Ric Neale is a musician and performer whose shows spotlight his expert songwriting. He has taken his theatrical, heartfelt, and often hilarious performances of his brand of piano songsmithery all over the country. From concert halls (the Royal Albert Hall, The Palace Theatre, Howard Assembly Rooms), to intimate venues (The Brudenell Social Club, The Shoreditch Treehouse) Ric’s love for storytelling is crystal clear. His solo piano albums All That Counts, Pencil and Lullabies for Parents (a song cycle about parenting) show his ability to explore the extremities of the human condition using just his voice and a piano and the songs on these records are continually requested by his loyal audience. Ric has been invited to perform with Hue and Cry, David Mead, Jason Donovan, Divina De Campo and (weirdly) Tiffany. He has just released his new collaborative album Connected/Disconnected to huge acclaim and is beginning a new song cycle about grief inspired by the death of his lifelong friend.
Outside of his solo work Ric worked as Songwriter, Musical Director and performer in the sell out show Dancing Bear with Jamie Fletcher and Company that toured The Leeds Playhouse and The Palace Theatre in Manchester and wrote and produced the Christmas album by Drag Queen and star of BBC’s Ru Paul’s Drag Race Divina De Campo. With his band The Housekeeping Society, wrote and performed in the show Dancing With The Orange Dog which toured nationally. They also created the piece 45RPM for the art exhibition Thud, Crackle, Pop in partnership with visual artist Pete McKee which was shown all over the country and featured at the prestigious Festival No.6. Ric was commissioned along with spoken word artist Rob Reed to create the theatre piece Never Worn for Wakefield Literature Festival in 2017. Ric continues to curate his piano residency MONOCHROME, a monthly piano night featuring himself and a host of internationally acclaimed performers. Ric toured the UK performing Ric Neale Does Pet Sounds in which he performed all of the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds with just piano and voice to celebrate its 50th anniversary. He followed this up with the ridiculously titled Whenever Ric Neale Somebody in which he did the same thing but for Rick Astley’s first solo album.
Two songs Ric co-wrote got into the top ten of the UK Songwriting Contest and he was invited to write a segment in Andrew Dubber’s book The 360 Degree Deal. Ric has lectured on the craft of songwriting for over twenty years throughout the U.K as well as in Italy, Norway and South Korea and continues to passionately mentor a new generation of writers and performers.