Rob Richings talks to Peter Mann about getting his life back on track after a cancer scare

SUPPORTING former West End actor, Iranian-Canadian Ramin Karimloo, during his UK tour to Gateshead next week, Swindon-born folk singer-songwriter, Rob Richings continues to move away from the darkness of recent health issues and seeks a year to remember.

All of Richings' material has some meaning to it, whether it is reliving his childhood, early friendships, progression to adulthood, or the pain of a cancer-ridden late noughties.

Although the illness is not presented as a defining point for what he does, Richings was diagnosed with a rare and severe form of colitis in 2009, which, following years of misdiagnosis, morphed into cancerous cells. Three life-saving, life-changing operations later and he is now thriving, doing what he loves while living a relatively normal life.

It was during this period Richings decided the time was right for him to get serious about his music, and, over the past three years or so he has turned what was, in essence, a hobby into a full-time career releasing the EP Half Way Up, in 2015, which was recorded with producer Simon Johnson in the New Forest.

“I’ve been full-time for the past three years, but have been gigging for 18 now and it’s still a nerve-wracking experience going on-stage,” says Richings. ”The health issues pushed me towards pursuing music as a career and it was because of that period in my life that you take stock, you look at the world differently and as to how I live my life. It was the push over the edge I needed.”

Out of the blue, Richings was contacted by Chris Vallejo, from Linear Recording, in Sydney, Australia, and a once-in- a-lifetime opportunity beckoned for the artist who moved to Ireland when he was 12, and has been performing for near two decades.

“The EP was released and, around seven months later, I was putting the album Parkas and Boots together, in Australia,” he says. “Having a family means you can’t just keep jetting off all the time but this, well it was a no-brainer and I spent a good four weeks in Sydney with Chris. I see the album as being reminiscence album, those early friendships you think will last forever but fade away before progressing into adulthood. When I write songs I try to do just that, tell a story and tell it in the best way possible. I do it in a way that people can relate to.”

He’s looking forward to heading North because of family ties to the Tyneside area, but has only visited once before, as a teenager.

“I’d completed two, amazing tours, with Tom Baxter and received a call from Ramin’s agent which was fantastic,” says Richings.

“I’ve only been to Newcastle once, when I was younger. I have family there and I’m looking forward to catching up with them again as they’ll be at the show. They’ve already got their tickets.

“As for the rest of the year, I’m in the process of a double A-side which I’ll hopefully mould into a second album as I’ve a good back catalogue of material that I’ve written over the past six years. That release will also be around the time I head over to Europe on a mini-tour before hitting the festivals in the summer. I’m excited though and looking forward to going on tour with Ramin, I can’t wait.”

n Tickets for Ramin Karimloo and the Broadgrass Band plus Rob Richings on Friday, January 20, are £30.64 from http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/ramin-karimloo/ and for more on Rob Richings visit http://www.robrichings.com/