Neil Richardson

Who was Neil Richardson?

Neil Grant Richardson was an English composer and conductor. As a composer, he is perhaps best known for "Approaching Menace" and "The Riviera Affair". During the 1960s–1990s, he was an arranger and conductor of various BBC Radio Orchestras, working on programmes such as String Sound and The Radio Orchestra Show. He was a prolific composer of library music for labels such as KPM, and his music has been used in numerous TV, film and radio productions.

The son of a Worcestershire clergyman, Neil Richardson was born in Stourport-on-Severn, and grew up in the village of Hartlebury. Aged eight, he went to become a chorister at Westminster Abbey. After leaving the Abbey school, he became a music scholar at Lancing College, Sussex, and continued his musical studies at the Royal College of Music, studying clarinet, piano and composition with professor William Lloyd Webber. During his National Service, he played solo clarinet with the band of the Royal Air Force at Cranwell. After completing his national service, he began a career as an arranger, writing and conducting for the BBC, particularly the then-numerous BBC Radio and concert orchestras. He was instrumental in creating the BBC Northern Radio Orchestra in 1975 and was its conductor for many years. He died, aged 80, in Nerja, Spain.