Richard Newman

Richard Newman

Richard Newman is a British guitar player, songwriter, record producer and mixing specialist from the United Kingdom. Born in London in 1950, he has worked in blues music since 1967.

Blues guitar and songwriting

Newman is known as a blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He discovers blues through his local record shop, Potters Music, in Richmond, Surrey, when he is 17, and goes on to write and broadcast about the music. He also releases his own blues album, Bluestones, which features acoustic, slide and electric lead guitar alongside a number of songs he writes himself.

Production, mixing and radio work

He is especially known for producing and mixing albums by several figures from the early London blues scene, including Geoff Bradford, Brian Knight, Cliff Aungier and John Joyce. In the early 1970s he puts together a series of seven-hour live radio programmes for Capital Radio in London, featuring Alexis Korner, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Long John Baldry, Geoff Bradford, Brian Knight and John Joyce. In the mid-1970s, he produces and mixes a series of albums for the Black Lion jazz label.

Later projects and broadcasting

At the end of the 1970s, Newman assembles an album centred on Brian Knight, with contributions from Peter Green and Charlie Watts, plus saxophone from Art Themen and Dick Heckstall-Smith, and Geoff Bradford on electric lead guitar. He also writes and presents the Channel 4 television documentary Living With The Blues.

Recognition and appearances

He has a reputation among blues listeners as a strong vocalist and is described as a musician’s musician. He also has a major interview with Peter Green published in Guitarist magazine and contributes a feature on the London blues scene. A performance at the Banbury Blues Festival is noted as a highlight.