From Leciester To London, A Great Career In Teaching, Being Discovered In London’s Covent Garden, “Living The Dream” & Coming Back Home Again
facebook.com/richard.sampson.336 Andy Williams, Roy Bailey (miracmusic.com), & Craig Christopher
Sir Lenny Henry Has Famously Said, Like So Many Comedians, That He Used Humour To Survive At School. We Ask Richie What It Was Like For Him, As A School Contemporary To The Now ‘Sir’ Lenny Henry.
“As A Kid It Was Just Bewilderment. We Were Introduced To A Primary School I Don’t Think Had Any Preparation For Black Children From The Caribbean. So We Were Introduced And Expected To Conform To Everything They Did. Not Like Now And Not Like Me Being A Teacher of Many Years Where I’ve Insisted That We Introduce Our Culture That’s Why In Many Schools I’ve Taught At, We Talk About Black History Month. We Talk About Our History. We Talk About Our Progression. Back Then As A Child, None of That Existed.”
“They Shoved Us Into Schooling Which Was Completely Alien To Us, The Way They Did Things.”
“When I Was Growing Up The Media Didn’t Show Us Any Black High Achievers. They Showed Us Sir Trevor Mcdonald But They Also Showed Us Love They Neighbour Which Was A Negative Image To Me Personally.”
“To Me Achievement Was “Do I Want To Grow Up And Be Part of The Negative Images Being Projected Or Do I Want To Prove Them Wrong?”
“As A Child When You’re In A Classroom And You Only See And You Only Hear A Particular Behaviour And This Is The Way To Do It And When I’m Coming From My Household And I’m Presenting That In The Classroom To Other People It’s Quite A Struggle. At University It Also A Struggle Because You’re Meeting Middle-Class People With Middle-Class Values And The Middle-Class Teachers With The Middle-Class Values Are the Ones That Are Teaching Their Values To Working Class Children, Whether They Were White or Whether They Were Black. So They Had Little Understanding of Caribbean Culture. So It Was A Struggle.”
“I May Not Have Had A Voice On Television But I Had A Voice As A Teacher. And Some of Those Kids Have Grown Up And Are Still In South East London. I See Them With Their Children And They Still Call Me Sir. We’re All Grown Up Now. They’ve Earnt The Right To Call Me Richie. But To Them I’m Always Sir. I Say “You’re A Grown Man With Your own Children, Why You Calling Me Sir?” They Just Can’t Help It.”
“I May Not Have Climbed Mount Everest In My Life But I Think The Progression I’ve Made In My Life As A Black Teacher, As A Black Professional, As A Black Musician, As A Black Songwriter, All That Is An Achievement For Me. And Even Now When I Go Out And I Do My Shows And People Love What I Do, It’s All Because I Wanted To Be Recognised As Achieving Something To The Highest Level.”
“When I Became A Teacher I Made Sure They Included Other Cultures. I Was Brought In As ‘The Achievement Coordinator’ For Afro-Caribbean And Dual-Heritage Children In Some of The Schools I Worked With. [As Well As John Roan School, He Also Worked With Sedgehill School]. Those Kids Who Were Averaging Between A Grade C And Grade B, My Job Was To Help Them Get Grade B. Or If It Was Between A Grade A And Grade B, My Job Was To Help Them Get An A. I Had To Work Very Hard To Push Them, To Make Sure We Achieved At The Right Level Those Kids Were Capable of. Ds To Cs That Was My Job Too.“
“As A Teacher, I Know of It Because I Experienced It Going Through It. When You’re A Child It’s A Confidence Thing. If I Tell You Things In A Certain Way, And I Tell You For Long Enough, You’ll Begin To Believe It In That Certain Way. Those Kids That Should Have Been Getting Grades As And Bs Weren’t Getting It Because They Got The Impression or The Message That They Were Only Going To Get Certain Things From That System. And They Weren’t Going To Go Any Further. They Weren’t Going To End Up In The Houses of Parliament, They Weren’t Going To Be High Ranking Doctors, They Weren’t Going To Be High Achievers. So Children Take That On And Lose Confidence. So It Was My Job To Help Them To Opt In Instead of Opting Out.”
Fortunately For Him, In Terms of His Own School Experience He Was Eventually Recognised As Being Naturally Bright And So Was Able To Work His Way Successfully Through The Education System. And It Saw Him Eventually Go To The Local Grammer School, Then Dudley College of Science And Technology, Then Leicester University. And Then He Eventually Become A Science Teacher.
Richie Initially Worked At A Local Community College And Then Moved To London In Pursuit of Gaining A Variation of Experience. He Came To London And Worked At John Roan School (In The Borough of Greenwich) And Other Schools In The Area As ‘An Achievement Coordinator’.
“I Wanted To Be In London Because Everybody Said London Was Vibrant At That Time And Music Was Becoming A Passion of Mine, So I Wanted To Be A Part of That And I’m So Glad That I Was.”
“I Was Just Singing A Couple of Songs At The Karaoke And People Were Telling Me I Had A Great Voice. I Just Continued From There.”
“There Was A Place In London Called ‘The Spot’ (In Maiden Lane, Covent Garden) Where All The Singers Used To Meet On A Sunday. You’d Meet Paul Young, Chaka Khan, You’d Meet The Manageress of The Drifters (Fay Treadwell), She’d Be There. Everybody Would Be There. And I’d Get Up And Do A Song And I Sang Some of Those Old Songs. And Following That Passion I’m Still Doing it Right Now.”
“It’s Just Gone Crazy. I’ve Got A Record Deal. My Album Is Out Next Month. And We’re Touring Cypress, Malta, And Dubai.”
In Cypress Richie And The Band Are Playing In Ampi-Theatres And He Says The PA System He’s Got Is Fantastic.
TO.P: Where Do You Get Your Voice From?
RS: “From My Mum And All The Caribbean Music She Used To Play, Like Harry Belafonte. When I Sing I Hear The Caribbean Influence. It’s Just Like Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate. He Sings Pop Music, But When He Sings I Still Hear The Caribbean In His Voice. My Mum” Used To Listen To Vinyl On One of Those Big Gramophone Machines Where The Records Used To Drop Down. And I Can Hear The Caribbean Influences In My Own Voice.
TO.P: So How Did You Find Your Agent?
RS: “I Have Two Agents. I Met The Agent of The Drifters At The Spot And She Asked Me If Was Interested In Being Part of A Drifters Cover Band Because She Liked My Vocie. And We Have A Contract With P & O. And There’s Often British People Will Be On The P & O Cruises. Although We Travel Far And Wide And Meet Lots of Different People From Different Places.“
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