush rainforest. It seemed an appropriate title for the album because there are a lot of stories on the album about that area and its people”.

In November and December of 1995 following the release of the album Rick then toured with Australia’s legendary guitarist Tommy Emmanuel. The tour “Rick Price & Tommy Emmanuel – Together & Alone” was a sell-out. It received rave reviews from critics and the public alike.

In conjunction with the tour a third single “To Be With You” was released in Australia. Rick performed at several Carols by Candlelight shows around the country and continued to tour during early 1996. In “You’re Never Alone” a song Rick wrote for his son was released in Australia while he travelled the country on further promotional tours throughout the remainder of the year.

Rick Price History: 1997 – 1998
In January and February of 1997 Rick played several shows alongside another accomplished Australian singer/songwriter Jack Jones. The shows were a huge success with the pair performing their best hits together and alone, proving yet again their abilities as live performers.

For the majority of the year Rick spent his time in Los Angeles and Nashville writing material for his next album. Some of the collaborators Rick worked with included Steve Werfel and Pam Reswick – Not A Day Goes By, Chains (Tina Arena); John Llynd – Simple Life (John Farnham), Crazy For You (Madonna) and Randy Goodrum, a well respected writer from Nashville. He has also written with Australia’s Heather Field who co-wrote “Heaven Knows” and “River of Love” and once again has worked with Phil Buckle who co-wrote “What’s Wrong With That Girl” from Rick’s “Heaven Knows” album.

In November and December 1997 Rick played a couple of showcases to the public with some of the new material he had been working on. The reactions have all been inspiring which has added further anticipation for the new album. During the later months of 1997 and early 1998 Rick recorded his new album in Los Angeles. The album is to be released in Australia in late 1998.

As Rick prepares for more touring and promotional work one thing is certain – with the ability and talent Rick possesses as both singer/songwriter he will long remain a favourite and well accomplished musician in the Australian music industry and one that will remain for many years to come.

Read more about Rick Price at his official website.

Discography