Richard "Rich" Vernon is a British musician and songwriter best known as the bass guitarist of UK rock band
The Mission, and previously with
The Only Ones
The Only Ones were an English rock band formed in London in 1976, whose original band members are Peter Perrett, Alan Mair, John Perry and Mike Kellie, they first disbanded in 1982. They were associated with punk rock, yet straddled the mus ...
vocalist and cult artist
Peter Perrett in
The One
The ONE is a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is built on the site of the former Tung Ying Building at 100 Nathan Road. It was developed by Chinese Estates Holdings and opened in 2010. Owner Joseph Lau Luen-hung g ...
. He has recorded two studio and four live albums with The Mission including the critically acclaimed ''
God Is a Bullet'', as well as two with The One and one with Helter Skelter. He also appeared as a guest musician on The Dead Guitars album ''Flags'', in 2008.
Early life
Richard Vernon was born in
Chichester
Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...
, England, and relocated with his family to London until the age of two, when his family returned to their native Wales. His first musical instrument was a six-string guitar, followed by a brief dalliance with the drums, and finally bass guitar.
Early career
At the age of 20, Vernon left his home in Wales and moved to London, starting his musical career as a session player in a number of bands including
Eddie and the Hot Rods. Over his career, he has played with musicians from
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhyt ...
,
Squeeze,
The Adventures
The Adventures were a Northern Irish rock/pop band, formed in Belfast in 1984 who had a number of hits during the 1980s and early 1990s.
The band moved to London where they signed to Chrysalis Records and released their first single in 198 ...
,
The Charlatans,
The Waterboys
The Waterboys are a folk rock band formed in Edinburgh in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. Mike Scott has remained ...
,
The Monochrome Set
The Monochrome Set are an English post-punk/ new wave band, originally formed in London in January 1978. The most recent line-up consists of Bid, Andy Warren, Athen Ayren and Stephen Gilchrist.
History Original band: 1978–1985
The Monoc ...
,
The Pink Fairies,
The Wonder Stuff
The Wonder Stuff are a British alternative rock band. Originally based in Stourbridge in the West Midlands, England, the band's first lineup released four albums and nearly 20 singles and EPs, enjoying considerable chart and live success in th ...
,
The Pretenders
Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards), Pete ...
,
The Damned and many others. A change of pace saw him playing for UK agitpop band A Popular History of Signs on various European tours. Soon thereafter he co-founded
Rough Trade and
Island Records act Helter Skelter. They recorded a critically acclaimed album and garnered a single of the week award from ''
Melody Maker''. They toured Europe to support the album and recorded two
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
sessions, but a combination of limited success and struggles after
PolyGram took over of Island Records saw them split shortly after.
The One
Vernon then joined Peter Perrett's group
The One
The ONE is a shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is built on the site of the former Tung Ying Building at 100 Nathan Road. It was developed by Chinese Estates Holdings and opened in 2010. Owner Joseph Lau Luen-hung g ...
. The band made two studio albums and one live album as well as extensively touring around the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Japan. Their critically acclaimed ''Woke Up Sticky'' album received enthusiastic reviews from ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and ''
Daily Telegraph''. With equally good reviews for their live shows, the band promised much but after a busy and productive five-year period they drifted apart. Perrett's biographer,
Nina Antonia in her book ''Homme Fatale'',
puts this down to Perrett's increasingly erratic behaviour, whilst other band members have been quoted that the band had just run its course.
The Mission
Following a call from Perrett's tour manager, Vernon was asked to join
The Mission as replacement for departing founder member
Craig Adams. During his tenure with the band, Vernon recorded two studio albums (''
God Is a Bullet'' and ''Dum Dum Bullet'').
''God is a Bullet'' charted in the UK Top 30 Independent Label Album Chart and UK Top 40 Rock Album Chart. The first single, "Keep it in the Family", charted at number 7 in the BBC 1 Rock Chart. The band also recorded a live album from London's
Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherd's Bush Empire (currently known as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the BBC Television Theatre) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was originally ...
over four consecutive sold out nights,
which was billed as the last Mission shows for the foreseeable future. Vernon also recorded two live DVDs with the band as well as touring all over the UK, Europe, America, Canada and South Africa. He also contributed towards the Mission biography, ''At War with the Gods'', published in 2015.
Post-Mission
After leaving The Mission, Vernon decided to spend more time co-writing music and record production, and to focus on his family. He still found time to play live shows, including some with UK band The Sentimentalists,
including an appearance at the
Glastonbury Festival in 2015.
In November 2016, Vernon replaced
Robbie Crane in
Ricky Warwick
Ricky Warwick (born 11 July 1966) is a Northern Irish musician and the lead singer of the rock bands Black Star Riders and Thin Lizzy. He is also the frontman for the Scottish hard rock band The Almighty, with whom he achieved chart success in ...
's band The Fighting Hearts for a UK tour, supported by
Vice Squad
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tr ...
.
Vernon joined MGT on tour for a March 2018 US tour to promote their album "Gemini Nyte". The band included ex-Mission UK mate,
Mark Gemini Thwaite, along with
Ashton Nyte and
Jared Shavelson; their performances met an extremely positive response.
In March 2022, Vernon continued his role with Ricky Warwick & The Fighting Hearts for a month-long tour of the UK and Ireland, alongside Warwick, guitarist
Ben Christo (
The Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasi ...
) and drummer Jack Taylor (Tax the Heat). Further shows followed in May, with Christo replaced by Sam Wood (
Wayward Sons), and in August, two shows in Dublin and Belfast supporting
Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They formed in 1977 at the height of the Troubles, which informed much of their songwriting. They started out as a schoolboy band called Highway Star (named after the De ...
.
Equipment
Vernon plays bass guitar, guitar and occasionally, drums. Key to his signature bass sound is the use of vintage
Fender basses and
Trace Elliot
Trace Elliot is a United Kingdom-based bass amplification manufacturer, and has a sub-brand, Trace Acoustic, for acoustic instruments.
History
In 1979, a music shop in Romford, Essex, UK, called Soundwave was building and hiring out PA sys ...
backline.
Personal life
He lives in a converted chapel in North Wales with his Japanese wife, their two children, and his father. More recently, he has been heavily involved with politics, aiming to keep the U.K. in the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
via his campaigning work wit
Wales for Europe
Recorded works
The following represent the body of recorded works that Vernon has been involved with:
References
External links
The Mission UK official siteAt War With the Gods– Unofficial Mission biography
The Sentimentalists official site"God is a Bullet" Review – TerrorVerlag
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Richard Rich
Living people
Musicians from Chichester
English rock guitarists
English male songwriters
Gothic rock musicians
Alternative rock guitarists
1966 births