Richard Fielding

Richard Fielding
Origin	Sydney, Australia
Genres	electronic dance
Occupation(s)	musician, radio presenter
Instruments	drum machine, tape loops
Years active	1975–present
Associated acts	Severed Heads

Richard Fielding was a founding member of the Australian electronic dance group Severed Heads in 1979 in Sydney. He has been a member of other experimental, avant garde music groups such as Z-Glutz, The Loop Orchestra and Budgie Woops! He has had a career as a radio presenter on various New South Wales stations.

Biography

Richard Fielding trained as a radio presenter in the mid-1970s with Korg Pally Oskin, Ian Borri Okem, Rusty Nails and Peter Doyle, as part of a Sydney inner city (informal) group of "radio bad boys" called "The Thrifty Tones". He started as a presenter using the moniker 'Old Siddeley", on 2MBS—part of the "Late Night Collective". On sister station 5MBS with his own show "Yntmppry Yditions" and on Bega Station 2BE, co-hosting the 'Good Morning Ghostbusters" program with local Bega star Ian Wright. His longest on-air partnership was in the 1980s at Sydney's 2RES-FM with Dan Mayok, on "Anything That's Jandy", which was broadcast Saturday mornings from 6am-9am. His sign-off call was "Have a great day - I know I don't".

In 1979, Fielding formed an electronic dance group, Mr. and Mrs. No Smoking Sign, with Andrew Wright and they were soon joined by Tom Ellard.^[1] With Fielding on drum machine and tape loops, Wright on organ and synthesiser and Ellard on tapes they recorded a demo in Fielding's home.^[1][2] Renamed as Severed Heads they started recording their first album, Ear Bitten when Wright left in 1979. Fielding departed in 1981 during the recording of the band's second album, Clean.^[3]

He was also part of an unsuccessful venture called the "5 to 6 Federation" a self-styled "Electronic Green Movement" which proposed all radio stations go off air for 5 minutes every morning from 5.55am to "clear the airwaves from constant radiowave transmissions". In the latter days of his broadcasting career he was a panel operator and technical producer at community radio station 2SER FM on The Mamma Lena Show and RadioActiviky with Dr Xob Schmottman.

Fielding was also a founding member of The Loop Quartet, which was formed in 1982, along with John Blades, Ron Brown and Jaimie Leonarder.^[4] During the same year, another group performing with reel-to-reel tape machines, The Loop Orchestra, was formed by Fielding, John Blades and Anthony Maher. In 1983, Peter Doyle joined the group, and this line-up remained until 1997.^[5]

References

1. Zachritz, Todd (1990). "Interview from Godsend 1990". Godsend Online. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
2. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Severed Heads'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 5 June 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
3. Deming, Mark. "Severed Heads > Biography". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
4. Andrews, Ian; John Blades (consultation) (2009). "The Lost Decade: Post-Punk, Experimental and Industrial Music". In Gail Priest. Experimental music : audio explorations in Australia. Sydney, N.S.W.: UNSW Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-921410-07-9. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help);
5. Blades, John (2004). "Reel Time: The Story of the Loop Orchestra". Southerly. 1 (Halstead Press) 64 ("Outsiders"): 97–99. ISSN 0038-3732. Retrieved 26 November 2011.