Richard Mortimer (musician)

Richard Mortimer.State Library of Western Australia results (born 24 October 1965) is a Perth singer-songwriter and Guitarist, most active during the years 1989 to 2000, he was the producer for several independent albums, particularly the Shades of Perth series of discs which promoted local Perth bands, also working for several radio stations and organizing gigs for local bands.
== Active years (1989–2000) ==
Mortimer picked up the guitar around 21 years old, joining a band with drummer Cameron Potts, his brother Jason Potts on bass, Greg Periera on guitar and singer Amy Carney (daughter of Bernard Carney), they played the 1989 Claremont School of Art dance as their first professional debut. Later this band would split with Periera and Mortimer forming Live Wire with Michael Periera on drums and Kevin Riddell on bass. This line up released a 10 track cassette entitled Newspaper Heroes prior to being joined by Lesley Reid on vocals. Mortimer and Reid worked on a side project and produced the cassette Kiss you all over whilst promoting their acoustic duo in shows around the Perth region. After splitting, Mortimer went on to join the Angry Red Planets on bass, recording a 6 track EP at Armadillo Studios in Nedlands. In 1994 Mortimer formed a new band called Neon Ceiling and performed at numerous locations. The band recorded two unreleased demo tapes between 1994 and 1995 at Witzend Studios, partially funded by winning the Notes Audio Magazine song contestX-Press magazine, issue 399, pg 51. During next few years Mortimer joined Sideshow and toured. Both bands disintegrated and formed two studio only duos The Wooden Gods and Ambassadors of Pan, which both released CD's before Mortimer essentially left the music scene.
== Bands ==
* Bad News (later known as Poetic Justice) (1989–1990)
* Live Wire (1990–1992)
* Richard Mortimer and Lesley Reid (acoustic duo) (1991–1993)
* The Angry Red Planets (1993)
* Neon Ceiling (1994–1996)
* Sideshow (1996–1998)
* The Wooden Gods (1997)
* Ambassadors of Pan (1997–1998)
* Easily Distracted (2010–2011)
== Solo ==
Whilst performing within bands, he maintained a solo career, performing acoustically in many locations, as well as writing and creating music.
Mortimer's performances have been broadcast on TV, with All's not fair (in love and war) being used as backing music for a story hosted by Pascal Fox on Simon Townsend's Wonder World! in late 1993, he was also televised performing Margaret's Eulogy solo on Bert Newton's show Good Morning Australia in 1994 (pre-recorded in Perth's Network 10 studios) and also the song Rhinoceros appearing as backing music on an MTV documentary Kiss and Make up in 1997. Some snippets of his music has been used in local documentaries (Perth Uncovered, 1995).
== Promoting local music ==
During the years 1993 to 1996, Mortimer produced a series of CD's promoting Perth music, known as Shades of Perth, as a self funded, non-profit project, until Shades of Perth Volume 4X-Press issue #419, page 45 which was unreleased. This included organizing gigs for the bands who participated and for the Shades of Perth releases.
=== Promotion manager ===
As an active member of the music community, Mortimer also organized gigs for several bands in the Perth area.
=== Radio DJ ===
During the years 1993 to 1996, Mortimer worked some shifts for 100fm, based in Fremantle on the Twilight Zone, Curtin Radio and RTRFM, interviewing Tim Rogers (musician) from You Am I for their recording Sound as Ever.
=== Writing and reviewing ===
Mortimer also contributed reviews of local artists and music shopsConnections magazine Aug 1993, page 62 & 63 to various magazines
== Discography ==
Mortimer has released and been in production for many local bands, including
=== With bands ===
==== Live Wire ====
* 1991 : Newspaper Heroes (cassette)Review in X-Press magazine X-Press magazine, issue 243, page 40 by Bob Gordon
==== Richard Mortimer and Lesley Reid ====
* 1992 : Kiss you all over (cassette)Review in X-Press magazine, issue 277, page 32
==== Angry Red Planets ====
* 1993 : Signals (cassette)
==== Neon Ceiling ====
* 1994 : Demo #1 (cassette)
* 1994 : Demo #2 (cassette)
==== The Wooden Gods ====
* 1997 : Ganesha (CD)The Wooden Gods topic on YouTube
==== Ambassadors of Pan ====
* 1999 : Philosophy as an Art (CD)https://musicbrainz.org/release/6f0e8f9e-97fe-4368-93b6-dba5b28ba318 MusicBrainz entry for Philosophy as an Art]
=== Solo ===
* 1991 : Dinosaur Rock (cassette)State Library of Western Australia catalogue, Dinosaur Rock
* 1992 : MöN fish non sequitur
* 1993 : Wun-Fli
* 1993 : SunSetSiteState Library of Western Australia catalogue, SunSetSite
* 1994 : Somewhere between art and science
* 1995 : The Garden of Pleasure (Parts 1 & 2) (released under the Valentine RecordsAnastasia Valentine, ex-President of Valentine Records label in Canada and USA)
* 2016 : Spotify untitled album
=== On Compilations ===
 List of appearances on compilation albums
Year	Title 	Production company 	Appears as 	Song(s)
1991	West of the Nullabor Wall 	Gerico Studios 	Richard Mortimer	Nymphette's Dance
1992	The Revenge of the Black Salad 	Healthway.Engineered and Produced by Phil Bailey, and Chaz Botfield. Co-ordinated by Gary Burke.	Banned! 	No Deadlines
1993	Shades of Perth Volume 1State Library of Western Australia catalogue, Shades of Perth, Volume onehttps://giggysound.com/cds-and-artists/hard-marshmellow	RMRecords (Shades of Perth Trust Fund) 	Richard Mortimer	Leaving, Trust
1993	Pro-Copy Audio News Volume #3 	Pro-Copy 	Richard Mortimer	All's not fair (in love and war)
1994	Shades of Perth Volume 2 	RMRecords (Shades of Perth Trust Fund) 	Richard Mortimer	Interstation Ride (instr), All's not fair (in love and war)
1994	Pro-Copy Audio News Volume #4 	Pro-Copy 	Richard Mortimer	City Animal
1994	Pro-Copy Audio News Volume #5 	Pro-Copy 	Neon Ceiling 	Gypsy Fair
1994	Pro-Copy Audio News Volume #5 	Pro-Copy 	Richard Mortimer	Beautiful Dreamer
1995	Shades of Perth Volume 3 	RMRecords (Shades of Perth Trust Fund) 	Neon Ceiling 	Girl like you
1995	Shades of Perth Volume 3 	RMRecords (Shades of Perth Trust Fund) 	Richard Mortimer	Rhinoceros
1996	Fight Prime Time 	Kathode RayKathode Ray Trademark Information at Bizapedia, David Hooper 	Richard Mortimer	Josselyn
1997	Interior / Exterior music 	Kathode Ray, David Hooper 	Richard Mortimer	Rhinoceros
==Awards==
The West Australian Music Industry Awards are annual awards celebrating achievements for Western Australian music. They commenced in 1985.
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| 1994 || Shades of Perth Volume 2 || Most popular local release || 
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Notes Audio Magazine song contest
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| 1995 || Neon Ceiling / Girl Like You || Best original song || 
|-
== Acknowledgement ==
Mortimer has been included in a number of reference books about Australian music, both as a solo artist and within bands. Acknowledged in the preface of Who's Who of Australian Rock,, and listed solo on page 354, and on pages 300, and 26, Perth Bands 1985 - 1989 under Acknowledgments (pg 2) and on page 33, Perth Bands 1990 - 1994 on pages 4, 6, 37, 45, 49, and 65
== Inactive years (2000–present) ==
Whilst generally considered inactive in the music scene, Mortimer still released some electronic music, and maintains some new original material on his YouTube channel. Some content has also been released on Apple musichttps://music.apple.com/us/album/richard-mortimer/1177948710 and on Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/Richard-Mortimer/dp/B01MTPNXJZ
Category:1965 births
Category:Musicians from Perth, Western Australia
Category:Guitarists