In Albert Square he had a pub and a stall. Now he’s a country soul trader. Jane McGowan tunes up with Shane Richie
Comedian, actor, presenter, singer… when it comes to showbiz jobs, Shane Richie has done the lot. From humble beginnings as a Pontins Bluecoat to fame as lovable EastEnders rogue Alfie Moon, the all-London boy has certainly done good.
And when his current stint at the New Victoria in Woking – as everyone’s favourite panto outlaw Robin Hood – comes to an end, the 53-year-old Surrey resident will return to his first love: music.
“Oh, I’m always up and down locally with my band, The Prelude,” he laughs. “I used to love playing at The Cage in Reigate.
“To be honest, the album started off as something I was funding just for myself. Then things began to fall into place. The record company heard some stuff and got in touch and it kind of evolved from there.”
The album of which he speaks, A Country Soul, is a mixture of original material and covers – including Nik Kershaw’s 80s smash, I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me and Stephen Stills’s classic, Love the One You’re With – with a Tennessee twist. It’s a choice of genre about which the label, East West Records, was initially a little sceptical, admits Shane.
“I love modern country,” he enthuses. “But they were a bit suspicious at first. I think they thought I was going to come in with a load of Kenny Rogers songs or something – more of a tribute act. But that was never my intention. It was always to put a new spin on that style of music.”
Born in Kensington as Shane Patrick Roche, the future star attended Willesden High School and various youth drama groups. His father, Harry, ran a string of clubs in North London and would encourage his young son to get on stage with the bands.
“From about the age of 10, I was singing and acting. It’s all I’ve ever known. Even when I was in EastEnders, any spare time I would go and do gigs with my band. I think, first and foremost, I’m a performer.”
And that penchant for performance has seen Shane triumph in musical theatre in sell-out West End runs of Grease and Boogie Nights (a show he co-wrote), hit the UK chart with his version of Wham! song I’m Your Man and appear in such top TV dramas as Skins, What We Did on Our Holiday and Redwater – an EastEnders spin-off starring Shane’s character Alfie Moon and his feisty wife Kat, played by Jessie Wallace.
It is not only for his professional prowess, however, that Shane has found himself the subject of many a tabloid tale. The acrimonious split – fuelled by allegations of Shane’s womanising and excessive drinking – from his first wife, Nolan Sister and Loose Women favourite Coleen Nolan, is still filling column inches almost 20 years later. Coleen, who has two sons with Richie – Shane Jr and Jake – claimed on air that her then husband was jealous of her success and determined to be the more famous of the two of them.
Fortunately the pair, now grandparents to Amelia Rose (daughter of eldest son Shane Jr), are back on good terms. Shane Sr, meanwhile, has been happily married to Christie Goddard since 2007. They have three children: 11-year-old MackenzieBlue, Lolita Bell (nine) and Romani-Skye (six), of whom the elder two are appearing alongside their father inRobin Hood. Shane now keeps his loved ones close, making sure that he is never too far from home.
Robin Hood at The New Victoria Theatre Woking 2017 | Photo © 2017 Ian Olsson
Shane Ritchie and the cast of Robin Hood
“One reason I was looking forward to the panto so much was that my kids are in it with me,” he says, oozing paternal pride. “I am reluctant to go on tour now if it means being more than one hour from home. I’ve just got to get home.”
And while he is thrilled to have his brood on stage with him at Woking, he has tried his best to dissuade them from following in his professional footsteps.
“I do everything I can to stop them,” he laughs. “My eldest boy is a musician and so is Jake – he’s in the band Rixton, so he’s off doing his stuff, and he’s getting into acting now too. My 11-year-old just won a drama scholarship to Dunottar School, in Reigate, and my nine-year-old daughter… well, she’s… she’s Katy Perry.
“But they only see one side of the industry at the moment – the nice seats at the theatre and people asking their daddy to be in photographs. At some point, I will have to sit them down and say: ‘You can only have a career in this business if you can handle rejection.’
“I’ve been very blessed, but what you don’t see is all the things that I’ve gone for and then missed out on. That’s the nature of the business. You just have to put the disappointment behind you and move on.”
And so, even as the Richie wagon thunders through Woking, Shane himself has his eyes firmly peeled for fresh challenges.
“I’m always looking for something new,” he says. “I am never complacent – you can’t afford to be in this business. I just keep looking for stuff that gives me butterflies, or things I’ve never done before.
“Like this new country style album – I doubt if anyone was expecting that. I think people thought I’d do something from musicals, or a Sinatra swing type album. But I thought: ‘No, no, no, I want to do something close to my heart.’ This is a passion project and I hope that people buy into it.”
Aside from the music itself, he says, it was seeing it all come together that made the album such a special experience.
“I loved choosing the songs, working on different arrangements and saying: ‘No, that didn’t work, let’s try again.’ Sitting down with other writers was something else. I loved seeing how they work. Absolutely loved it,” he almost roars with enthusiasm.
“I’d get up in the morning, drive up to North London and meet all kinds of people to see what they’d brought to the table. Sometimes it would come to nothing, but then at other times there would be a seed – a line I really liked, or a chord that I could use.”
One of the tracks on the album is called 22 Gardens, which Shane penned while on tour in the Peter James play Not Dead Enough.
“Any chance I got, I’d be writing away. Most theatres have a piano and I’d be sitting there tinkling. Eventually I knew I had a song called 22 Gardens, but I also knew that it wasn’t right. So I sat down with some writers to see what they could do with it. When they’d finished I thought: ‘My God, that’s genius!’”
As for touring the album, Shane has no immediate plans, although late spring holds distinct possibilities.
“It would be great, but there are other things taking shape first. There may be a new drama. But I can’t say more than that.”
Watch this space.
- A Country Soul is on East West Records and available via amazon.co.uk
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