Ben Richards

Ben moved down South from Manchester two years ago, and has been writing and performing his own music for seven years. He is best known for writing high octane musical theatre having won the PMA writer's award in 2002 and being crown European Gay Playwright of the year 2005. His most recent production of "The Case of the Blue Oyster Gang" was on in New York at Christmas and was recommended as a must see by the NY British Culture Examiner. Ben has been described as "Prodigiously talented" by the Scotsman, and has won five star reviews in the Times, Guardian and Telegraph. He branched out into writing stand alone music when he became the producer of Manchester's successful alternative "Cabaret of Ida Bucket" in 2005, and later becoming a transfering his acts to Bristol's "Invisible Circus". He can still be heard performing as a Jungle MC under the name Wilberforce Brown but is now hoping to spread his more acoustic music around the South. He lists his influences as They Might be Giants, Richard Carpenter and Stephen Swartz.