Richie has been a professional musician since the age of 15, when his career was launched by winning a BBC talent contest with his band Jazz Amica. Following this success he toured globally, visiting central America, Turkey and even the Falklands. At 22 he studied clarinet and tenor sax at Leeds College of Music, achieving an honours degree in Jazz.
Since then he has moved from his home city of Liverpool to London where he studied at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has gone on to tour with The Supremes and The Three Degrees, culminating in being invited to join The Official Tribute to The Blues Brothers in 1999 and the subsequent tour in 2000/2001.