Fitting the inimitable Richard Strange into one convenient pigeonhole is the very definition of an exercise in futility. Described as a writer, musician, composer, nightclub host, curator, actor and adventurer, Richard Strange encapsulates artistic freedom in its purest sense.
His latest tour, An Accent Waiting To Happen’, reflects his varied body of work as Richard promises an evening of songs, stories, film clips, anecdotes, gossip and readings from his critically-acclaimed memoir ‘Strange- Punks and Drunks and Flicks and Kicks’. On Saturday 4th February, Strange offers audiences a chance to catch this show at Middlesbrough’s Westgarth Social Club.
Strange rose to prominence in 1975 as a founding member and vocalist/guitarist of proto-punk band Doctors of Madness. Described as the missing link between David Bowie and the Sex Pistols, Doctors of Madness achieved a level of cult acclaim without hitting the commercial heights befitting of such an influential band. It was as the support for Doctors of Madness that Sex Pistols first appeared in Middlesbrough back in 1976. The band released three albums during their initial run and in 2019 released their first new music in over 30 years with the album ‘Dark Times’.
Following Doctors of Madness splitting, Strange embarked on a solo music career, releasing two LPs in the early ‘80s before expanding his repertoire in to nightclub curation and acting, notably opening the mixed-media Cabaret Futura club in Soho in 1980.
His acting credentials read like a list of Hollywood blockbusters, with appearances on Tim Burton’s Batman, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, Harmony Korine’s Mister Lonely and Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 2.
In addition to screen acting, perhaps most impressively was his three-year stage stint between 2004 and 2007 as he performed with Marianne Faithful on the Tom Waits, William Boroughs and Robert Wilson musical fable ‘The Black Rider’. His stage exploits continued further as he was invited by Gail Zappa to narrate the British premier of her husband Frank’s opera ‘200 Motels’ in 2013.
The breadth of collaborations Strange has taken part in is frankly breathtaking, and understandably his colourful life is littered with anecdotes from his 50 years at the forefront of the artistic world. All this is in addition to his work as an acclaimed writer and journalist, and his reputation as a genuinely engaging and funny man.
Tickets, priced at £13.20 in advance, are available from seetickets.com.
