Draft:Richard Mortimer (musician)

Richard Mortimer. (born 24 October 1965) is a Perth singer-songwriter and guitar player, most active during the years 1989 to 2000, he was the producer for several independent albums, particularly the Shades of Perth series of discs which promoted local Perth bands, also working for several radio stations and organizing gigs for local bands.

Active years (1989–2000)
Mortimer picked up the guitar around 21 years old, joining a band with drummer Cameron Potts, his brother Jason Potts on bass, Greg Periera on guitar and singer Amy Carney (daughter of Bernard Carney), they played the 1989 Claremont School of Art dance as their first professional debut. Later this band would split with Periera and Mortimer forming Live Wire with Michael Periera on drums and Kevin Riddell on bass. This line up released a 10 track cassette entitled Newspaper Heroes prior to being joined by Lesley Reid on vocals. Mortimer and Reid worked on a side project and produced the cassette Kiss you all over whilst promoting their acoustic duo in shows around the Perth region. After splitting, Mortimer went on to join the Angry Red Planets on bass, recording a 6 track EP at Armadillo Studios in Nedlands. In 1994 Mortimer formed a new band called Neon Ceiling and performed at numerous locations. The band recorded two unreleased demo tapes between 1994 and 1995 at Witzend Studios, partially funded by winning the Notes Audio Magazine song contest. During next few years Mortimer joined Sideshow and toured. Both bands disintegrated and formed two studio only duos The Wooden Gods and Ambassadors of Pan, which both released CD's before Mortimer essentially left the music scene.

Active years, round 2 (2020 onwards)
Whilst generally considered inactive in the music scene between 2000 and 2020, Mortimer still released some electronic music, and maintains some new original material on his YouTube channel. Some content has also been released on Apple music and on Amazon.

In 2020 Mortimer again became involved in the local music scene, playing locally, and released an album of material in 2024 which featured some of his known songs, as well as introducing some new material.



Bands

 * Bad News (later known as Poetic Justice) (1989–1990)
 * Live Wire (1990–1992)
 * Richard Mortimer and Lesley Reid (acoustic duo) (1991–1993)
 * The Angry Red Planets (1993)
 * Neon Ceiling (1994–1996)
 * Sideshow (1996–1998)
 * The Wooden Gods (1997)
 * Ambassadors of Pan (1997–1998)
 * Easily Distracted (2010–2011)

Solo
Whilst performing within bands, he maintained a solo career, performing acoustically in many locations, as well as writing and creating music.

Mortimer's performances have been broadcast on TV, with All's not fair (in love and war) being used as backing music for a story hosted by Pascal Fox on Wonder World! in late 1993, he was also televised performing Margaret's Eulogy solo on Bert Newton's show Good Morning Australia in 1994 (pre-recorded in Perth's Network 10 studios) and also the song Rhinoceros appearing as backing music on an MTV documentary Kiss and Make up  in 1997. Some snippets of his music has been used in local documentaries (Perth Uncovered, 1995). He re-recorded and released some new tracks in 2024.

Promoting local music
During the years 1993 to 1996, Mortimer produced a series of CD's promoting Perth music, known as Shades of Perth, as a self funded, non-profit project, until Shades of Perth Volume 4 which was unreleased. This included organizing gigs for the bands who participated and for the Shades of Perth releases.

Promotion manager
As an active member of the music community, Mortimer also organized gigs for several bands in the Perth area.

Radio DJ
During the years 1993 to 1996, Mortimer worked some shifts for 100fm, based in Fremantle on the Twilight Zone,  Curtin Radio and RTRFM, interviewing Tim Rogers from You Am I for their recording Sound as Ever.

Writing and reviewing
Mortimer also contributed reviews of local artists and music shops to various magazines.

Discography
Mortimer has released and been in production for many local bands, including

Live Wire

 * 1991 : Newspaper Heroes (cassette)

Richard Mortimer and Lesley Reid

 * 1992 : Kiss you all over (cassette)

Angry Red Planets

 * 1993 : Signals (cassette)

Neon Ceiling

 * 1994 : Demo #1 (cassette)
 * 1994 : Demo #2 (cassette)

The Wooden Gods

 * 1997 : Ganesha (CD)

Ambassadors of Pan

 * 1999 : Philosophy as an Art (CD)

Solo

 * 1991 : Dinosaur Rock (cassette)
 * 1992 : MöN fish non sequitur
 * 1993 : Wun-Fli
 * 1993 : SunSetSite
 * 1994 : Somewhere between art and science
 * 1995 : The Garden of Pleasure (Parts 1 & 2)   (released under the Valentine Records  label in Canada and United States)
 * 2016 : Spotify untitled album
 * 2024 : XS in an XXL world

Awards
The West Australian Music Industry Awards are annual awards celebrating achievements for Western Australian music. They commenced in 1985.


 * 1994 || Shades of Perth Volume 2 || Most popular local release ||
 * 1994 || Shades of Perth Volume 2 || Most popular local release ||

Notes Audio Magazine song contest


 * 1995 || Neon Ceiling / Girl Like You || Best original song || Won
 * 1995 || Neon Ceiling / Girl Like You || Best original song || Won

Acknowledgement
Mortimer has been included in a number of reference books about Australian music, both as a solo artist and within bands. Acknowledged in the preface of Who's Who of Australian Rock,, and listed solo on page 354, and on pages 300, and 26, Perth Bands 1985 - 1989 under Acknowledgments (pg 2) and on page 33, Perth Bands 1990 - 1994 on pages 4, 6, 37, 45, 49, and 65