Craig Richards

After a relatively sheltered upbringing in the New Forest, Craigmoved to London, where he was to study at St. Martins School of Art, a further study at theRoyal College of Art with his creative talents handed him a design consultancy with trendy beer company Sapporo and a series of commissions from clothing designer Paul Smith.

He has since worked with dancer Michael Clark and Swedish vodka company Absolute Vodka. His work as a painter, photographer and graphic designer is widely recognised. After leaving the Royal College of Art, he helped launch his own night 'Georgie' at Park Royal studios as 'a tribute to legendary footballer George Best', though Best strangely took legal action to stop it. And later on co-promoted Malibu Stacey with DJ Seb Fontaine who he made good friends with and is funnily enough the godfather of Sebs son. His DJ schedule became busier and Craig had the decision of whether to stay an artist or become a DJ full time, his love of music made him opt for the latter, but Craig still uses his talents for art on such projects as the cover of Groove Armadas 'Back to Mine' cover & the packaging design for he and Lee's series of mix albums.

Late 1997, Tyrant was founded, after Craig met Sasha & Lee Burridge in Hong Kong. Craig came to the club Lee had been resident at, with Seb Fontaine on a Malibu Stacey tour. Tyrant was the brainchild of Craig and legendary DJ Sasha and Lee fitted in as the third member. A few one off parties were staged, which led to residences at the Bomb in Nottingham and fabric in London, voted the best club in the UK by readers of Muzik magazine and the first club in London to have a 24 hour licence granted.

It would be wrong to say that Craig's most important role was with Tyrant, as Craig is a wonderful DJ when playing without Lee & Sasha and proves this at his Saturday residency at fabric where he plays a 3 hour set in the main room every week. "Fabric's 24 hour licence has meant that I'll get to play long sets that'll allow me to build up a room". He has made a massive name for himself on the London scene by playing the warm-up set which incorporates slow chugging deep techy house, the odd bit of breakbeat and just about anything you can think of, which he enjoys massively and along with Terry Francis has become a major part of fabrics history.

Craig is a DJ who is a unique talent (which is hard to say in this day and age) he plays a wide variety of styles and the listener will never know what to expect. But the one thing they will be sure of is that whatever Craig plays, photographs, paints or designs.....it will be of the highest quality.

Lee Burridge

In the decade that has passed since Lee Burridge discovered acid house music, raided the local record shops of Bournemouth and took to the decks, his illustrious DJ career has spanned at least three continents and seen him work alongside some of the England's most revered DJ's.

In 1991 the South Coast scene was no match for Lee's decksterous talents and Hong Kong beckoned with the promise of a residency that would put Hong Kong on the clubbing map. Six years later, the undisputed King of the colony was guesting at most of the big club tour parties in Hong Kong, including Cream, Ministry, Malibu Stacey and Northern Exposure.

In 1993 Lee turned his attentions to the now legendary full moon parties at Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand, with his residency at the back-yard club providing an inspirational alternative to the more standard nights around.

Future projects already promise to launch Lee into the DJing stratosphere and confirm his position as a face to watch on the scene. His residencies at Tyrant, both at The Bomb and Fabric, Golden and Cream continues to provide clubbers with the slick, hard, deep house, trancey, breakbeat sounds they have come to expect from him and his guest appearances at Gatecrasher, Sugarshack, United, Rhumba and Kelly's Port Rush have introduced his style to club goers all over the country. Last year Lee broadened his DJ diary horizons to take in Thailand, Ireland, South America, Ibiza, Israel and Hong Kong where international club goers have voted with their feet for Lee's driving progressive style. 2000 will see him play in Greece, Ibiza, the States, Brazil and undertake an Asian tour.

In 1999 Lee honed his studio techniques with the release of his mix CD "Metropolis" (released on Tide), which received the Compilation of The Month thumbs up in Muzik. Future projects in the pipeline include collaborations with Breeder and Hybrid, a breakbeat track with Andy Page (who previously collaborated with Sasha), and various other remix projects including work for several other labels.

With 1999 already a distant memory, the accolades Lee received - a new entry o no. 33 in DJ Magazine's Top 100 DJ Poll, Muzik's DJ Of The Month and Mixmag's Best Up & Coming DJ, are the perfect platform to consolidate his rise in 2000 with the launch of his monthly Tyrant night with Craig Richards at Fabric and the launch of the Tyrant Compilation series on Distinctive Breaks which will showcase Lee & Craig Richards legendary DJ sets as previously seen at Space in Ibiza and The Bonaparte at the last two Notting Hill Carnivals.

The Tyrant series is set to kick off in May with a series of parties stretching the breadth of the country surrounding the launch dates.

| Progressive House Compilations :: Craig Richards

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