Tony Ritchie
Balance of Power's bassist, previously the singer back in the early days, is asked stuff all the time. This is what he replies. Tony's style is an important and vital ingredient to the
Balance of Power formula. His lyrical style is prevalent throughout BOP's works even though his role within the band took a drastic turn during the recording of the Book of
Secrets album. Tony's absence was very brief affair and his return to the fold saw him take on the role as the bass player. It could be said that Balance of Power wouldn't
be the same without him.
Where were you born?
“ I was born in Cambridgeshire. ”
How did you get into music?
“ I began playing Bass with some friends at school. We played a few local gigs in the pubs and clubs around at the time. After one gig, we were packing up our equipment at the back of some pub. I left my Bass resting on the bumper of a car and when I came out to get it some f**k had stolen it and to make it worse, as it was a cold night there was a dew on the car and I could see the long lines of fingers on the bonnet of the car where the thief had grabbed my one and only bass guitar. I never got it back, but a guy from one of the bigger bands at the time asked if I had thought of being a singer. I used to sing backing vocals as well as playing bass and he had seen us play and they were looking for a new singer. I joined a band called Rhineheart (I think that is how you spell it). ”
Do you prefer singing or playing the bass?
“
I had a long time singing in various bands, mainly involving Lionel and Pete, which took me around the world. So singing has been good to me, that is for sure.
It is weird how things come around again, now that I am playing bass and singing backing vocals and loving every minute of it. I enjoyed singing as a front man
a lot, but with it come a lot more responsibility, like remembering the words, and that is not one of my strong points, just ask the other guys!
There is a whole new high I have found in locking into the band as a bass player and it is a whole lot easier remembering runs and riffs than lyrics, so Bass it
is from now on!
”
Which bands inspired you to become a musician?
“ The earliest bands I recall being into were The Sweet, Alice Cooper, AC/DC and Rush. As I grew older I found Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy. A major discovery for me was Ronnie James Dio. When I heard Stand up and Shout for the first time on The Friday Rock Show with Tommy Vance, I'd never heard of him before and this led me to a trail through Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Dio. This man made me want to do this stuff seriously!!! I still cannot get enough Dio.......WE ROOOOOCK!!! ”
What is your favourite animal?
“ Cats. Independent, vicious, calculating, a little aloof and nine lives can't be bad! ”
What has been the highest and lowest point in your career?
“ Hopefully the highest is yet to come and please let the lowest be already gone! Touring with Pink Cream 69 and Axxis was a big thing in terms of broadening our horizons. Until then, we were been held back by past members of the band not being willing to play live. Recording the Heathen Machine album was a high too, as we had such a good time with John and after our low of finding our ex-singer ripping us off when it all started to smell of roses. Nice!! ”
Do you have a favourite song?
“ I have lots of favourite songs. They include Audioslaves I am the highway, Black Sabbaths Sign of the Southern Cross, Dios The last in line, Muse's In your World, A's Nothing, Rush's Cygnus-x1,Deep Purple's Burn and Highway Star; to name just a few! ”
“ Of our own songs I particularly like the chorus on Prisoner of Pride on Ten More Tales, Walking on top of the World from Book of Secrets, Higher than the sun and The pleasure Room from Perfect Balance and of course everything on the new Heathen Machine CD. Don't get me started on songs I'll go on forever!! ”
How you you write your songs?
“ Well how long is a piece of string? It can take five minutes or five months. Being a lyricist I find it easier to work with a musical backing track. Pete has an endless stream of ideas, so I am never at a loss for inspiration.
Usually Pete will give me a demo of a song idea. We keep it simple to begin with as the song will nearly always twist and turn on its way to your ears. I will then demo some lyrics and melodies on top of it. Then Lionel with his producers hat on will bounce some ideas around as to how we can improve on what we have. He can do this better as he is not so closely connected with the song and can tear it pieces if need be. We have a long working relationship and are way past taking things the wrong way. So then we will make a more complete version of the song, as we all have home studios it is easy to chop and change things until were all happy with the final song.
I will demo a version of the vocals (even if it means singing like the Bee Gees on acid to get the high notes). Then Jon can take it apart or sing it straight depending on how it works with his voice and of course the lyrical content.
A good example of this is Just Before you Leave from Heathen Machine. The lyrical idea was born from my fathers death from cancer and the sudden out pouring of emotion that came with it. I wrote a version of it and when Jon came to read the lyrics he said; “Listen guy, this is way too personal for me to sing” and he was right, so he wrote a new verse musically and lyrically and we welded the whole thing together, making a much more accessible song.
If I am writing a song from scratch, then, as I am so used to working from Pete's demos, I`ll usually make a musical backing track first and add the vocal part afterwards.
Occasionally I will have a particular melody in mind and will write the music to fit. It is something that comes quite naturally, so we tend to write to order rather than write 20 songs and pick the best ones to go on the album. If we look at the whole album as we were writing it we can see where the holes are. Perhaps we need a faster song here or a moody descriptive, atmospheric song there, so we& will write one rather than patch it together with a whole bunch of O. K. songs. ”
You used to have long hair. Why did you cut it?
“ Well I suppose I got a bit bored with either leaving your hair down or putting it in a pony tail. Simple as that really!! Now it is short I can f**k about with it as much as I like and if it goes wrong then it is grown out in a couple of weeks so I can do something else with it. I have bleached it, had a mohican, it has been red, blue, green, orange, spiky and flat, That is just another way of keeping things interesting. Well I enjoy it anyway! ”
Previous/Other involvements
USM (1999)
Recorded works: “Silver Step Child” (Massacre Records)
Kid Wicked {1991-1994}
Recorded works: “Non-stop Primitive” (Wickedtunes)
During a phase of musical transition, Tony expressed himself with a gritty solo album that even the odd sceptic now appreciates as being a right of passage.
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